In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design came under new management. 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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Past Event

exploreID: Civic Design

November 18, 2020
6:00-7:30pm CST
Online
Hear from IIT Institute of Design alumni about using design in the civic space.

Join us for a discussion on the role of design in government. On this panel, ID alumni who work as in-house strategists and design consultants will share their current work and address the unique challenges of innovating in civic organizations. They will discuss: how designers can create change by serving as educators, how to build trust with multiple stakeholders, and how design can affect policy.

Panelists include:

  • Evan Chan, Senior Consultant, Design Researcher and Strategist, Deloitte Digital (MDes + Public Administration Certificate 2019) - Moderator
  • Steve Babitch, Head of Artificial Intelligence at U.S. Technology Transformation Service (MDes 2007)
  • Shannon Delaney, Design Strategist, City of Durham (MDes 2018)
  • Catalina Prada, Summer Fellow, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, City of Boston (MDes + MPA 2020)

ID's newest degree program, the MDes + MPA, prepares professionals who aspire to lead collaborative, interdisciplinary innovation initiatives within the civic sector. The first program of its kind in the nation, students pursue two graduate degrees simultaneously, one with ID (MDes) and one with IIT Stuart School of Business (Master of Public Administration). Learn more.

About exploreID

What do we mean when we say ‘design’? Through exploreID, students, community members, partners, and the curious public explore design at IIT Institute of Design (ID) through different lenses and projects, and alumni are invited to reconnect.

About IIT Institute of Design (ID)

IIT Institute of Design (ID) builds responsible, cooperative, intelligent futures. Founded by László Moholy-Nagy as The New Bauhaus in 1937, ID is known for pioneering human-centered design and systems design. Today ID is home to the only US design school devoted completely to graduate students. But ID is more than a graduate school. ID is an international community of learners and practitioners who are addressing the biggest issues of our time by eliciting a power unique to humans: creativity. Learn more about ID at id.iit.edu.

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