BFA, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and
Art, 1985 Doctorate in Communication Design (DCD), University of Baltimore, 2008
CURATOR OF CONTEMPORARY DESIGN
COOPER HEWITT, SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM
Exhibitions, 1992–2023
Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics, 2021–2023. Curated with MASS Design Group
Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master, 2019–2020
Face Values: Understanding A.I., 2019–2020
The Senses: Design
Beyond Vision, 2018. Co-curated with Andrea Lipps.
Beauty—Cooper
Hewitt Design Triennial, 2016. Co-curated
with Andrea Lipps. Travel to San Jose Art Museum, Fall/Winter 2016–17.
How
Posters Work, 2015. Organized with Caitlin Condell. Travel to Milwaukee
Museum of Art, Spring 2017.
Beautiful
Users, 2014. Traveled to Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA), Fall 2016.
Graphic
Design: Now in Production, 2012. Curated with Andrew Blauvelt, Walker Art
Center.
Why
Design Now? National Design Triennial. 2010. Co-curated with Matilda
McQuaid, Cara McCarty, and Cynthia Smith.
Rococo:
The Continuing Curve, 1734–2008. Spring 2008. Co-curated with Sarah Coffin,
Gail Davidson, and Penelope Hunter-Stiebel..
Design
Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006. December 8, 2006-July 29, 2007. Co-curated with Barbara Bloemink,
Brooke Hodge, and Matilda McQuaid.
Second
Skin. Presented at Entry 2006, Essen, Germany, August 27–December 3, 2006..
Produced by Vitra Design Museum.
Feeding
Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005, May–October, 2006.
The evolution of dining through the design of flatware.
Solos:
New Design from Israel, January–April 2006. Survey of experimental objects
and furniture created in Israel.
National
Design Triennial: Inside Design Now. April 2003-January 2004. Co-curated with Susan Yelavich, Donald Albrecht, and Mitchell Owens.
Skin:
Surface, Substance and Design. May-September, 2002. Looks at the convergence
of natural and artificial life as seen in contemporary furniture, fashion,
architecture, and media.
National
Design Triennial. March-August 2000. Review of recent developments in
architecture, graphic design, and product design, co-curated with Donald Albrecht
and Steven Skov Holt.
Graphic
Design in the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection.
Winter 1999. Organized in association with Williams College Museum of Art.
Mixing
Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture. Fall, 1996/Winter 1997.
Critical survey of graphic design in the United States between 1980 and 1995,
focusing on aesthetic, cultural, and technological changes.
The
Avant-Garde Letterhead. Spring, 1996. Organized by the National Design
Museum and presented at the national headquarters of the American Institute of
Graphic Arts in New York. Co-curated with Elaine Lustig Cohen.
Elaine
Lustig Cohen, Modern Graphic Designer (February 7 – May 23, 1995).
Monographic exhibition on a designer active in the 1950s and 60s.
Living
with AIDS: Education through Design (December 1, 1993 - January 2, 1994). A
national survey of contemporary AIDS posters addressed to diverse audiences,
including women, children, people of color, and straight and gay men.
Mechanical
Brides: Women and Machines, from Home to Office (August 1993 – January
1994). An exhibition about the design and representation of objects which have
been central to women’s work in the twentieth century, including the telephone,
typewriter, washing machine, and electric iron. The exhibition travelled to the
Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, Spring 1994.
GRADAUTE FACULTY, GRAPHIC DESIGN MFA PROGRAM MARYLAND INSTITUTE COLLEGE OF ART
2003-present
I launched a graduate program at Maryland Institute College
of Art in Baltimore (MICA) in 2003. I served as chair of the undergraduate
program from 1997-2002.
PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS
Herbert Bayer: Process and Inspiration in Design. Moleskine Books, 2020.
Health Design Thinking: Creating Products and Services for Better Health. Co-authored with Bon Ku, MD. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and MIT Press, 2020.
Design Is Storytelling. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2017.
The
Senses: Design Beyond Vision. Edited with Andrea Lipps. Cooper-Hewitt,
Smithsonian Design Museum and Princeton Architectural Press, 2018.
Design
Is Storytelling. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2017.
Beauty—Cooper
Hewitt Design Triennial. Andrea Lipps and Ellen Lupton. New York: Cooper
Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2016.
How
Posters Work. Ellen Lupton. New York: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design
Museum, 2105.
Beautiful Users: Designing for People.
Princeton Architectural Press and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum,
2014.
Type on Screen: A Guide for Designers,
Developers, Editors, and Students. Edited by Ellen Lupton. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 2014.
