Hosts Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum explore the revolutionary Clear RX prescription packaging system, created by designer Deborah Adler. What began as a personal experience with her grandparents' medication mix-up evolved into a groundbreaking design that transformed how medications are dispensed in America. The episode reveals how thoughtful desi…

In this episode, hosts Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum explore the groundbreaking design of the OXO Good Grips Peeler, an everyday tool that transformed how people interact with kitchen products. Featuring an exclusive interview with Davin Stowell, the founder of Smart Design and the visionary behind the peeler, the episode unpacks the story of how …

Hosts Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum explore how Zipline is addressing critical gaps in healthcare delivery through the use of autonomous drones. Especially in underserved rural areas, where timely access to medical supplies can mean the difference between life and death, Zipline's iterative approach to widening healthcare access has made real impa…

Hosts Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum delve into the creation of Raspberry Pi—a $35, credit card-sized computer that has revolutionized technology education and sparked innovation worldwide. They explore the origins of the Raspberry Pi, its foundational design principles, its profound impact on education and industry, and why it succeeded where othe…

In this episode of the With Intent podcast byIIT's Institute of Design, hosts Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum welcome LifeStraw CEO Alison Hill. They discuss how LifeStraw was borne out of innovative technology and a unique business model that balances profit with purpose. Key Points: The global water crisis: 2 billion people lack access to safe dri…

Hosts Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum explore the tale of Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 New York City Subway Map. Vignelli's design was celebrated for its modernist brilliance yet heavily critiqued for its practical shortcomings. Here, Thamer and Albert delve into the tension between geometric abstraction and geographic accuracy, examining how Vignelli’s …

In this introductory trailer to With Intent Season 3, hosts Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum introduce themselves as this year’s Latham Fellows at the Institute of Design at Illinois Tech. They share their excitement about co-hosting the podcast and reflect on their 15-year professional partnership, including their collaborative work on a broad range…

In the final episode of our second season of With Intent, Jarrett Fuller asks ID Dean Anijo Mathew, Where Must Design Go Next?Anijo discusses ID’s pioneering history and where it’s headed next—summarizing ID’s four eras, defining what he calls Design Plus, and contextualizing the three forces acting on design today and where they will lead us.Insti…

In the fifth episode of our second season of With Intent, Jarrett Fuller asks ID Associate Professor of Environmental Management and Sustainability Weslynne Ashton and Associate Professor of Design for Technology and Society John Payne, How Can Design Make the Biggest Impact?“In the business world and in the government space, people often look arou…

In the fourth episode of our second season of With Intent, Jarret Fuller asks ID Associate Professor of Healthcare Design and Design Methods Kim Erwin and Associate Professor of Civic and Community Design Maura Shea, Why Is Design Always Talking About Complexity?Kim and Maura discuss making change in large communities and systems through asset-base…

In the third episode of our second season of With Intent, Jarrett Fuller asks ID Associate Professor of Behavioral Design Ruth Schmidt and Charles L. Owen Professor of Systems Design Carlos Teixeira, What If Human-Centered Design Isn’t Enough? Ruth and Carlos discuss the capabilities and limits of human-centered design, the concept of humanity-cent…

The second episode of our second season of With Intent asks ID Associate Dean Matt Mayfield and Assistant Professor Zach Pino, How Do You Teach Design for Tomorrow? Matt and Zach discuss ID’s ever-evolving curriculum, the relationship of design to art, how students learn about technology at ID, the recent “seismic shift” in students’ goals, and cha…

Jarrett Fuller asks, How does someone become a designer? in the first episode of Season Two of With Intent. This episode features Tomoko Ichikawa, Associate Professor of Visual Communication, and Marty Thaler, Associate Professor of Product Design. Tomoko and Marty discuss ID's Foundation sequence—possibly the strongest tie that ID has today with i…

Mushon Zer-Aviv is an activist, artist, and designer. He's currently at work on devising new ways of understanding change and the future—ways that account for the limits of forecasting and consider the "darkness" of the future as a place for hope and possibility.He also discusses systemic bias, the value of small talk, his appreciation for Rebecca …

