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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With Intent Season Finale: The ClearRx Medication System

The Last Episode of Season 3 is Available Now

November 12, 2024

Deborah Adler's Clear RX Medication System at Target Pharmacy

In Episode 6 of the With Intent podcast, learn how a personal experience with her grandparents’ medication mix-up evolved into Deborah Adler’s groundbreaking pill bottle redesign.

Join hosts Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum as they explore the revolutionary ClearRx Medication System (which was used nationwide in Target pharmacies).

“
When I looked inside their medicine cabinet, the problem was really evident. I couldn’t believe how undesigned things were.
—Deborah Adler, ClearRx Designer

From Personal Experience to System Solution

One day, Deborah Adler’s grandmother took her grandfather’s medicine by mistake. Her grandparents’ initials were the same—and their pill bottles looked alike.

In this episode, featuring an interview with Deborah Adler, you’ll hear about her:

  • Pivot from a thesis on curly hair products to prescription bottle design following her grandmother’s mix-up.
  • Initial prototype development using dollhouse materials and tubing.
  • Collaboration with industrial designer Klaus Rosberg, and other smart partnerships.
  • Key design elements, including upside-down orientation for better grip and accessibility, color-coding system for family member identification, high-contrast label text for better visibility, and more.
Clear RX at Target Pharmacy
Clear RX Graphics
Clear RX Prescription Medication System at Target Stores: Color coded medication bottles to avoid dosage accidents for the elderly.

The List

Inspired by ID’s award-winning list of 100 Great Designs of Modern Times (originally featured in Fortune magazine), this season of With Intent explored the most groundbreaking design solutions in recent history.

100 Great Designs of Modern Times

Fortune and ID first collaborated on such a list in 1959, and though some designs made both the original and the 2020 list, there were important differences in the kinds of designs that we now consider “great.”

Season 3 of the With Intent podcast examined select designs from the list, asking what the NYC Subway Map (E1), LifeStraw (E2), Raspberry Pi (E3), Zipline (E4), the OXO Good Grips Peeler (E5) and ClearRx (E6) could teach us so that we might design more responsibly in the future.

Clear RX With Intent Podcast Episode 6

Clear RX was #37 in ID’s award-winning list of 100 Great Designs of Modern Times (originally featured in Fortune magazine).

Listen to Episode 6 of With Intent now. Make sure you click “Follow” on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to be notified when there are new episodes of the With Intent podcast available.

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