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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MetaMorphers: ID’s End of Year Show

Explore the 2023 EOYS online or in person.

June 8, 2023

ID presents the End of Year Show (EOYS) both online and in person for the second consecutive year.

Created by ID students, the EOYS showcases the range of student projects completed in the past year. This year’s show explores themes of time, transforming imagination into reality, creating impact in a complex world, our collective potential, and shifting from chaos to order.

The show opened on May 12 with a celebration that drew over 350 attendees.

Insights on Our Work

Get to know the projects as students present and introduce them at the EOYS opening.

“
As civilization evolves, we face new and unforeseen challenges that are local and global, discrete and interconnected, artificial and organic – the need for mindful transformation is now greater than ever.
Designers are Metamorphers: agents of transformation. We drive to shift things into the future, bring creations to life, shape actions and attitudes, harness the power of the collective and make sense from the abstract.
—ID EOYS team

Explore the Online Show

Discover projects by theme or explore the entire 2023 show.

Time

Past → Future

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EMV For Jordan

No Lost Bags

Truth Trial

Creation

Imagination → Reality

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Dear Data

KO

Better.T

Causation

Environment → Action

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Designing Investable Infrastructures for Controlled Environment Agriculture

Layering for a “Chicago Winter”

Shifting Perspectives

Unity

Unity: Individual → Collective

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The Restoration Design Manifesto

TCS Innovation Model

The B.I.A.S Framework

Structure

Chaos → Order

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The Possibilities of Community and Connection in a Post-Climate Collapse World

Good-to-Go EDBO

Riding a Rollercoaster of Emotions

Visit the Show in Person

Kaplan Institute
3137 South Federal Street, Second Floor
Chicago, IL 60616

Hours: 8am – 5pm, Monday – Friday
Inquire at the ID office on the second floor.

The show runs through Spring 2024.

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