Essay of the Month: Birth of the User, 2004

The dominant subject of our age has become neither reader nor writer but user, a figure conceived as a bundle of needs and impairments—cognitive, physical, emotional. Like a patient or child, the user is a figure to be protected and cared for but also scrutinized and controlled, submitted to research and testing. ...read more…

Sexy Librarian

I just published my first novel! (No, I didn’t write it, I published it.) Sexy Librarian is written by Julia Weist, an artist, writer, and librarian. I met her last year at an exhibition at Cooper Union, where she displayed a series of rejection letters for a novel she was writing ...read more…

GD MFA Program at MICA

The Graphic Design MFA program at MICA is a two-year program for advanced design students leading to a terminal degree. Visit micadesign.org to see what’s going on in the program. Spring 2008 semester is underway. Ellen Lupton, director; Jennifer Cole Phillips, associate director.

Ellen and Abbott's House on Design Sponge

Our Bolton Hill house is featured on Grace Bonney’s Design Sponge, my favorite trend-spotting design blog.

Typography I, Fall 2007

2008 Word Book calendar, produced by Ellen’s Typography I class,
is now available. Purchase online or download for free from Lulu.com.
Ellen’s students: you can buy it from me in class.
Cover design by Ben Levy.

Participate: Designing with Materials

Participate in our new book! Publish your work and your students’ work! Contribute to the design discourse! Product designer Inna Alesina and design writer Ellen Lupton are producing a new book, Designing with Materials, aimed at college-level design students and working professionals. ...read more…

Recent Books

Thinking with Type is a critical guide to typography, intended for use by anyone who works with words (2004). · Buy the book · ThinkingWithType.com

D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself is a design guide for everyone, written and designed with MICA MFA students (2006). · Buy the book · Make your own D.I.Y. exhibition

D.I.Y. Kids, by Ellen and Julia Lupton, is a design book for children illustrated with kids’ art (2007), · Buy the book · DIYKids.org · Ruby’s Magnet World · T-shirts by Ellen and Kids

My New Logo

Check out my new logo, created by the great Peter Cho. (It sits there politely, until you stroke it with your mouse.) Peter created this as a part of a fundraiser he’s doing for Telic Arts Exchange. Wow! That’s the best “donor opportunity” I ever saw.