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.

institute
of desiGn
Search
Students

Join us for ID’s End of Year Events, May 12–13

Annual End-of-Year-Show follows Commencement Remarks Friday; Graduates Walk Saturday

April 19, 2023

End of Year Celebration

The public is invited to celebrate the accomplishments of the ID community in the 2022–2023 academic year and its 2023 graduates.

Festivities begin on Friday, May 12, at 6pm at the Kaplan Institute.

Friday, May 12

2023 Commencement Speakers

2023 Commencement Speakers

Commencement Remarks & Reflections

The End of Year Celebration program will begin at 6pm with Commencement Remarks & Reflections from ID Dean Anijo Mathew, Director of Student Success Shari Jones, graduates Latrina Lee and Kat Gowland, and ID alum Megan Fath (MDes 2003).

Register here to stream or attend ID’s End of Year Remarks & Reflections at Kaplan, 3137 South Federal Street, Chicago.

EOYS 2023: MetaMorphers

EOYS 2023: MetaMorphers

2023 End of Year Show

Following the Remarks & Reflections, ID will open its 2023 End of Year Show: MetaMorphers.

A digital version of the show will also be available at eoys.design starting on May 12.

Register here to visit ID’s End of Year Show at Kaplan, 3137 South Federal Street, Chicago.

Saturday, May 13

ID Commencement

ID Commencement

Commencement Ceremony

Degrees will be awarded on Saturday, May 13, 2023 during the 2022–23 Commencement Ceremony at Illinois Tech in a ticketed in-person ceremony at McCormick Place.

ID students, family, and friends are invited to watch the Institute of Design, College of Architecture, and Armour College of Engineering Ceremony. Saturday Commencement details will be updated at Illinois Tech website.

Related Stories

Putting the “BIPoC” in Nature

The Space Between: ID’s End of Year Show