Profit vs. Purpose

ID houses what we consider ‘the business school for design,’ yet our focus is on building cooperative, intelligent, responsible futures. Perhaps more than any other design school, here we are uniting two distinct requirements: 1) profit (i.e., desirable, feasible, viable) with 2) purpose (i.e., equitable, just, sustainable). In a conversation moderated by ID alum Renee Albrecht-Mallinger (MDes 2018), ID faculty Jeremy Alexis, Jody Campbell, Tomoko Ichikawa, and Chris Rudd discuss their professional experiences as designers and debate how their respective practices, projects, and partners (Magic & Might, UChicago Medicine, ChiByDesign) connect to commerce and/or social impact.

A Q+A session will be focused on answering questions from emerging designers and prospective students about reconciling an interest in doing meaningful work with the need for a paycheck.

About IIT Institute of Design (ID)

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.