Capturing the Spirit of ID

For Institute of Design students, the annual End of Year Show (EOYS) isn’t just an opportunity to show off their creations and hard work. It’s a way to come together and collaborate as a community to show the current state of design, how it’s changing, and where it’s going.

From kiosks that sell bean-based snacks for a delicious and eco-friendly snacking experience to developing a strategy that combats climate change misinformation, ID students use design as a powerful tool to transform the systems that shape our lives.

The 2024 EOYS, with its theme “Boundless: Design Beyond Limits,” brings the rapid evolution of technology and its limitless potential to the forefront—leading designers to contemplate how they can adapt and evolve with it.

“It’s very fitting that the theme for this year is Boundless—just when we think we see the limits of design, it gets pushed further out again,” adds Samantha Chandra (MDes 2025) who assisted on marketing and publicity efforts for EOYS 2024, along with building the exhibition.

Starting in the spring semester, students curated the various projects from the past school year and prepared them for the show. The submitted projects reflected one of the four subcategories of the Boundless theme: divergence, convergence, emergence, and resurgence.

The overall visual identity of the show was designed by Dennis Siegert (MDes 2024). ID’s End of Year Show is almost entirely organized and put on by ID students. This year’s EOYS team consisted of nine students, with the majority in their first year at ID.

Roger Hong (MDes 2025) helped gather student work, develop the website, and apply the visual identity for the EOYS exhibition.

With guidance from ID faculty members, including Associate Professor of Visual Communication Tomoko Ichikawa, Associate Professor of Product and Environment Design Martin Thaler, and Assistant Professor of Data-Driven Design Zach Pino, students worked diligently across multiple sub-teams to create a brand, content, web presence, and physical buildout for the show.

After months of preparing assets, organizing the submitted projects, and building the website and physical set for the show, the students saw all their hard work pay off on May 10, 2024, when more than 90 projects were displayed—the largest number of projects collected for an EOYS to date.

All projects submitted by students for the 2024 EOYS can be seen on the second floor of the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship and on the EOYS website now through spring 2025.