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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Dimitri Nesbitt

Knowledge Mobilization Specialist | Center for Racial and Disability Justice at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Dimitri Nesbitt is a knowledge mobilization specialist for the Center for Racial and Disability Justice at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. He is a trained urban planner and designer interested in public space management, placemaking, and place marketing that encourages community engagement on urban issues. Dimitri actively develops design languages and processes aimed at improving access for minoritized communities. He earned a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Wyoming, a Master of Urban Planning & Policy from the University of Illinois Chicago, and a Certificate in Geospatial Analysis & Visualization from UIC.

Dimitri Nesbitt is a session presenter for the Design as Activism Symposium.