Ellen Lupton
Encyclopedia
Ellen Lupton was born in 1963, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ellen Lupton is a graphic designer, writer, curator, and educator. Well known for her fascination and study within "typography", Lupton decided to expand her love for design, and later took on the graphic design world. Lupton is the curator of contemporary design at "Cooper-Hewitt", National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore.
. By accepting the position, she was able to take her love of typography, writing, and design and combine them all together. While working at the Herb Lubalin Study Center, Lupton was able to put her creations on display for the public to see. These exhibitions provided another arena in which objects, images and text functioned as both the method of communication and the subject of inquiry
at Maryland Institute College of Art
(MICA): "In 1997, I was invited to run the graphic design program at Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, a big, tough city that is two hours by train from New York. Baltimore is my hometown, and a fun place to live. Cooper-Hewitt has allowed me to live in Baltimore for the past ten years and continue as a part-time curator."
Lupton described the evolution of her own career like this:
Her exhibitions have included: Mechanical Brides in 1993; Mixing Messages in 1996; Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age in 1999; Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial in 2000, 2003 and 2006; Skin: Surface, Substance + Design in 2002; Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table in 2006; and Solos: New Design from Israel in 2006.
Ellen features in the film "Roll Up Your Sleeves
", directed by Dylan Haskins
in 2008.
, a partner in the New York office of the international design firm Pentagram
. Together Ellen and Abbott live in Baltimore and have two children, Jay and Ruby.
Early Career
In 1981, Lupton started out as an Art major at Cooper Union College. During the 1980's, design, in particular digital design, wasn't as popular as we know it to be today. The visual art of writing was an inspiration to a self-professed “art girl” who came from a family of English teachers. When Lupton graduated college, she was offered a position at Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography; inspired and created by Herb LubalinHerb Lubalin
Herbert F. Lubalin was a prominent American graphic designer. He collaborated with Ralph Ginzburg on three of Ginzburg's magazines: Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde, and was responsible for the creative visual beauty of these publications...
. By accepting the position, she was able to take her love of typography, writing, and design and combine them all together. While working at the Herb Lubalin Study Center, Lupton was able to put her creations on display for the public to see. These exhibitions provided another arena in which objects, images and text functioned as both the method of communication and the subject of inquiry
Career
Since 1997 Lupton has also been the director of the Master of Fine Art program in graphic designGraphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
at Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art is an art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the first and oldest art colleges in the United States. In 2008, MICA was ranked #2 in the nation...
(MICA): "In 1997, I was invited to run the graphic design program at Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, a big, tough city that is two hours by train from New York. Baltimore is my hometown, and a fun place to live. Cooper-Hewitt has allowed me to live in Baltimore for the past ten years and continue as a part-time curator."
D.I.Y Method
After Ellen Lupton graduated from college in 1985, her drive for changing the commercial art world took a change for the best. Lupton graduated with a degree in typography and later sought to follow within the field of design. “Graphic design was a revelation to me,” says Lupton. “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.”Lupton described the evolution of her own career like this:
Her exhibitions have included: Mechanical Brides in 1993; Mixing Messages in 1996; Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age in 1999; Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial in 2000, 2003 and 2006; Skin: Surface, Substance + Design in 2002; Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table in 2006; and Solos: New Design from Israel in 2006.
Ellen features in the film "Roll Up Your Sleeves
Roll Up Your Sleeves
Roll Up Your Sleeves is an Irish documentary about do-it-yourself counterculture directed by Dylan Haskins. It also examines the relationship between DIY culture and the need for autonomous social spaces, looking at various projects across Europe and how these compare with the situation in...
", directed by Dylan Haskins
Dylan Haskins
Dylan Haskins is an Irish broadcaster and social entrepreneur.Haskins first became known as a proponent of the DIY ethic in Ireland for his work on several projects initiated as a teenager, including the establishment of all ages, non-alcohol spaces in north Wicklow and Dublin.He has since become...
in 2008.
Personal Life
Lupton is married to J. Abbott MillerJ. Abbott Miller
J. Abbott Miller or Abbott Miller was born in Indiana and studied at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. Miller is a graphic designer and writer. He is a partner in the New York office of the design firm Pentagram. He edits 2wice magazine...
, a partner in the New York office of the international design firm Pentagram
Pentagram (design studio)
Pentagram is a design studio that was founded in 1972 by Alan Fletcher, Theo Crosby, Colin Forbes, Kenneth Grange and Mervyn Kurlansky in Needham Road, West London, UK...
. Together Ellen and Abbott live in Baltimore and have two children, Jay and Ruby.
Exhibitions at the Cooper-Hewitt curated by Lupton
- Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office, August 17, 1993 to January 2, 1994.
- Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, February 9, 1999 through May 23, 1999.
- National Design Triennial: Design Culture Now, March 7, 2000 through August 6, 2000.
- Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design, May 7, 2002 through September 15, 2002.
- National Design Triennial: Inside Design Now, April 22, 2003 through January 25, 2004.
- Solos: New Design from Israel , January 27, 2006 through April 16, 2006.
- Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005, May 5, 2006 through October 29, 2006.
- Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006, December 8, 2006 through July 29, 2007.
Books
- Indie Publishing, Princeton Architectural PressPrinceton Architectural PressPrinceton Architectural Press is a leading publisher of architecture and design books, with over 500 titles on its backlist. It was founded in 1981 by Kevin Lippert in Princeton, NJ and moved to New York City in 1985. Since 1996, Princeton Architectural Press has been distributed in the...
. (ISBN 978-1-56898-760-6) - Design Writing Research, Phaidon PressPhaidon PressPhaidon Press is a British publisher of books on the visual arts, including art, architecture, photography, and design worldwide.As of 2009, Phaidon's headquarters are in London, UK, though they were in Oxford for many years, with offices in New York City, Paris, Berlin, Milan, and Tokyo...
. (ISBN 978-0-7148-3851-9) - D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself, Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. (ISBN 978-1-56898-552-7)
- Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Princeton Architectural Press, 2004. (ISBN 978-1-56898-448-3)
- Skin: Surface, Substance, Design, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. (ISBN 978-1-56898-711-8)
- Graphic Design: The New Basics (Co-authored by Jennifer Cole Phillips) (ISBN 978-1-56898-770-5)
- D.I.Y.: Kids (Co-authored by Julia Lupton) (ISBN 978-1-56898-707-1)
- Mixing Messages (ISBN 978-1-56898-099-7)
- The ABC's of Bauhaus, the Bauhaus and Design Theory (ISBN 978-1-878271-42-6)
See also
- Cooper-Hewitt, National Design MuseumCooper-Hewitt, National Design MuseumCooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum, a subsidiary of the Smithsonian Institution, is the United States' national museum of design history and contemporary design and the only museum in the U.S. whose collection is solely focused on contemporary and historic design...
- Maryland Institute College of ArtMaryland Institute College of ArtMaryland Institute College of Art is an art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the first and oldest art colleges in the United States. In 2008, MICA was ranked #2 in the nation...
- List of AIGA medalists
- First Things First 2000 manifestoFirst things first 2000 ManifestoThe First Things First 2000 manifesto, launched by Adbusters magazine in 1999, was an updated version of the earlier First Things First manifesto written and published in 1964 by Ken Garland, a British designer....
- EmigreEmigre magazineEmigre was a graphic design magazine published by Emigre Graphics between 1984 and 2005; it was first published in 1984 in San Francisco, California, USA...
51: First Things First, 1999.