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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Embodied Design

Embodied Design

Advances knowledge and skills for three-dimensional design experiences.

“
[It] gave me the opportunity to understand more contextual aspects of product design that look beyond the final form while allowing me the creative freedom to explore materials, tools and applications.
—Luce James, MDes 2023

Objective & Outcomes

During this course, students will explore the skills and tools of three-dimensional design (the built world). By using a structured design process, students learn to analyze problems, define issues, and develop multiple ideas leading to detailed concepts that are clearly defined and defensible. Students will learn to create a strong point of view about user needs, resulting in viable product solutions.

At the end of this course, students will be able to successfully work on design problems by framing opportunity areas, identifying user issues, working within constraints, prototyping throughout the design process, and presenting their solutions through many forms of visualization, all while developing a sensitivity to the importance of craft in design.

Typical Schedule

Two 7-week product development cycles are completed.

The first project results in a concept presentation with a physical model and PDF presentation.

The second project results in a works-like product and a single displayed image which shows the product in use.

See all MDes Courses