Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton (born 1963) is a graphic designer, curator, writer, critic, and educator. Known for her love of typography, Lupton is the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair at Maryland Institute College of Art. Previously she was the Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City and was named Curator Emerita after 30 years of service. She is the founding director of the Graphic Design M.F.A. degree program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), She has written numerous books on graphic design for a variety of audiences. She has contributed to several publications, including Print, Eye, I.D., Metropolis, and The New York Times.

Early life and education Lupton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1963 Her parents divorced in 1973 when she and her twin sister, Julia, were ten years old. As a self-professed "art girl" from a family of English teachers, her love of typography combined her love of art and writing.

Lupton attended Cooper Union College in 1981 as a fine art student, where she discovered graphic design and the "expressive potential of typography." Lupton described this discovery of graphic design as "a revelation... Design really wasn't in the mainstream back then. It was esoteric. It was the thing you did if you were very 'neat,' which I wasn't."

In 1997, Lupton became a chair of the undergraduate graphic design program at MICA. She served in this role until 2002. In 2003, she launched a new MFA program in graphic design at MICA and has served as the director of that program ever since. With the booming interest in self-help books in the early aughts, Lupton co-wrote D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself with graduate students from MICA. This book showcased ordinary people and new ways of designing their own work, from blog pages to book covers. "People don't just eat food anymore, they present it; they don't look at pictures, they take them; they don't buy T-shirts, they sell them".

Selected exhibitions The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, April 3 – October 28, 2018 (Curated with Andrea Lipps). Exploration of experimental works and practical solutions providing new ways to experience the world. Featured work from Christopher Brosius, KunstLAB Arnhem, Studio Roos Meerman, and Maya+Rouvelle. Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, February 12 – August 21, 2016. Presented seven kinds of beauty — extravagant, intricate, ethereal, transgressive, transformative, emergent, and elemental — through the international work of 63 designers and teams. How Posters Work, April 17, 2015 – January 18, 2016. Showcased the designer's perception in terms of principles of composition, perception, and storytelling, featuring over 125 posters from the Cooper Hewitt collection. Graphic Design: Now in Production, October 22, 2011 – January 22, 2012. Explored the broadening reach of graphic design over the past decade from a specialized profession to a widely deployed tool. Design for a Living World, May 2009 – January 2010 (Curated with J. Abbott Miller; exhibition designed with J. Abbott Miller, Brian Raby, Jeremy Hoffman, Kristen Spilman/Pentagram). Produced for The Nature Conservancy, this commissioned ten designers to create original product prototypes using materials from ten endangered landscapes. Designers included Yves Béhar, Maya Lin, Isaac Mizrahi, Ezri Tarazi, Kate Spade New York, and J. Abbott Miller. Swarm, December 2005 – March 2006. Contemporary art and design from The Fabric Workshop and Museum that reflect the logic of the swarm (simple structures yielding complexity). Skin Show, May – September 2002. Brought artificial life into modern furniture, fashion, architecture, and media. Focused on the many different shapes and forms of household furniture. Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture, Fall 1996 – Winter 1997 (Graphics designed with Jennifer Roos, Frederick Gates, and Christine McKee). Critical survey of graphic design in the US from 1980 to 1995, with a focus on aesthetic, cultural, and technological changes. The Avant-Garde Letterhead, Spring 1996 (Curated with Elaine Lustig Cohen, designed with Christine McKee). Showcased original letterheads and ephemera by Herbert Bayer, László Moholy-Nagy, and Le Corbusier. Focus on the groundbreaking designs of books, book covers, and signage from the 1950s through the 60's. Living with AIDS: Education through Design, December 1, 1993 – January 2, 1994. Survey of contemporary AIDS posters addressing diverse audiences. Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office, August 17, 1993 – January 2, 1994 (Curated with Sheri Sandler, designed with Boym Studio). Exploration of the design and production of objects central to the women's work throughout the twentieth century, including the washing machine, telephone, electric iron, and typewriter. Considered a visual history of the relationship between women and "feminine" appliances.

Publications

Books Thinking with Type, 3rd revised and expanded edition: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Princeton Architectural Press, 2024.

Graphic Design: The New Basics, Revised and Second Edition (With Jennifer Cole Phillips), Princeton Architectural Press, 2015. How Posters Work (With Caitlin Condell and Gail Davidson), Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2015. Beauty: Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial (With Andrea Lipps), Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2015. Beautiful Users, Princeton Architectural Press, 2014. Type On Screen, Princeton Architectural Press, 2014. Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming, Princeton Architectural Press, 2011. Thinking with Type, 2nd revised and expanded edition: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Princeton Architectural Press, 2010. Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things, St. Martin's Griffin, 2009. Indie Publishing: How to Design and Produce Your Own Book, Princeton Architectural Press, 2008. Design Writing Research (With J. Abbott Miller), Phaidon Press, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008. D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself, Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005 (With Sarah D. Coffin, Darra Goldstein, and Barbara Bloemink), Assouline, 2005. Swarm: The Fabric Workshop and Museum (With J. Abbott Miller), Fabric Workshop and Museum, 2005. Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Princeton Architectural Press, 2004. Inside Design Now: The National Design Triennial (With Donald Albrecht, Mitchell Owens, and Susan Yelavich), Princeton Architectural Press, 2003. Skin: Surface, Substance, Design, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. Graphic Design: The New Basics (With Jennifer Cole Phillips), Princeton Architectural Press, 2008 D.I.Y. Kids (With Julia Lupton), Princeton Architectural Press, 2007. Inside Design Now", Princeton Architectural Press, 2003. Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office, Princeton Architectural Press, 1997. The Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste (A Process of Elimination) (With J. Abbott Miller), Princeton Architectural Press, 1997. Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture, Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. The ABC's of Bauhaus, the Bauhaus and Design Theory, Princeton Architectural Press, 1991.

Books published by Lupton

Awards and honors 2019: American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow. 2007: AIGA Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement, AIGA. 1999: Recipient, Iris Award for History of Decorative Arts, Bard Graduate Center. 1999: I.D. Magazine Distinction Award, packaging category, for Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age. 1998: AIGA Fifty Books/Fifty Covers award, for "Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection". 1999: First place, American Association of Museums publication design award, for Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age. 1997: Norton Family Foundation's Curator's Grant, $50,000 grant for exhibition development. 1996: Winner, 1996 New York Magazine Award. Awarded to 10 New Yorkers who are shaping the life of the city. 1993: Recipient of the Chrysler Design Award, with J. Abbott Miller. 1992–1995: AIGA, National Board of Directors. 1994–present: panelist, New York State Council on the Arts. 1995: Juror, Architectural League's Young Architects Competition. 1994: Winner, Best of Show award, Aldus Magazine annual design competition, 1994 for design of book, "The IOO Show". 1993: Chair, American Center for Design "100 Show".