Join ID for the Latham Series webinar that will address how an organization can unite two distinct requirements: profit and purpose.

Thursday, September 16, 2021
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. CDT

Register using this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/profit-vs-purpose-tickets-165759524199

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). 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.

2021 Latham Series

In an age in which we can make virtually anything, the question for design is no longer the technical question of how do we make it? The question today is foundational: why do we make it? This is the question that we focus on at ID.

With a deep respect for humanity, speakers in the Spring 2021 Latham Series will address topics bearing on this question of corporate responsibility, and more specifically, of what we make and why:

• March: Why Are We Making This? (behavior, persuasion, production systems)
• April: For Whom Are We Making It? (community engagement, new economic models)
• September: Why Does This Organization Exist? (purpose-driven business strategy)
• October: What Should We Make? (cooperative economies and equitable, sustainable, and just futures)