Take 10 is a series of occasional features on prominent local residents and the possessions dear to them.

For Ellen Lupton, 52, graphic design isn't just the field she specializes in as director of the graphic design Master of Fine Arts program at Maryland Institute College of Art and as senior curator at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.

Graphic design also delineates her life.

Lupton grew up in Baltimore, the daughter of parents who both taught at Morgan State University.

“I come from a family of English teachers and people all into books and talking. Language was always really important. But I was the visual artist,” the Roland Park resident says.

Lupton headed to art school, Cooper Union in New York City, with another career direction in mind. At first.

“I had this vague idea about painting. I like painting. But, it always worried me: What do you do as a career with that? In school, I got exposed to the idea of design as problem-solving — using typography and communicating a message. Systems, theories and a tradition behind it was very exciting for me,” she says.

That's when the shapes of her past and future intersected.

“When I discovered design, I discovered that they could go together. What came to interest me was that mixture of language and communication with the visual. I really wanted to write about it. So I became a curator,” she says.

She's gone on to write or co-write 14 books on graphic design, including the seminal “Thinking with Type.”

Marrying fellow graphic designer Abbott Miller — now a partner in Pentagram, a design studio that has offices in New York and Baltimore — brought her life full circle.

“Yeah, [design] is not just a job for us. We drank the Kool-Aid,” she says.

The home Lupton and Miller have shared with their children, Jay, 22, and Ruby, 18 — both now in college — has a midcentury modern feel, filled with pieces that boast their own great design as well as contributing to the overall look of the space. If there was any difficulty in choosing her 10 favorite things, it was that there are so many to choose from.

“I love living in a beautiful environment. In my kitchen, I love using things that function and make the food beautiful. I'm not a snob. I have Ikea dishes. I think they're beautiful, designed by Ilse Crawford, and they cost, like, $1.99. They're fantastic.”

Not that there isn't room for improvement, particularly when it comes to some objects in one particular room.

“A lot of things in the bathroom are irredeemable at this point in time. … I think that everything in your bathroom with labels should be removable. I hate all the brands. They're ugly, and they don't add anything to my experience. I would love to have everything just be … white.”