In this annual series, co-hosted this year by the Institute of Design at Illinois Tech and AIGA Chicago, Luca Gonnelli, CEO & Creative Director of Algo, shares his expertise on using technology and motion design to communicate sustainability-related data with clarity.
Date: Monday, April 20, 2026
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship
About Luca Gonnelli
Luca Gonnelli leads the data visualization studio Algo as CEO & Creative Director, focused on developing generative systems. Algo builds creative tools that turn data into videos, at scale—building more than 605,000 videos in the last year with the belief that “robots and humans can happily coexist and create awesome things together.” Algo specializes in video automation that brings visual synthesis, bold color palettes, and clear concepts to the world of innovation. Luca travels to Chicago from Turin, Italy, an Italian hub for contemporary design where Algo and its sister studio, Illo, one of Europe’s most established motion design studios, are headquartered.
Algo and Illo were co-founded by Ilenia Notarangelo and Luca Gonnelli, who are on a mission to keep designers in the driver’s seat in the age of AI and now lead a team of around 30 people. Their work has an ongoing focus on sustainability, helping organizations like The Nature Conservancy, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The New York Times, Google, Apple, Doctors Without Borders, and innovative international startups communicate datasets with both precision and clarity.
Faculty Organizers
A Q&A and discussion with ID faculty members Tomoko Ichikawa and Zach Pino will follow Luca’s talk.
Tomoko Ichikawa is Professor of Visual Communication at the Institute of Design where she teaches communication design. She has focused on diagrams and, most recently, the emerging field of computer-generated data visualizations. She believes that good design requires analysis and should be content- and context-driven, and she applies that philosophy as an educator and practitioner of clear and effective visual communication design of complex information.
Zach Pino is Assistant Professor of Data-Driven Design at the Institute of Design and Director of ID’s Inclusive Data Lab. He designs with generative algorithms, machine learning models, wearable technologies, and reactive materiality, aiming to create data visualizations, personalized objects, accessible interactive experiences, and fabrication processes that educate, include, surprise, recollect, and encourage contemplation.
About the Lucas J. Daniel Series in Sustainable Systems
The focus of ID’s annual event in memory of ID alum Lucas J. Daniel (1974–2017) is to drive discourse in sustainability and systems design, areas Lucas was passionate about. Lucas was a 2005 Institute of Design (ID) graduate who spent 11 years at Chicago design and innovation consultancy gravitytank. There he applied holistic, systems-level thinking to food innovation. Learn more about the series.