A world-renowned writer, curator and graphic designer will present a guest artist lecture Thursday, Nov. 20, at West Virginia University .

Ellen Lupton , director of the Graphic Design Master of Fine Arts program at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore , will speak at 5 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall of the Creative Arts Center .

Her talk, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Division of Art and Design guest lecture series in WVU s College of Creative Arts .

Lupton also serves as director of the Center for Design Thinking at MICA .

As curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum since 1992, she has produced numerous exhibitions and books, includingMechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office,Mixing Messages: Graphic Design and Contemporary Culture,Letters from the Avant-GardeandSkin: Surface, Substance + Design.

She recently has focused on bringing design awareness to broader audiences. Her bookThinking with Typeis a basic guide to typography directed at everyone who works with words.D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself,co-authored with her graduate students at MICA , explains design processes to a general audience.D.I.Y. Kidsco-authored with her sister, Julia Luptonis a design book for children illustrated with kidsart.

Her most recent book isGraphic Design: The New Basicswith Jennifer Cole Phillips.

She is the co-author with Abbott Miller of several books, includingThe Bathroom, the Bathroom, and the Aesthetics of Waste,Design Writing ResearchandSwarm.

Lupton is a 2007 recipient of the AIGA Gold Medal, one of the highest honors given to a graphic designer or design educator in the United States.

She has a regular column,The El Word,in Readymade magazine, and her editorial illustrations have been published in The New York Times.

For more information, visit Luptons Web site at www.elupton.com or call the WVU College of Creative Arts at 304-293-4841 ext. 3108.