In 2026, after nearly 90 years, the Institute of Design came under new management. 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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Past Event

Virtual Master of Design Methods Curriculum Night

April 25, 2024
7:30-8:30pm CST
Online Event

Tomorrow needs a new kind of leadership.

Discover ID’s Graduate School, the only in design school in the nation devoted completely to graduate students. Join our Associate Dean of Academics, Matt Mayfield, online to learn more about the remote and online Master in Design Methods (MDM) program, its course structure, and what sets ID apart. Take this opportunity to connect with ID faculty, students, and staff.

*The time for the event listed is in Central Time.

Learn more about the various graduate programs we offer.

*The time for the event listed is in Central Time.

Register