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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Great Designs illustrations

What Do the Volkswagen Beetle, an OXO Vegetable Peeler, and Spotify Have in Common?

Lizzy Engele, MakerGirl

Lizzy Engele Selected as a “35 under 35” Honoree by Chicago Scholars

Joe and Kai

Kaiwei Tang, CEO and Cofounder, Light

A diverse group of graduate students working together at Institute of Design in Chicago.

Why Design and Not, Say, Project Management?

Faculty building out the End of year Show at ID.

Building Your Organization’s Future

A photo of a group of women speaking on a panel at the Institute of Design in Chicago.

4 Design Roles to Help You Chart Your Organization’s Future

A photo of a student at a whiteboard in a university classroom.

7 Critical Trends to Help You Frame the Future of Your Organization

A photo of a man with a baseball cap on writing on a whiteboard during a workshop at ID.

6 Core Skills to Help You Progress from Intent to Effect

Renjie Li's UNLEASH team

ID students Tackle Sustainable Development Goals at UNLEASH

ID, ‘An Absolutely Essential Part of the Bauhaus history,’ Partners with Google Arts & Culture

Yuqing Zhou with Latitudes

ID Student Yuqing Zhou Devises a ‘Novel’ Way to Represent the World’s Ocean Life

L��szl�� Moholy-Nagy Self Portrait

The New Bauhaus Celebrates the Founding of the Institute of Design

Touchpoint magazine cover

ID Alumni Published in ‘Touchpoint—The Journal of Service Design’

Tom MacTavish recognized with IEEE Milestone Award

ID Professor Tom MacTavish Part of Team Recognized with IEEE Milestone Award

Hattula Moholy-Nagy with photo of her father

The Making of The New Bauhaus and László Moholy-Nagy’s Legacy

Lizzy Engele, MakerGirl

Lizzy Engele: Bringing More Young Women into STEM

Bauhaus Futures cover

Celebrating the Release of Bauhaus Futures

Chuck Owen

A Tribute to Chuck Owen