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.

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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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ID Commencement 2021

Join us online Saturday, May 15

By Kristin Gecan

April 23, 2021

ID Commencement

All degrees for the 2020–21 Commencement Ceremony at Illinois Tech will be awarded on Saturday, May 15, 2021, in a virtual ceremony.

ID students, family, and friends are invited to watch the Opening Ceremony hosted by the university starting at 10am on May 15.

ID’s own ceremony will be available on YouTube beginning at 11am on May 15 and will include remarks from Dean Denis Weil, Director of Graduate Admission and Student Engagement Rachel Dean, graduates Alpha Wong and Tommie Collins in conversation with ID alum Akilah Halley (MDes 2005), remarks from student speaker Justin Bartkus, and, of course, the virtual commencement “walk.”

Register here to receive a reminder through Eventbrite and find the full program below.

We also invite family and friends to peruse ADEPTATION: EOYS (End of Year Show) 2021. Register here for the opening celebration on May 14, 7pm.

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EOYS 2021: Adeptation

ADEPTATION: ID’s End of Year Show

Product Workshop Spring 2020 Concepts

Design During COVID-19

remoteID research

remoteID: Reimagining Design Education, Online