Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton



Is a graphic designer, critic, theorist, educator and curator. She has written several books and is said to have pioneered the era of ‘designer as author’.
Her writing in books like “Thinking with Type” and “Design your life” is described as follows - "Lucid, sophisticated and free from jargon, her words continue to define the territory of graphic design after deconstruction—using theory not just as a collection of footnotes or an intellectual endgame, but also as a way to bring critical reflection into everyday practice. “ (Katherine Feo)


Her approach to design is quite democratic. She is interested in bringing design techniques and tools to a larger audience. Her book “D.I.Y.: Design it yourself” aims to empower non-designers with design skills.
She also embraces populist forms of social media such as blogs, open source software and DIY magazines, “which work towards making design literacy part of mainstream culture and reflect her own desire to make design a less exclusive club and to empower non designers with design skills”

Lupton states "I tell my students to think more, design less. They need to focus on ideas and concepts. There is a tendency produce empty design gestures—from endless Photoshop layers to fancy fonts and tricky type effects—because the concept and content are missing. Students with a strong sense of history and an awareness of what’s going on in the world have a much easier time confronting content. They can use visual language to develop a point of view.”

Links

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-ellenlupton
http://www.planet-typography.com/news/typo/ellen-lupton.html
http://www.designwritingresearch.org/index.php?id=19
http:/elupton.com/
http://design-your-life.org/index.php?s=about