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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Clio Lyons

Operations Manager | Design Trust Chicago

Clio’s experience and passion lies in curating community-focused, intentionally-inclusive events and spaces, while managing robust networks and using design thinking processes to build community initiatives and programming.  They work closely with senior leadership to implement social impact strategies at Design Trust Chicago and expand the organization’s opportunities, partnerships, and visibility. Clio received their Bachelor of Arts in Government with a focus in Political Theory and Public Law from Dartmouth College.

Clio Lyons is a session presenter for the Design as Activism Symposium.