Community and Industry Partnership

The School of Design values, pursues, and maintains relationships with community partners and with alumni who play an increasingly vital role in the local design communities. Building on a community-engaged classroom model, established by faculty member Norman Teague and blKHaUS studios, advanced UIC Design students actively participate in design-driven support of independent WBE/MBE manufacturers on Chicago’s South Side. 

Our school is also known for our work in election design reform on behalf of Design for Democracy, a strategic initiative of AIGA. In response to the infamous “butterfly” ballot in Florida, a group of UIC Design faculty and students worked on behalf of AIGA Chicago and in collaboration with the Office of the Cook County Clerk to demonstrate the need for good design in the administration of US elections. Our work to reimagine the voting experience in Chicago went on to become the basis of election design guidelines distributed by the US Election Assistance Commission.

Designers are entrepreneurs. Many of our faculty are professional studio founders and leaders. Those that develop new products and take them to market are well-versed in entrepreneurial thinking and action. Entrepreneurship by Design (EXD), held in the UIC Innovation Center, brings together faculty and students from design and business. It represents one of several selective interdisciplinary options in the professional practice capstone required of all UIC Design undergraduate degrees.

Each professional practice capstone course is supported by a research sponsor. It is common for course outcomes to be used by the sponsor as the foundation for new product, communication, or service offerings. Industry partners are cultivated by the leadership of the School of Design and the UIC Innovation Center. Past corporate partners include Baxter, BMW, Caterpillar, Morningstar, Motorola, USG, Verizon, Wilson Sporting Goods and Whirlpool Corporation. Partners from the nonprofit and public sector have included the City of Chicago Board of Elections, City Tech, Kaboom! (Too Small to Fail /The Clinton Foundation), the Obama Foundation, OSF Healthcare, the State of Oregon, UIC School of Public Health, and Watson Foundation.