Graphic Design: Now in Production.
Edited by Andrew Blauvelt and Ellen Lupton. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center,
2012.
Thinking
with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students,
Revised and Expanded Second Edition. New York: Princeton Architectural
Press, 2010.
Exploring Materials: Creative Design for
Everyday Objects. Co-authored with Inna Alesina. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press, 2010.
Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils
of Everyday Things. Co-authored with Julia Lupton. New York: St Martins
Press, 2009.
Indie Publishing: How to Design and Produce
Your Own Book. Edited by Ellen Lupton. MICA and Princeton Architectural
Press, 2008.
Graphic Design: The New Basics.
Co-authored with Jennifer Cole Phillips. Princeton Architectural Press and
Maryland Institute College of Art, 2008.
D.I.Y.
Kids. Co-authored with Julia Lupton. Princteon Architectural Press, 2007.
Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the
Table, 1500–2005. Cooper-Hewitt,
National Design Museum and Assouline, 2006. Co-edited with Sarah Coffin
and Darra Goldstein.
Solos: New Design from Israel.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2006. Co-authored with Ezri Tarazi.
D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself. Princeton
Architectural Press, 2006.
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for
Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students. Princeton Architectural Press,
2004.
Inside
Design Now: National Design Triennial. Princeton Architectural Press with
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2003. Co-authored with Susan Yelavich,
Donald Albrecht, and Mitchell Owens.
Skin:
Surface, Substance and Design. Princeton Architectural Press with
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2002.
Design
Culture Now: National Design Triennial. Co-authored with Donald Albrecht
and Steven Skov Holt. New York: Princeton Architectural Press with
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2000.
Graphic
Design in the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection.Co-authored with Deborah Rothschild and Darra Goldstein. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1998.
Mixing
Messages: Graphic Design and Contemporary Culture. New York: Cooper-Hewitt,
National Design Museum and Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. Edition for
Europe and Asia published by Thames & Hudson, London.
Design
Writing Research: Writing on Graphic Design. Co-authored with J. Abbott Miller. New York: Kiosk/Princeton Architectural
Press, 1996.
Letters
from the Avant-Garde: Modern Graphic Design. Co-authored with Elaine Lustig
Cohen. New York: Kiosk/Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.
Mechanical
Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office. New York: Cooper-Hewitt,
National Design Museum and Princeton Architectural Press, 1993.
The
Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste, A Process of Elimination.Co-authored with J. Abbott Miller. New York and Cambridge: MIT List Visual Arts Center and Princeton Architectural
Press, 1992.
Graphic
Design and Typography in the Netherlands: A View of Recent Work, New York:
The Cooper Union and Princeton Architectural Press, 1992.
The
Bauhaus and Design Theory. Co-edited with J. Abbott Miller. New York: The
Cooper Union and Princeton Architectural Press, 1991. Edition for Europe and
Asia published by Thames and Hudson, London.
INDEPENDENT CURATOR
Framing the Art of
Jewelry, August 2007. “Exhibition in Print” for Metalsmith magazine, the publication of the Society of North
American Goldsmiths. Exhibition held at SOFA/Chicago (2007) and Museum of
Contemporary Crafts, Portland, OR (2008).
Swarm, December 2005–March 2006. The
Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. Works of contemporary art and design
that reflect the logic of the swarm (simple structures yielding complexity).
Comfort
Zone. January-April 2002. The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia.
Exhibition of portable fabric structures by contemporary artists and designers,
responding to human needs for comfort, safety, escape, and survival.
The
Process of Elimination: The Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste.
May-August 1992. MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge. Co-curated with J.
Abbott Miller. This exhibition looked at the history of the American bathroom
and kitchen, 1890-1940, in relation to the rise of a consumer economy.
CURATOR, THE COOPER UNION
July 1985 – February 1992, Curator of the Herb Lubalin Study
Center of Design and Typography, The Cooper Union. At the Lubalin Center, I
organized exhibitions and related publications on graphic design, including the
following:
Graphic Design in the Netherlands: A View
of Recent Work. January 1992. Exhibition of posters, books, stamps, and
corporate identity by emerging Dutch designers.
The
Bauhaus and Design Theory, from Preschool to Post-Modernism. April 1991.
Co-curated with J. Abbott Miller.
Dennis
Livingston: Social Graphics. October 1990. The information graphics of a
social activist.
Writing
and the Body. April 1990. Curated with three design students, who examined
the history of writing, sign language for the deaf, and AIDS in advertising.
Anthon
Beeke’s Stage: Holland’s Illusionist Poster Designer. February 1990.
