Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton is a graphic designer, writer, curator and educator.

Lupton described the evolution of her own career like this: "I studied design and art in the early 1980s at The Cooper Union in New York City. When I graduated, I was invited to run a small design gallery inside the school. I did that for seven years. I was a do-it-yourself curator, hanging my own shows, keeping the windows clean, trimming the labels. At the same time, I was publishing a lot, building a reputation as a writer and critic. In 1992, I was offered a ‘real job’ at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, also in New York City. Now, I had the opportunity to create much larger exhibitions for a bigger public. Each exhibition has been accompanied by a sturdy exhibition catalogue and ambitious public programming." [1]

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. [2] [3]

Since 1997 Lupton has also been the director of the Master of Fine Art program in graphic design 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." [4]

[edit] 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. [5]
• National Design Triennial: Design Culture Now, March 7, 2000 through August 6, 2000. [6]
• 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. [7]
• Solos: New Design from Israel , January 27, 2006 through April 16, 2006. [8]
• Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005, May 5, 2006 through October 29, 2006. [9]
• Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006, December 8, 2006 through July 29, 2007. [10]

[edit] Books

• Design Writing Research, Phaidon Press. (ISBN 978-0714838519)
• D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself, Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. (ISBN 978-1568985527)
• Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Princeton Architectural Press, 2004. (ISBN 978-1568984483)
• Skin: Surface, Substance, Design, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. (ISBN 978-1568987118)
• Graphic Design: The New Basics (Co-authored by Jennifer Cole Phillips ) (ISBN 978-1568987705)
• D.I.Y.: Kids (Co-authored by Julia Lupton) (ISBN 978-1568987071)
• Mixing Messages (ISBN 978-1568980997)
• The ABC's of Bauhaus, the Bauhaus and Design Theory (ISBN 978-1878271426)

[edit] See also

• List of AIGA medalists
• First Things First 2000 manifesto
• Emigre 51: First Things First, 1999. [11]

[edit] References

• Online biography [12]