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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Tony Bynum Speaks at Fortune Brainstorm Design in Macau

How to Design Transformation in Fortune 500 Organizations

December 10, 2025

Tony Bynum at Fortune's Brainstorm Design in Macau in December 2025.

Tony Bynum, Director of ID’s Executive Academy, spoke at Fortune‘s Brainstorm Design event in Macau, a globally recognized forum at the intersection of design and business.

The December event hosted world-class designers, innovators, and industry pioneers, including Liz Danzico, VP of Design, Microsoft AI; Mike Peng, CEO, IDEO; and Mauro Porcini, President & Chief Design Officer, Samsung.

In conversation with Phil Gilbert, who led transformation at IBM, and Ellen McGirt, Editor-in-Chief of Design Observer, Tony talked about designing corporate change and transformation and shared his experience of bringing design methods to Northwestern Mutual.

Their conversation is available from Fortune in a video, “Designing Corporate Cultural Change.”

“
Organizations can use design-led capabilities to become ambidextrous, allowing them to perform and transform.
—Tony Bynum, Director, ID Executive Academy
Tony Bynum at Fortune's Brainstorm Design in Macau in December 2025.

Tony Bynum, Director of the ID Academy, speaking at Fortune Brainstorm Design

Design, Tony argued, can bring dexterity to organizations challenged to succeed amid ambiguity.

An article, “How two leaders used design thinking and a focus on outcomes to transform two Fortune 500 giants,” is also available.

The Academy’s B2B, work-integrated (WIL) approach allows organizations to build dexterity and capability. Learning is imbued into the work environment.

Organizations interested in the Academy’s unique work-integrated, team-oriented approach can find more information about Tony and partnerships here.

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