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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Intro to Photography

By Fall 2024 Intro to Photography Class

May 16, 2025

Students Learn the Fundamental Principles of Image Making

Introduction to Photography

Introduction to Photography acquaints design students with the field of photographic image making, how images are constructed, and the ways they are used to communicate. Students learn the fundamental principles of image making, color theory, lighting, and digital image processing through the practice of creating images. All work is performed using digital cameras and software. This is a subset of photos from this year’s class.

Project Details

  • Class: Introduction to Photography
  • Instructor: Daniel Chichester