Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
In partnership with the Design Museum of Chicago
ID@85: 85 Years of Making the Future (2022) by Annie LeueInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
The United States of the mid-1930s resembled today in many ways. Dizzying changes in communication, transportation, and other technologies disrupted daily life and created uncertainty about the future, while also presenting opportunities for new human experiences.
In 1937, to help meet these challenges, the Chicago Association of Arts and Industries opened The New Bauhaus, American School of Design, later renamed the Institute of Design (ID), with László Moholy-Nagy as its founding director.
Rooted in the principles and practices of the original Bauhaus in Germany, where Moholy had taught, the new school invited students to integrate all the arts into their education, to look at design holistically, and to use technology to improve lives.
From the start, the school’s faculty and students explored new visual languages and embraced emerging technologies. Fearless experimentation became an enduring—and empowering—hallmark of ID.
Exterior view of The New Bauhaus, housed in the Marshall Field Mansion (1937) by Institute of Design (ID) and Daniel HumestonInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Exterior view of The New Bauhaus, housed in the Marshall Field Mansion, 1905 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, ca. 1937.
Photograph by Daniel Humeston. Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
In December 1935, Marshall Field III, heir to the Marshall Field’s department store fortune, gave his family home in Chicago as a gift to the Chicago Association of Arts and Industries to house a new school of design, later named The New Bauhaus, American School of Design.
Walter Gropius, letter to Norma K. Stahle, May 18, 1937.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
Norma K. Stahle, director of the Chicago Association of Arts and Industries, wrote to former Bauhaus director Walter Gropius, asking him to open a design school in Chicago.
Since Gropius had accepted a position at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, he recommended his former Bauhaus colleague László Moholy-Nagy.
“American School of Design to Open Here This Fall,” Chicago Daily News, Monday, August 23, 1937.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
The press announced that with the opening of The New Bauhaus, Chicago would “assume additional importance in the cultural and industrial life of the nation.” This perception of the school as a significant cultural institution that serves industry aligned with ID’s objectives.
From its very beginning, ID operated with the conviction that art could be—and should be—deployed to meet the needs of industry and improve people’s daily lives.
Graphic identity, The New Bauhaus (1937) by The New BauhausInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Graphic identity, The New Bauhaus, 1937.
Eager to underscore its connection to the famed Bauhaus, the new school drew its identity directly from Herbert Bayer’s Universal Bauhaus typography and the original school’s all-lowercase lettering—presenting it as it appeared on the façade of the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany.
Students gather in front of the entrance to The New Bauhaus, Chicago (1937) by Herbert MatterInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Students gather in front of the entrance to The New Bauhaus, Chicago, 1937.
Photograph by Herbert Matter. Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
Renovations to the Marshall Field mansion reflected Bauhausian design: travertine marble was added to the entrance; The New Bauhaus signage used the original typeface; cement block was added to the glass façade; and plaster encased the building’s center staircase.
The New Bauhaus: Course Curriculum (1936/1937) by László Moholy-NagyInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
After he was appointed director of The New Bauhaus, Moholy had just four months to open the school. He did not attempt to reinvent the Bauhaus wheel, nor did he drastically deviate from the original school’s core competencies.
Moholy appropriated Gropius’s concentric ring-based curriculum, and a “preliminary” course in Gropius’s model (Vórkurs in German) would become the “foundation” course in Moholy’s version, intended to encourage emotional expressiveness and technical experimentation and guide students to artful, imaginative design.
The New Bauhaus: Course Curriculum (1936/1937) by László Moholy-NagyInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
The New Bauhaus Curriculum Diagram, 1937.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
The Foundation sequence has remained a fixture throughout ID’s 85 years and exists today as an entry program—a way to welcome and encourage non-designers to obtain a graduate degree in design.
“During the first semester foundation course psychological rigidity is replaced by stimuli for emotional freedom, through a basic familiarity with the manipulation of tools and materials, combined with experimental analysis in techniques.”—Course description, The New Bauhaus, 1937
Course catalogs, the School of Design (1939/1944) by Institute of Design (ID)Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Course catalogs, the School of Design, 1939–1944.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
Course catalogs from ID’s early years reflect the breadth and depth of the school’s offerings. Students could enroll in the Basic Workshop, but also become educated in Volume Articulation and explore Touch Exercises.
The New Bauhaus invited students to liberate their creativity. One page of a catalog reads, simply:
“The Eye Opens . . .
We begin to see, with our own eyes. Our own signature, lines in our palms, veins of a butterfly wing, light on a surface, all seen with a primal wonderment.”
The Sketch Book: L. Moholy-Nagy Reaffirms the Function of the Arts (1943) by Furniture ManufacturerInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
“The Sketch Book: L. Moholy-Nagy Reaffirms the Function of the Arts,” Furniture Manufacturer, Fall 1943.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
In an early example of ID’s collaboration with industry, when Lanz Fifth Avenue, New York, opened a new store in Chicago, called “Junior Miss,” they turned to students and faculty of ID to design the interior.
Many years later, ID students would transform the design and customer experience of Eataly’s new store in Chicago.
Protective Concealment Discipline (1945) by Institute of Design (ID)Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Protective Concealment Discipline, 1945.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
During World War II, ID’s curriculum expanded with the addition of courses in camouflage design and occupational therapy in response to the crisis. Relevant courses were taught in conjunction with the Works Progress Administration and Office of Civilian Defense.