Posters, magazines, and other graphics from the 1970s and 80s.
Numbers.September 1989. Co-curated with Alan Wolf, professor of physics. The culture
and science of numbers.
MIT/Casey.
April 1989. Work by a prominent American modernist working from the 1960s
through the 80s.
Period
Styles: A History of Punctuation. March 1988. A typographic, grammatical,
and literary history.
Global
Signage: Semiotics and the Language of International Pictures. March 1986.
The history and theory of modern pictographic sign systems.
PUBLICATIONS: ESSAYS (selected)
“In Praise
of the Broken Home.” NYTimes.com,
2010.
“How to Lose a Legacy.” NYTimes.com, 2010.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/how-to-lose-a-legacy/
“The Modern Kitchen (Again).”
Metropolis. 2010.
“Helvetica:
The Movie.” Review in Metropolis,
2007.
“Petra
Blaisse: Inside/Outside.” Review in I.D.magazine, 2007.
“Deconstructing Kitchens.” Dwell, 2001.
“Profile: Carin Goldberg.” Graphis, 2001.
“Power Tools: The Electric Knife.”
In Stud, collection of essays on
design, architecture, and masculinity, edited by Joel Sanders. New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.
“Graphic Design and Cultural
Identity.” In Graphic Design USA. New
York: American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1995.
“The Flesh of the Word: Profile of
Johanna Drucker.” Eye (1995).
“Book Review: Modern Typography: An
Essay in Critical History, by Robin Kinross.” Statements 10, 1 (Winter 1995): 14-16.
“Book Review: Fellow Readers: Notes
on Multiplied Language, by Robin Kinross.” I.D.42, 3 (May/June 1995): 96.
“Deconstruction and Graphic Design:
History Meets Theory.” With J. Abbott Miller. In special issue of Visible Language on graphic design
history, edited by Andrew Blauvelt (1994).
“Neo-Ego: The Underground Matriarchy
in Graphic Design.” With Laurie Haycock Makela. Eye (1994).
“A Post-Mortem on Deconstruction?” AIGA Journal of Graphic Design 12, 2
(1994): 24-26.
“Design as Research.” Co-authored
with J. Abbott Miller. In The IOO Show:
The Sixteenth Annual of the American Center for Design. Chicago: American
Center for Design, 1994. 7-14.
“Case Study House: Comfort and
Convenience.” With Jane Murphy.
Assemblage 24 (1994): :86-89. Special issue on House Rules exhibition,
Wexner Center, Ohio State University; curated by Mark Robbins.
“Critical Wayfinding.” Co-authored
with J. Abbott Miller. In The Edge of the
Millennium: An International Critique of Architecture, Urban Planning, Product
and Communication Design. Ed. Susan Yelavich. New York: Whitney Library of
Design, 1993. 220-232.
“Hygiene, Cuisine, and the Product
World of Early Twentieth-Century America.” Co-authored with J. Abbott Miller. Zone 6: Incorporations. Ed. Jonathon
Crary and Sanford Kwinter. New York: Zone Books, 1992.
“Archives and Collections: The Herb
Lubalin Study Center, New York.” Journal
of Design History 5, 1 (1992): 91-93.
“American Graphic Design,
1829-1989.” Co-authored with J. Abbott Miller. In Graphic Design in America, A Visual Language History. Ed.
Mildred Friedman. New York: Harry Abrams, 1989.
“Line Art: Andy Warhol and the
Commercial Art World of the 1950s.” With J. Abbott Miller. In Success is a Job in New York: The Early Art and Business of Andy
Warhol. Exhibition catalogue. Ed. Donna de Salvo. New York: Grey Art
Gallery, 1989.
“Reading Isotype.” In Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism.
Ed. Victor Margolin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
“Cranbrook: The Academy of
Deconstruction.” Eye: International
Magazine of Graphic Design. Vol. 2 No. 1 (1991).
“Type Writing: Structuralism and
Typography.” Co-authored with J. Abbott Miller. Emigre (Fall 1990).
“Period Styles: A History of
Punctuation.” AIGA Journal of Graphic
Design. Vol. 6 No. 4 (1989).
“1970s: Age of the Sign.” Print 43, 6 (December 1989):138-161.
Design Papers 5:
Rhetorical Handbook. Co-authored with Hanno Ehses. Halifax: Nova Scotia
College of Art and Design, 1988.
“The Mystique of Visual Language.” AIGA Journal of Graphic Design. Vol. 5 No. 3 (1987).
