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

Lightning Talks: Turning the Corner on Food, Healthcare, Sustainability

October 21, 2022
12:30-1:30pm CST
Institute of Design (ID)
3137 South Federal Street 2nd floor
Chicago, IL 60616
Empty food shelves
ID faculty present their Food Systems, Equitable Healthcare, and Sustainable Solutions Action Labs with 7-minute talks.

Through the ID Action Labs, ID faculty address today’s most challenging systemic problems with diverse community and corporate partners. ID faculty members Weslynne Ashton and Maura Shea, Kim Erwin, and Carlos Teixeira present 7-minute talks introducing their respective Action Labs: the Food Systems Action Lab, the Equitable Healthcare Action Lab, and the Sustainable Solutions Action Lab.

Register