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

Emma Jasinski

Senior Community Designer | Design Trust Chicago

Emma Jasinski brings eight years of experience in the architecture and design industry, filling roles such as architectural designer, project manager, and design director. Emma’s portfolio includes numerous innovative, impactful community-based projects, including the design and development of eight 260 SF mobile tiny home units for Ruby’s Place, a domestic violence shelter. She most recently worked in the healthcare market, where she primarily designed 50,000 to 120,000 SF multi-faceted and pre-fabricated medical office buildings. This experience sparked her interest in the intersection of public health and architecture. As Design Trust Chicago’s Community Designer, Emma brings a collaborative, vision-oriented, and imaginative approach to the team. She received her Masters of Architecture from Tulane University.

Emma Jasinski is a session presenter for the Design as Activism Symposium.