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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Alumni

Memorial for Brian Rink (MDes 1996)

Remembering ID alum Brian Rink (1959–2025)

November 20, 2025

Brian Rink (MDes 1996)

ID alumni are invited to remember the life of Brian Rink. Brian was an accomplished design researcher and strategist with a large global footprint.

His kindness and curiosity permeated his professional as well as personal life, from his early days as a diplomat in Japan, to his time as a budding design strategist in Chicago, to the Bay Area, then back again to Japan as the location lead for IDEO’s office, then again later to open Sapient’s office in Tokyo, to Copenhagen as Head of Consulting at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, and finally back to the Bay Area to work at firms like IDEO, Frog, NIO, and Google.

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We have a family mantra, “What would Brian Rink do?” He was so good at making people feel comfortable, asking just the right questions, and generally being curious about the people around him.

Brian Rink Memorial Service

Sunday, December 28, 12pm
Officer’s Club, Presidio
50 Moraga Avenue
San Francisco, CA

RSVP by December 10 to Shelley Rink

Brian Rink (MDes 1996)

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The world is a smaller place without the fun, intelligence, and kindness he brought with him wherever he went.

A storyboard is being assembled for the memorial. Brian’s family asks that you bring something to the memorial to add to the storyboard—a photo, poem, a letter—use your imagination of what “sparked joy” about him for you.

If you cannot attend but would like to contribute to the storyboard, please send your item to:

Shelley Rink
3561 Forney Way
Sacramento, CA 95816

In order to be included at the memorial, all storyboard items need to be received by December 20, 2025.