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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On-call Buddy

By Ankita Kamble | Mayukhi Chacham | Samira Cohanmin | Symone Fogg

May 11, 2023

Empower volunteers to better aid the resettlement of refugees in the Chicago area through enhanced support and resources

Empower volunteers to better aid the resettlement of refugees in the Chicago area through enhanced support and resources

In theory,
Refugees are supported in the first critical 90 Days. A professional case manager is assigned through a government-funded resettlement agency and helps the refugee navigate essential resettlement milestones.

In Practice,
There is a waitlist for services. US regulations and world crises are dynamic and unpredictable and often the case managers cannot scale quickly enough to meet refugees’ basic needs.

Bridging the Gap,
Refugees Community Connection (RCC) is a grassroots coalition of volunteers with no formal non-profit status, by design. RCC “Welcome Groups” are instructed not to get involved in case manager-assigned tasks. However, when emergencies arise or case managers can’t be reached, welcome groups troubleshoot issues.

Project Details

  • Class: Service Systems
  • Instructor: Mark Jones
  • Project Partner: Refugee Community Connection

Mayukhi Chacham

Mayukhi Chacham

MDes 2023

Samira Cohanim

Samira Cohanim

MDes 2022

Symone Fogg

Symone Fogg

Symone Fogg

PhD 2026