The collaborative partnership of J. Abbott Miller and Ellen Lupton has made myriad and lasting contributions to the design community: designing, writing, teaching, publishing, curating, and educating. They are co-chairs of the Graphic Design Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Among their joint projects is the publishing imprint Kiosk, which published their books Design/ Writing/ Research: Writing on Graphic Design, and The Process of Elimination: The Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste, also an exhibit at MIT's List Visual Library.

J. Abbott Miller is a principal at the design firm Pentagram, as well as editor and art director of 2wice, named Magazine of the Year by the Society of Publication Designers. Miller also received the SPD's Gold Medal for his work on Dance Ink magazine. Ellen Lupton has served as curator of the Herb Lubalin Study Center at The Cooper Union before serving as curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. There she organized such exhibits and books as Mechanical Brides: Woman and Machines from Home to Office and Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture. In her present role as Adjunct Curator, she was responsible for organizing the Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Triennial. Miller was the 1998 winner of the International Center for Photography Infinity Award, while the pair were included in I.D. Magazine's list of top designers.