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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  • Food Systems Action Lab

Values-Based Food Procurement Learning Network

December 2023 - November 2024

A wall of white boards with notes from an ID Action Lab workshop.
Creating a Powerful Network to Drive Transformative, Values-Based Food Procurement

Summary

We are developing a facilitated knowledge sharing and learning network of local government officials charged with implementing good food procurement strategies for their institutions and public agencies.

Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

PROCESS

A Network for Sharing Knowledge

The Values-Based Food Procurement Learning Network will support peer learning and knowledge exchange between local government officials with the goal of promoting and expanding values-based local food procurement commitments and implementation by government officials.

The network will also aim to:

  • Support government officials in their local, state and national policy efforts to develop legislation.
  • Increase visibility and momentum for values-based food procurement programs through a coordinated marketing and media campaign.
  • Update and revise existing informational resources on the implementation of good food procurement practices.
  • Develop networking opportunities and knowledge exchange among good food institutional procurement leaders.

PLAN

Our Goal

We aim to research, design and prototype the network extensively before taking on the responsibility of identifying the host organization to run the network.

TEAM

Lab Co-Director

Maura Shea

 

Lead Designer

Vishnu Raviprasad

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