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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Updates

Our Updates

From recent projects to new research partners to award recognition, find the latest news and work from the Food Systems Action Lab.

There are even more food-focused projects from ID faculty and students here. To get the latest news from the Institute of Design and its Action Labs, be sure to sign up for our mailing list.

OUR WORK

CF-MOB: Community Food Mobilization in Chicago, Good Food Purchasing Initiative

Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems

EPIC 2023 Conference: The Un-common Good

Closing the Loop: Food Waste Prevention Pathways for Chicago

Values-Based Food Procurement Learning Network

Transforming Chicago’s Food Ecosystem for Everyone’s Benefit

OUR NEWS

Weslynne Ashton Named to Thinkers50 Radar Class

Chicago Humanities Returns to Illinois Tech with Talks, Tours, and Community Conversations

ID Faculty Featured on Recent Podcasts

Weslynne Ashton Discusses Food Waste on Fox32

Weslynne Ashton on Investing in Food Waste Reduction Strategies

Weslynne Ashton and Partners Receive $1 Million Grant from US Department of Agriculture

Weslynne Ashton Named to Thinkers50 Radar Class

How Can Design Make the Biggest Impact?

Why Is Design Always Talking About Complexity?