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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Upcoming Events

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ZX26: Designing Warmth

September 30, 2026
to October 3, 2026

Past Events

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ID and WIND Celebrate Five Years of Partnership, WIND’s New Book

August 19, 2026
Two participants at a Delivery Fellowship event at the Institute of Design — one speaking animatedly, the other listening closely — seated at a studio worktable in Chicago.

How to Do Storytelling and Presenting Design Work

August 5, 2026
Tanner Woodford

Creative Mornings: Tanner Woodford

July 31, 2026

Lucas J. Daniel Series in Sustainable Systems

The focus of ID’s annual event in memory of ID alum Lucas J. Daniel (1974–2017) is to drive discourse in sustainability and systems design, areas Lucas was passionate about. Learn more.

Past Events

Portrait of Luca Gonnelli with ID modules in bright green

Luca Gonnelli: Lucas J. Daniel Series in Sustainable Systems

April 20, 2026

Deb Chachra: Lucas J. Daniel Series in Sustainable Systems

April 8, 2025

Sheryl Cababa: Lucas J. Daniel Series in Sustainable Systems

April 11, 2024