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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Defamiliarization of Design

By Smrti Ganesan

May 10, 2024

Designing across cultures: A toolkit for culturally responsive design

Designing across cultures: A toolkit for culturally responsive design

Rooted in the belief that the future of design is intertwined with cultural intelligence, this toolkit offers a comprehensive framework for understanding and incorporating diverse cultural perspectives into design projects. Grounded in Hofstede’s dimensions, the toolkit guides designers through an exploration of cultural factors. By examining concepts such as power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term vs. short-term orientation, designers gain deeper insights into the diverse cultural landscapes their designs may inhabit. Ultimately, the outcomes of this project extend beyond individual designs to foster a more inclusive and culturally aware design community, shaping the future of design through the lens of culture.

Project Details

  • Class: Politics of Design
  • Instructor: Jessica Meharry