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: Design Leaders

April 4, 2019
6:00-8:00pm CST
INSITUM
560 W Washington Blvd STE 420
Chicago, IL 60661

“Most of the world is designed for old needs,” writes ID alum Ric Edinberg (MDes 2004), managing partner at INSITUM Chicago and former ID adjunct faculty member. “It’s our job to redesign it using 21st-century methods to account for the changes in 21st century needs.” At ID, students learn to lead organizational change, innovate in large organizations, and integrate concepts and inventions as members of cross-functional, diverse teams. Join us as Ric Edinberg and ID dean Denis Weil discuss and demonstrate the importance of developing these aptitudes. For more, see Ric Edinberg’s A Letter to Design Practitioners on Medium.


About the exploreID series


IIT Institute of Design (ID) gives students the freedom to explore a wide breadth of design disciplines by offering flexible master’s programs. This spring, a series of events—many of them in our new home—will touch on the vast array of pathways students pursue during and after ID, including design research, digital experience, organizing for innovation, and product management. Attend to learn more about the diversity of courses we offer and what design means at ID.

Register