Ellen Lupton

Besides being an accomplished graphic designer, Ellen Lupton is the MFA program director at Maryland Institute College of Art (or MICA); the director of the Center for Design Thinking at MICA; and is a contemporary design curator at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. She has also had the high honor of being awarded a Gold Medal by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Ellen has written articles for the New York Times and several books, including quite a few with her identical twin sister, Julia, who has a PhD in Renaissance Studies.
Ellen Lupton’s primary design focus is typography, underscoring “design as living practice—not theoretical debates, but doing work in the studio”. She was influenced by Bauhaus, which was a German school of design that analyzed the basic geometric elements of form.
I was struck by Ellen's response to an interview question on Planet Typography's website where she was asked to comment on her comment, "think more, design less". Her response stated that design students sometimes overuse drop shadows, gradients, transparent boxes, etc. to compensate for lack of a strong concept. Her response to this problem was, "I argue that it is their job to make the message interesting and compelling, not to bury it with empty visual gestures." This really spoke to me because I've been guilty of doing this exact thing... but I'm aware of it and am attempting to do something about it.