Free Font Manifesto
A small but growing number of designers and institutions are creating typefaces for the public domain. Gathered here are notes from a controversial 2006 lecture about “free fonts.” Read more →
How to Write a Book Proposal
Readers are sometimes curious about how to prepare a book proposal. In my experience, an effective book proposal includes some or all of the following elements. Read more →
Swim Suit Stats
When people started swimming 50,000 years ago, no one bothered with swim suits. Why get the fur wet on your new caveman outfit? When cultural norms demanded that bodies stay covered, skinny dipping went underground and bathing attire was born. Changes in the history of swimsuit design reflect shifting cultural values as well as new beliefs about athletic performance. We’ve seen the body go from naked to covered to nearly nude—and back again. Recent athletic competitions have raised ethical questions about extreme swimwear: is it fair, or is it doping?
Graphic Design I Syllabus, Fall 09
GD200.04
Instructor: Ellen Lupton, elupton (at) designwritingresearch.org
Teaching Assistant: Molly Hawthorne
Maryland Institute College of Art
Carson, Carol Devine
Notes from a conversation, Ellen Lupton and Carol Devine Carson, April 15, 1994. Corrected by Carol Carson, June 7, 1995. Unpublished. Read more →
Bureau
Interview, Ellen Lupton with Donald Moffett and Marlene McCarty (Bureau), June 27, 1994. An edited version of this interview appears in the book Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. Read more →
Eccentric to Whom?
“Eccentric to Whom?” Essay by J. Abbbott Miller, published in special issue of AIGA Journal of Graphic Design on eccentricity, edited by Steven Heller, 1992 Read more →
Design and Production in the Mechanical Age
“Design and Production in the Mechanical Age” (excerpt), essay by Ellen Lupton, published in Deborah Rothschild, Ellen Lupton, and Darra Goldstein, Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. pp 50-81. Read more →
Going Public
Essay by Ellen Lupton, published in Print magazine (January/February 2005).
Fluid Mechanics: Typography Now
“Fluid Mechanics: Typographic Design Now,” essay by Ellen Lupton, published in Donald Albrecht, Steven Holt, and Ellen Lupton, Design Culture Now: National Design Triennial. New York: Princeton Architectural Press and Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2000. Read more →
Rough Ideas: New Design from Israel
“Rough Ideas: New Design from Israel,” (excerpt), essay by Ellen Lupton, published in New Design from Israel. New York: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2006. Published in conjunction with the exhibition Solos: New Design from Israel, 2006. Read more →
Deconstruction and Graphic Design
Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller. Published in special issue of Visible Language on graphic design history, edited by Andrew Blauvelt (1994). This is an earlier version of the essay “Deconstruction and Graphic Design,” published in our book Design Writing Research.
Critical Wayfinding
“Critical Wayfinding,” essay by Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, published in The Edge of the Millennium,. ed. Susan Yelavich. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1993. 220-232. Read more →
How Books are Sold
“How Books are Sold.” Essay by Ellen Lupton, posted on AIGA Voice, April 4, 2006.
Writing 101
“Writing 101: Visual or Verbal.” Posted to AIGA Voice, January 2009. Read more →
Important Artifacts (book review)
Book review for I.D. (International Design) Magazine, 2009. Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry. A novel by Leane Shapton. New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2009. Read more →
Why Collaborate?
Essay, 2005. Read more →
Wild, Lorraine (interview)
Interview, Lorraine Wild with Ellen Lupton, July 1, 1994. An edited version of this interview appears in the book Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.
Modern Design Theory
“Writing Lessons: Modern Design Theory,” unpublished essay by Ellen Lupton, written for graduate seminar taught by Rosemary Bletter, City University of New York Graduate Center, 1988.
Reskilling the Art Student
“The Reskilling of the American Art Student.” Essay by Ellen Lupton, filed in Voice: AIGA Journal of Design, March 29, 2005.
Savage Diary
Unpublished essay, written for a graduate seminar at University of Baltimore with Stuart Moulthrop, 2003. A mother thinks about theories of literacy and representation in the digital age while observing her tween-age son work and play with media.