Marina Gorbis is executive director of the Institute for the Future, a place where business executives, policymakers, nonprofits, and others use foresight and futuring techniques to make better long-term decisions. For example, you might work with the Institute for the Future to anticipate and be able to plan for a worldwide pandemic.In fact, Marin…

Jon Veal is co-founder of alt_, an organization that focuses on the power of community. The alt_ market is the organization's flagship program. Their first market transformed an abandoned space into a communal free market, encouraging community members to give, take, and take care of one another.Jon talks about how serving his community and making …

Kenneth Bailey, co-founder of the Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI), and co-author of Ideas, Arrangements, Effects, talks about his approach to building a better possible world. Talking about specific projects like Public Kitchen, as well as the thinking and pragmatism shared in his book, Kenneth presents an approach to building that ne…

Michela Magas has had a nonlinear career path driven by a focus on bringing people together to make deliberate decisions that enable long-term creativity and innovation. Those decisions may reside in the realm of intellectual property, as in the Industry Commons, or music technology, as in the case of MTF (Music Tech Fest).Michela talks about how t…

Episode 5 of With Intent is available now. Ruth Reichstein is part of the European Commission’s Presidential Advisory Board on the New European Bauhaus, or NEB, which was developed to help the EU achieve the goals set forth in its Europe Green Deal.The NEB aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. We at IIT Institute of Desig…

An organizer in Chicago for more than a decade, Richard Wallace, founder and executive director of EAT (Equity and Transformation), is focused on supporting Black informal workers—people like George Floyd, who are boxed out of the formal economy. Richard explains the historic rivalry between Hispanic and Black informal workers, his confidence in de…

Last week we talked about technology as medicine. This week: food as medicine.Rita Nguyen, Assistant Health Officer at the San Francisco Department of Public Health and founder of the Food as Medicine Collaborative, explains why doctors should be able to prescribe food—and why the healthcare system should pay for it.Institute of Design at Illinois …

As Global Head of Employee Digital Experience at the Kraft Heinz Company, Tope Sadiku describes herself as a corporate doctor. To extend the metaphor: her patients are Kraft employees, and her medicine is technology. Tope considers the evolving employee experience—really, how an employee spends their everyday—and how technology can enhance it. Tope…

In the first episode of With Intent, Kristin Gecan talks to Morgan Ames, author of The Charisma Machine, about One Laptop Per Child—a hugely ambitious, or as Morgan defines it, charismatic—project with good intentions: to bring a laptop to every child in the developing world. We talk about why that project failed, how it connects to utopianism, and…

Institute of Design at Illinois TechDiscover programs and resources on design and systems thinking.Subscribe to With Intent for more explorations into how design shapesour world, whether we call it design or not.By IIT Institute of Design

In April 2017, the Institute of Design hosted Robert Fabricant, co-founder and principal of the Dalberg Design Impact Group, as a Latham Fellow for a three-day workshop exploring connections between design and the Social Impact Sector. The goal of the workshop was to foster a dialogue and begin to create tools for designers entering into work in th…

In November 2016 students from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) were invited to attend the Business of Design Week Conference in Hong Kong courtesy of IIT alum, Victor Lo. The conference's theme was "Chicago Made" and featured speakers who have made an impact in Chicago in addition to designers from all around the world in multiple facets…

Panel event at The Art Institute of Chicago presented with IIT Institute of DesignUpon its founding Moholy-Nagy referred to the New Bauhaus in Chicago as a "laboratory for a new education". As the New Bauhaus evolved into Institute of Design, his legacy of experimentation in education maintains through experiential, project-based learning and a com…

IIT Institute of Design is formalizing a certificate option for students who wish to develop deeper expertise in social innovation through the pursuit of certificates like Non-Profit and Mission-Driven Management, Economic Development and Social Entrepreneurship, and Public Management. Students who obtain these certificates will gain cross-discipli…