Camouflage Course Materials (1939/1945) by Chicago School of DesignInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Camouflage Course Materials, ca. 1939–1945.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
Institute of Design profile (1946/1949) by Institute of Design (ID)Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Institute of Design profile, ca. 1946–1949.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
From the start, ID has sought to articulate—and distinguish—its philosophy of design education as multidisciplinary and pioneering, with high regard for the potential of technology and realities of contemporary life.
This extensive early “profile” of the school includes “Aims of the School of Design,” “Guiding Principles,” “Educational Principles,” “Cultural Studies,” “History,” and more.
ID has never been the sort of school where students sit still to learn. Studios, critiques, and workshops were—and remain—animated, rigorous, collaborative experiences for students and faculty alike.
In-class dramatic poetry recording (1947) by Institute of Design (ID)Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
In-class dramatic poetry recording, 1947.
Running time: about 5 min. Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
This recording captures the dramatic poetry reading of two original poems written and performed by School of Design students in Sibyl Moholy-Nagy’s course Intellectual Integration during the 1947–1948 school year.
The original recordings were made on an early recording cutting machine, which one of the students brought to the class. As the students passed a pad of paper around the room, each of them wrote one line of poetry on a given topic and then folded the paper to conceal what they had written, so the next writer would not see it.
Sibyl Moholy-Nagy introduces the two pieces, which are orchestrated in Greek chorus fashion. Students heard on the recording are Allen Porter, Franz Altschuler, Louis Silverstein, Harold Grosowski, Sondra Fingerman, and others who have not been identified.
Industry and Artists Join Forces for Better Design, Peak Comfort (1949-02-10) by Wesley Hartzell, Chicago Herald AmericanInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Wesley Hartzell, “Industry and Artists Join Forces for Better Design, Peak Comfort,” Chicago Herald American, Sunday, February 10, 1949.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
“Backed by some of the best brains of industry, the Institute, founded as a nonprofit organization by the late László Moholy-Nagy, is sparking a revolution in design.”
Buckminster Fuller was a consummate interdisciplinary teacher. Famed as an architect, designer, writer, inventor, theorist, educator, and futurist, he taught at ID in the 1948–1949 academic year.
While at ID Fuller oversaw a class project relating to the development of a geodesic dome-type structure identified as Dymaxion Tent. The project derived from observation of certain omni-directional dynamic phenomena, peculiar to the geometric form known as the dymaxion.
It was immediately evident that these dynamic principles might eventually be applied in the construction of machinery for energy conservation, or pulsating or gyratory motion, that could be used in an autonomous dwelling, as reported in a summary of the project published in 1953.
Light Drawing With Folded Paper (1940) by Nathan LernerInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Nathan Lerner, Light Drawing With Folded Paper, 1940.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
Between 1951 and 1961, ID became the preeminent school for photography. Under the tutelage of Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, students received extensive technical training, beginning with the required Foundation Course, and encouragement to develop their interpretive senses.
Together, Callahan and Siskind preached the beauty of the mundane and the potential to elevate it into art through continual experimentation.
Ubiquitous Objects (2022) by Nathan KeayInstitute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Ubiquitous objects, ca. 2022.
Objects designed by students and alumni of ID that became ubiquitous in our culture—and endure today on the strength of their original design—include the Dove soap bar, the Honey Bear, and the Playboy logo.
Course catalogs for evening classes, the Institute of Design, Chicago (1950/1952) by Institute of Design (ID)Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Course catalogs for evening classes, the Institute of Design, Chicago, 1950–1952.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
ID has long endeavored to open its doors to part-time students looking to expand their knowledge and use of design. These course catalogs reflect the expansion of an ID design education to evening students in the 1950s.
Similarly, today’s ID Academy offers supplementary courses to the school’s corporate partners, so entire organizations can tap the pioneering practices of ID faculty to build their organizational strategy.
Institute of Design Promotion Kit (1952/1954) by Institute of Design (ID)Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Institute of Design Promotion Kit, ca. 1952–1954.
Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
These materials reflect ID’s skill in promoting the school—through compelling graphic and photographic design on its own behalf.
Space-Frame Construction Principles (1954/1959) by Institute of Design (ID)Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech
Space-Frame Construction Principles, ca. 1954–1959.
Photographer unknown. Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Tech.
Konrad Wachsmann, professor of advanced building research at ID, explains space-frame construction to students (from left) Maurine Strung and Shirley Courtois, ca. 1954–1959.
A model of an open-air music shelter, designed by an Illinois Tech graduate student and based on space-frame construction, can be seen on the table.
ID and Design Museum of Chicago partnered to organize this exhibition, which uses 85 key stories to demonstrate the vital role of design—and ID—in improving life, from gas stations to space stations; camping shelters to an app for urban explorers; a better bar of soap to a doable reimagining of water resources for food, energy, and manufacturing.
These stories fall into four eras:
1) Experimentation (this story)
2) Systems
3) Human-Centered Design
4) [Era in Process]
With thanks to William Chen, Todd Cooke, Kristin Gecan, Nathan Keay, Mitchell Kunichoff, Annie Leue, Ashley Lukasik, Anijo Mathew, Mindy Pugh, Kevin Reader, Sujith Samuel, Adam Strohm, Amy Teschner, Martin Thaler, Hendriana Werdhaningsihm, and Tanner Woodford.
The institute of Design thanks all the lenders who contributed objects and materials to ID@85: Making the Future—particularly, the Illinois Tech Archives for the largest known set of objects the archive has ever loaned for public view.
