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.

institute
of desiGn
Search

Common Compass

By June Kulwadee Pruksananonda

May 16, 2025

Common Compass

Common Compass is a pocket-sized circular thesaurus designed to align fragmented sustainability language across sectors. Inspired by orihon-style binding, it translates complex terms from economics, policy, science, enterprise, and academia into frameworks built for shared use. Each panel connects specialized knowledge to interdisciplinary action. The format preserves open margins for evolving terms, unlikely partnerships, and emerging insight. It favors clarity over jargon and convergence over silos. This is not just a reference source. It is a tool for coalition-building and a reminder that shared language is shared power.

Project Details

  • Class: Communication Systems Studio
  • Instructor: Ruth Schmidt | Jessica Meharry