Skin: New Design Organics
“Skin: New Design Organics,” essay by Ellen Lupton, published in Ellen Lupton, Skin: Surface, Substance and Design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. Book published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2002.
Does That Look Green to You?
Essay, 2009. Read more →
About
Ellen Lupton is a writer, curator, and graphic designer. She is director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, where she also serves as director of the Center for Design Thinking. As curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum since 1992, she has produced numerous exhibitions and books, including Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office (1993), Mixing Messages: Graphic Design and Contemporary Culture (1996), Letters from the Avant-Garde (1996), and Skin: Surface, Substance + Design (2002).
Her book Thinking with Type (2004) is a basic guide to typography directed at everyone who works with words. D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself (2006), co-authored with her graduate students at MICA, explains design processes to a general audience. D.I.Y. Kids (October 2007), co-authored with Julia Lupton, is a design book for children illustrated with kids’ art. The Lupton twins’ latest book is Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things (St Martin’s Griffin, 2009).
Other books include Graphic Design: The New Basics (with Jennifer Cole Phillips, 2008) and Indie Publishing: How to Design and Produce Your Own Book (2008). She is the co-author with Abbott Miller of several books, including The Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste (1992), Design Writing Research (1996), and Swarm (2006).
Lupton is a 2007 recipient of the AIGA Gold Medal, one of the highest honors given to a graphic designer or design educator in the U.S.
Ellen Lupton has contributed to various design magazines, including Print, Eye, I.D., and Metropolis. She has a regular column, “The El Word,” in Readymade magazine. Her editorial illustrations have been published in The New York Times. A frequent lecturer around the U.S. and the world, Lupton will speak about design to anyone who will listen.
Other exhibitions she has curated and co-curated include the National Design Triennial series (2000, 2003, 2006), Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005 (2006), Solos: New Design from Israel (2006), and Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age (1999), all at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
· Download CV (Word), updated May 13, 2008
· Ellen Lupton, AIGA Medalist Gallery
· Interview, Ellen Lupton with Jon Mueller on Indie Publishing, 2009
· Interview, Ellen Lupton with Jean-Christophe Loubet, Planet Typography, 2007
· Interview, Ellen Lupton with Jean-Christophe Loubet on Planet Typography, 2007 (French)
· Interview, Ellen Lupton with Nicole Bearman and Gabrielle Eade, 2007
· Interview, Ellen Lupton with Lawrie Hunter, 2006
· Interview, Ellen Lupton with Steven Heller, 1998
Ellen Lupton, 2009. Photo by Michelle Qureshi.
Julia, Mary Jane, and Ellen Lupton, 2008. Photo by Ken Baldwin.
The Producers
“The Producers,” essay by Ellen Lupton, published in Ellen Lupton, Susan Yelavich, Donald Albrecht, and Mitch Owen, Inside Design Now: National Design Triennial, 2003. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2003. T-shirt by Geoff McFetridge.
Underground Matriarchy
“Underground Matriarchy in Graphic Design,” essay by Laurie Haycock Makela and Ellen Lupton, published in Eye magazine, 1994. Read more →
Women Graphic Designers
Excerpt from essay by Ellen Lupton from Pat Kirkham, ed. Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000. London: Yale University Press, 2000. Read more →
Woodward, Fred
Interview, magazine designer Fred Woodward with Ellen Lupton. Conversation, June 6, 1996. Unpublished. Read more →
Zukin, Sharon
Interview, “Shopping with Sharon Zukin,” interviewed by Ellen Lupton for I.D. magazine, 2005. Zukin is author of Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture (New York: Routledge: 2004). Read more →
Bierut, Michael
Interview, Ellen Lupton with Michael Bierut, June 16, 1994. Unpublished. Read more →
Design Your Life
Design Your Life, by Ellen and Julia Lupton, is a series of irreverent snapshots about design and everyday life. Design Your Life casts a sharp eye on everything from roller bags, bras, porches, and stuffed animals to parenting, piles, and potted plants. The book is illustrated throughout with original paintings of objects both ordinary and odd.