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

Webinar: Visions of Sustainable Food Sourcing Solutions

May 7, 2020
9:30-11:00am CST
Online
Learn about sustainable food sourcing solutions in Chicago that consider social, economic, and environmental goals. [Zoom]

Join a public webinar showcasing student work from the Sustainable Solutions Workshop led by Associate Professor Carlos Teixeira at IIT Institute of Design (ID) in collaboration with the Chicago Good Food Purchasing Policy, New Futures Lab, YMCA of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, and the Chicago Parks District. This research project illustrates evocative visions of sustainable food sourcing solutions in Chicago through scenarios and narratives that take social, economic, and environmental goals into consideration. During this time of disruption and change, ID invites you to explore with us large-scale transformations in the healthy food supply chain and ecosystem in Chicago and beyond.

IIT Institute of Design (ID) builds responsible, cooperative, intelligent futures. Founded by László Moholy-Nagy as The New Bauhaus in 1937, ID is known for pioneering human-centered design and systems design. Today ID is home to the only US design school devoted completely to graduate students. But ID is more than a graduate school. ID is an international community of learners and practitioners who are addressing the biggest issues of our time by eliciting a power unique to humans: creativity. Learn more about ID at id.iit.edu.

Register