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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Sari Gluckin

Founder, Wishful Thinking LLC

Sari Gluckin sitting looking at a book

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Sari Gluckin brings to her teaching a deep background as an MBA, design thinker, and facilitator. She has been an Adjunct Faculty member at Institute of Design (ID) since 2017, where she developed and now co-teaches Facilitation Methods with Susan Stirling. Sari also recently joined the core faculty of the Creative Education Foundation, where she teaches workshops on creative problem solving, facilitation, and personal development.

Sari has a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history from the University of Illinois and a Master of Arts in art history from New York University. She also has a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University and a Master of Design Methods from the Institute of Design. Additionally, she is a certified Integral Coach through New Ventures West.

Industry Experience

Sari founded Wishful Thinking in 1999, focusing on the intersection of design thinking, creativity, and strategy. She and her colleagues at Wishful Thinking lead innovation projects and hands-on workshops for diverse clients from small nonprofits to multinational companies; as a connection maker and innovation strategist, she helps teams understand their users, find inspiration, and move strategically toward new outcomes. Prior to launching Wishful Thinking, Sari worked in marketing and innovation at General Foods (New York) and Kraft Foods (Chicago).

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Facilitation Methods