Ellen Lupton is Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City. Lupton also serves as director of the Graphic Design MFA Program at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), where she has authored numerous books on design processes, including Thinking with Type; Graphic Design Thinking; and Graphic Design: The New Basics.

Ellen Lupton’s recent exhibitions include “Graphic Design: Now in Production,” currently on view at Grand Rapids Art Museum and The FED at Kendall. Drawing on this and other recent projects, Lupton will assess the current state of graphic design – a field that has expanded from a specialized, largely invisible profession to an open-access enterprise. In the post-millennial scene of do-it-yourself publishing, designers are becoming authors, instigators, and entrepreneurs, while the general public has increasing access to design tools. Where do you fit in this rapidly changing world?