Ellen Lupton Quotes

• Typography is what language looks like.

  Ellen Lupton

  Hipster, Looks, Language

  Ellen Lupton (2014). “Thinking with Type”, p.1, Chronicle Books

  17 Copy quote

• Design is art that people use.

  Ellen Lupton

  Art, People, Design

  Ellen Lupton (2006). “D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself: A Design Handbook”, p.16, Princeton Architectural Press

  30 Copy quote

• Design is an art of situations. Designers respond to a need, a problem, a circumstance, that arises in the world. The best work is produced in relation to interesting situations - an open-minded client, a good cause, or great content.

  Ellen Lupton

  Art, Interesting Situations, Design

  Ellen Lupton (2014). “Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students”, p.219, Chronicle Books

  12 Copy quote

• To say a grid is limiting is to say that language is limiting, or typography is limiting. It is up to us to use these media critically or passively.

  Ellen Lupton

  Media, Use, Language

  49 Copy quote

• Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking.

  Ellen Lupton

  Technology, Design, Spacing

  Ellen Lupton (2014). “Thinking with Type”, p.91, Chronicle Books

  12 Copy quote

• Think more design less

  Ellen Lupton

  Thinking, Design

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• Working within the constraints of a problem is part of the fun and challenge of design.

  Ellen Lupton

  Fun, Design, Challenges

  Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips (2014). “Graphic Design: The New Basics”, p.160, Chronicle Books

  13 Copy quote

• Graphic design is the spit and polish but not the shoe.

  Ellen Lupton

  Shoes, Design, Spit

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• It is easier to talk than to listen. Pay attention to your clients, your users, your readers, and your friends. Your design will get better as you listen to other people.

  Ellen Lupton

  People, Design, Get Better

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• Letters do love one another. However, due to their anatomical differences, some letters have a hard time achieving intimacy.

  Ellen Lupton

  Hard Times, Differences, Letters

  Ellen Lupton (2014). “Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students”, p.104, Chronicle Books

  14 Copy quote

• Readers usually ignore the typographic interface, gliding comfortably along literacy's habitual groove. Sometimes, however, the interface should be allowed to fail. By making itself evident, typography can illuminate the construction and identity of a page, screen, place or product.

  Ellen Lupton

  Design, Identity, Gliding

  Ellen Lupton (2014). “Thinking with Type”, p.99, Chronicle Books

  4 Copy quote

• Designers provide ways into—and out of—the flood of words by breaking up text into pieces and offering shortcuts and alternate routes through masses of information. (...) Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.

  Ellen Lupton

  Book, Reading, Offering

  Ellen Lupton (2014). “Thinking with Type”, p.87, Chronicle Books

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• Urban public space is a stage for viewing the field of graphic design in its diversity. A mix of voices, from advertising to activism, compete for visibility.

  Ellen Lupton

  Voice, Space, Diversity

  Ellen Lupton, Cooper-Hewitt Museum (1996). “Mixing Messages”, p.13, Princeton Architectural Press

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• You have to be prepared to give creative work 150%. I hear a lot of young people talking about life/work balance, which I think is great when you’re in your 30s. If you’re in your 20s and already talking about that, I don’t think you will achieve your goals. If you really want to build a powerful career, and make an impact, then you have to be prepared to put in blood, sweat, and tears.

  Ellen Lupton

  Powerful, Thinking, Impact

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• Are some free fonts a gift to humanity rather than a blight on typographic civilization ?

  Ellen Lupton

  Civilization, Humanity, Fonts

  54 Copy quote

• Universal design systems can no longer be dismissed as the irrelevant musings of a small, localized design community. A second modernism has emerged, reinvigorating the utopian search for universal forms that marked the birth of design as a discourse and a discipline nearly a century earlier.

  Ellen Lupton

  Discipline, Design, Community

  Ellen Lupton (2014). “Thinking with Type”, p.174, Chronicle Books

  8 Copy quote

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