In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design was folded into Illinois Tech's School of Design & Society.
This website is an archive of the impactful and inspirational work produced by the ID community before that transition.

László Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, treating design as a discipline that was teachable, testable, and consequential. Nine decades on, its scope had widened from the things people use to the systems they depend on: hospitals, government agencies, classrooms, supply chains, digital platforms. Along the way, ID community members developed the published research, methods, and frameworks that designers rely on every day.

Chief among them is human-centered design: close attention to how people actually live, and advocacy for what that research reveals. It shaped designers who are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity: curious, rigorous, inclusive, and stubbornly optimistic about design's ability to change the systems that shape our lives.

To every one of them, who taught, studied, built, critiqued, and stayed late in the studio: thank you, and keep designing.

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A New Hotspot to Study

By Palak Shah | Sandhini Ghodeshwar

May 11, 2023

Renewing the studying experience at Harold Washington Library, Chicago Public Library branch

The Harold Washington Library in Chicago has become a vital hub for public services in addition to being a repository of knowledge. Despite digital access to information, studying still requires the right infrastructure. A project aims to revamp the adult section to meet modern studying needs. Key deliverables include a research plan and recommendations for interior and space planning.