2018 Fall Open House

At IIT Institute of Design we provide students with the skills needed to identify, dissect, and solve complex problems facing organizations around the world. Join us at our Open House on Thursday, November 8 to learn more about how you can elevate your career with a Master in Design from ID. 

We invite prospective students to come meet current students, faculty and alumni and to tour our new home in the new Kaplan Institute on Illinois Tech's Mies campus. Our new home has more space—a combination of individual-focused space, team-based space, and open-studio—in a visually compelling environment created with the needs of advanced designers in mind. 

Associate Professor Anijo Mathew will provide an introducion to ID and the graduate programs offered. This event will also feature alumni Jess Barnes (MDes/MBA '13), principal service designer at Walgreens, and Sergio Gutiérrez Montero (MDes '15), design manager at Allstate Innovation. Jess and Sergio will share more about their experiences at ID and their work since.

About Anijo

Anijo Mathew is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Design. His research evaluates new semantic appropriations of urban spaces as enabled by technology and media convergence. He also works with different academic units at Illinois Tech to build a multidisciplinary approach to design and innovation. He is also the founder and chief experience officer of Vamonde, a Chicago startup and storytelling app.

Mathew has a proven record of innovation and entrepreneurship through multidisciplinary collaborations. Prior to Illinois Tech, he was a tenure-track faculty member at College of Architecture, Art and Design at Mississippi State University, where he helped prototype smart technologies for rural populations in various projects. Since moving to Chicago, he has worked with several city organizations to prototype new local urban/placemaking technologies.

Mathew holds a Ph.D. in computing from The Open University in the United Kingdom, a Master in Design Studies from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a professional Bachelor of Architecture from Birla Institute of Technology Mesra in Ranchi, India.

About Jess 

Jess Barnes likes to help people by first, understanding their needs, and then, designing solutions that meet those needs. Jess is currently designing customer and team member experiences as a principal service designer at Walgreens.  Between ID and Walgreens, Jess worked with Fortune’s 50 as a Strategy Execution Consultant—focusing on internal experiences and engagement. 
 
Jess also spent the past 5 years as an IPRO instructor, but has recently retired her teaching cap to start a business of her own, changing the way people learn, think and feel about money. Peanut Butter Jelly Time, LLC launched in February with the flagship money management workshop, You Got This, and free monthly meet up, Wine & Dimes. 
 
When she’s not at work, you can find Jess traveling the world, practicing yoga and meditation, or having some adventure somewhere near Chicago’s waterways. 

About Sergio

Sergio is a design manager at Allstate Innovation. Before his current position he was Head of Design & Research at Allstate Digital Ventures, an internal start-up exploring and executing transformational innovation in the form of digital products and services. Before Allstate, Sergio led the execution of service and business design projects at Doblin for healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and federal government clients with a heavy focus on in-context ethnographic research.

Sergio holds a Master of Design from the Institute of Design and a Masters in Economics of Science and Innovation from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.