LECTURES (selected)
“Graphic Design Thinking,” four
lectures in Brazil (Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Porto Alegre), 2016
“Design for the Senses,” UC
Berkeley, Jacobs Institute for Innovation, 2016
“Design, Storytelling, and the
Senses,” TYPO Conference, San Francisco, 2015
“Graphic Design and Cognition,” UC
Berkeley, Berkeley CA, 2014
“Graphic Design—Now in Production,”
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, 2014
“Designer as Author: Autobiography
of an Idea.” Keynote address at aTypi Conference, Dublin, 2010.
“Design as
Problem Solving.” Keynote address, Creativity and Problem Solving Conference
for art educators, Guggenheim Museum, New York, June 2010.
“Designer
as Author.” Malloy Lecture, Skidmore College, 2010.
“Details,
Details.” Keynote address, University and College Designers Association
conference, Savannah, 2008.
“The DIY
Debate.” The Cooper Union Interdisciplinary Seminar, 2008.
“Design Tantrum.” University of
Michigan, Penny Stamps Lecture Series, September 2007. Also delivered at
Virginia Commonwealth University, North Carolina State University, George Mason
University, and University of Maryland, 2008.
“Blogfest.”
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2007.
“D.I.Y.: Be
Your Own Brand, Design Your Own Lifestyle.” Museum of Arts and Design, New
York, 2007.
“Raw Type.”
Society of Publication Designers, New York City, 2006.
“Univers
Strikes Back.” Atypi international conference, Portugal, 2006.
“Crimes
Against Typography.” AIGA National Conference, Boston, 2006.
“Skin: Surface, Substance and
Design.” School of the Art Institute, Chicago, 2001; American Institute of
Architects/BMA, 2001; School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 2001; Nova Scotia
College of Art and Design, 2001; and other venues.
“Liquid Typography: Design Culture
Now.” MIT Media Lab, October 1999; University of Michigan, 2000; and various
other venues.
“Idioms of Production.” Delivered
at symposium Graphic Design in the Post-Mechanical Age, organized by
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (April 1999). Also at Bard Center for
Graduate Studies in Design and Decorative Arts, New York City, 2001; Akron
Museum of Art, 2001; Victoria and Albert Museum, 1998; and other venues.
“The Avant-Garde Letterhead.”
Delivered at Modernism and Eclecticism 9 (School of Visual Arts, February 1996)
and the AIGA.
“Design as Research: New Models of
Practice and Education.” Delivered at University of Michigan School of Art
(March 1996) and Cranbrook Academy of Art (March 1996).
“Mixing Messages: Graphic Design
and Cultural Identity.” Modernism and Eclecticism 8, conference at School of
Visual Arts, February 1995.
“Good Housekeeping: Design and
Domestic Technology.” Yale University, School of Architecture. February 1995.
“Mechanical Brides: Women and
Machines, from Home to Office.” I have lectured on this research at Princeton
University, School of Architecture (March 1994), TED5, Monterey (February
1994), Massachusetts College of Art, Boston (October 1993), University of
Maryland, Baltimore Campus (October 1993), Architectural League, New York
(October 1993), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (October 1993), AIA,
New York (April 1993), Ohio StateUniversity (March 1993), Washington University
(March 1993), School of Visual Arts Modernism and Eclecticism 7 conference
(February 1993), and UC Irvine (November 1992).
“The Legacy of the Bauhaus in
American Graphic Design.” Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, seminar on the
Bauhaus in America, October 1994.
“Low and High: Design and Everyday
Life.” Modernism and Eclecticism 6 conference, School of Visual Arts, February
1992. Talk also given at North Carolina State University, March 1992.
“Critical Wayfinding.” With J.
Abbott Miller. Edge of the Millennium conference, Cooper-Hewitt, National
Design Museum. February 1992.
“The Process of Elimination: The
Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste.” Lectures on this research
were given at Whitney Museum of American Art/Equitable Center (July 1992), UCLA
(November 1991), SUNY Purchase (April 1991), UC Irvine (February 1991), SUNY
Buffalo (October 1990), and Johns Hopkins University (October 1989).
“The Politics of Vision.” With J.
Abbott Miller. AIGA National Conference, Chicago. October 1991.
“Glancing at the News: A Brief
History of News Graphics.” Broadcast Design Association National Conference,
Baltimore. June 1991.
“Shelf Life: A Cultural History of
Packaged Food.” Modernism and Eclecticism 5 conference, School of Visual Arts.
February 1990.
“Designing History: American
Graphic Design, 1829-1989.” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. October 1990.
“Contemporary American Typography.”
