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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Faculty

Chris Rudd and Azra Sungu present at the State of Black Design

In lightning talk, ID faculty and PhD student share their experience with Anti-Racist Pop-Ups

April 14, 2022

State of Black Design Conference

ID Clinical Professor of Community-Driven Design Chris Rudd and PhD student Azra Sungu shared their experience facilitating Anti-Racist Pop-Ups across the city. Their lightning talk was part of the annual State of Black Design conference.

“
Racism has very very severe consequences for Black Chicagoans. My point of view is that we just can't just keep talking about it. And design is situated in such a way that we can start moving the needle. So, can we start designing racism away?
—Chris Rudd

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