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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With Intent Explores Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 New York City Subway Map

Season 3: Episode 1 Now Available

October 8, 2024

Graphic of NYC Subway Map

Latham fellows Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum host Season 3 of ID’s With Intent podcast.

In Episode 1, available now, they bring you the story behind the design of a wayfinding resource used by millions of people every day: the New York City Subway Map.

“
Design is iterative and you don't learn by always being successful. You learn by sometimes failing.
—Albert Shum

In This Episode

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

  • The evolution of the New York City Subway System (once made up of many companies)  and how the need for a comprehensive and user-friendly wayfinding solution kickstarted the streamlining and unification of the overall system.
  • Massimo Vignelli’s modernist design philosophy and his innovative departure from geographic accuracy in favor of abstraction and geometric representation, as well as the dramatic criticisms and controversy following the release of Vignelli’s map.
  • The definition and importance of systems thinking in design, from Charles L. Owen Professor of Systems Design Carlos Teixeira.

Listen to Episode 1 of the With Intent podcast, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and of course, right here on the ID website. Click follow on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to get alerts when new episodes are released.

The List

Inspired by ID’s award-winning list of 100 Great Designs of Modern Times (originally featured in Fortune magazine), this season of With Intent will explore some of the most groundbreaking design solutions in recent history. The NYC Subway Map is #28 on this list.

When the 2020 list was released, Robert Fabricant remarked:

“
A born and raised New Yorker, I would not be working as a designer if not for Vignelli’s groundbreaking work on the NYC subway system, one of the most powerful and ubiquitous civic service experiences on the planet.
—Robert Fabricant

100 Great Designs of Modern Times

In 2020, ID and Fortune magazine collaborated to produce the a list of the 100 greatest designs of modern times. The collaboration brought together insights about the evolving role of design in today’s world.

Fortune and ID first collaborated on such a list in 1959, and though some designs made both the original and the 2020 list, there were important differences in the kinds of designs that we now consider “great.”

100 Great Designs of Modern Times, 2020

Announcing ID’s 2024–25 Latham Fellows

What Do the Volkswagen Beetle, an OXO Vegetable Peeler, and Spotify Have in Common?