Toyo School of Art, Tokyo. July 1989.
“Non-Verbal Agreements: Theory and
Modern Graphic Design.” Yale University, Department of Art History and School
of Art. February 1989.
“Global Signage: The International
Hieroglyph and Modern Graphic Design.” MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge.
September 1986.
ARTICLES/PRESS COVERAGE (selected)
“Kicking the Tires.” Profile of Ellen
Lupton by Penelope Greens, New York Times, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/garden/21lupton.html
Critical reviews and feature
articles about the exhibition National
Design Triennial: Why Design Now? have appeared in numerous publications,
including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Design Observer.
Critical reviews and feature
articles on the exhibition National
Design Triennial: Design Culture Now have appeared in The New York Times,
New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Enquirer, The Los
Angeles Times, I.D. (2000), and other publications.
Critical reviews and feature
articles on the exhibition Mixing
Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture have appeared in The New
York Times (September 1996), New York Magazine (September 1996), San Francisco
Chronicle (September 1996), I.D. (September 1996), House Beautiful (September
1996), and other publications.
A feature article on the exhibitionThe Avant-Garde Letterhead appeared
in The New York Times (March 1996).
Critical reviews of the book Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic
Design have appeared in I.D., Eye, Blueprint, and other publications.
Feature articles on the exhibition Elaine Lustig Cohen,
Modern Graphic Designer have appeared in design journals including I.D., Eye,
and Blueprint.
Critical reviews and feature
articles on Mechanical Brides: Women and
Machines from Home to Office appeared in The New York Times (December 19,
August 22, August 20, and August 12, 1993); The Village Voice (August 31,
1993); The Philadelphia Inquirer (September 17, 1993); New York Magazine
(September 6, 1993); Art in America (December 1993); Working Woman (September
1993); Vogue (August 1993), Blueprint (October 1993); Design Book Review
(Winter/Spring 1995); The Journal of Design History 7, 1 (1994); The Journal of
Architectural Historians, and other newspapers and magazines. Features were
broadcast on CNN, CBS Evening News, and National Public Radio.
Reviews of the book The Bathroom, the Kitchen and the Aesthetics
of Waste have appeared in Martha Stewart Living (February/March 1993),
Metropolis, and The Winterthur Portfolio.
Critical reviews of
The Bauhaus and Design Theory have appeared in Eye and in Design Book Review 25
(Summer 1992): 61-63.
“Works in Progress: Ellen Lupton.”
Andrew Olds, I.D. Magazine (May/June 1991).
“The Bauhaus Style: Roots and
Branch to be Shown.” Carol Vogel, The New York Times (March 15, 1991).
Reviews of the exhibition and book Graphic Design in America (Walker Art
Center) which specifically referred to our catalogue essay include “MassComm
101: The Media vs. Modernism,” Peter Plagens, Newsweek (November 27, 1989);
“Graphic Design in America,” Johanna Drucker, Artforum (March 1990); and
“Living by Design,” Stewart Ewen, Art in America (June 1990).
“A History of Punctuation.” Karrie
Jacobs, Metropolis (April 1988).
“The Pauses—,;:?!—That Refresh.”
Richard F. Shepard. The New York Times (March 23, 1988). Review of Period
Styles: A History of Punctuation.
PROFESSIONAL AWARDS AND ACTIVITIES
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, inducted 2019
Alliance Graphique
Internationale (AGI), inducted 2016
AIGA Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement, 2007
Recipient, Iris Award for History of Decorative Arts, 1999
AIGA Fifty Books/Fifty Covers award, for Design Culture Now,
2000
AIGA Fifty Books/Fifty Covers award, for Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age, 1999
I.D. Magazine Distinction Award, packaging category, for
Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age, 1999
First place, American Association of Museums publication
design award, for Graphic Design in the
Mechanical Age, 1999
Norton Family Foundation’s Curator’s Grant, $50,000 grant
for exhibition development, 1997
Winner, 1996 New York Magazine Award, given to 10 New
Yorkers who are shaping the life of the city
Recipient of the Chrysler Design Award, with J. Abbott Miller,
1993.
American Institute of Graphic Arts, National Board of
Directors, 1992 - 1995
Panelist, New York State Council on the Arts, 1994 to the
present
Juror, Architectural League’s Young Architects Competition,
1995
Winner, Best of Show award, Aldus Magazine annual design
competition, 1994 for design of book The IOO Show
Chair, American Center for Design “100 Show,” 1993
CARGO COLLECTIVE, INC. LOS ANGELES, CALIF. 90039—3414