Ella Doran is a designer, photographer, and mark-maker, whose innovative and constantly curious eye has led to the creation of a wide range of highly acclaimed projects and objects across product and textile design, fashion, furniture, and interiors.
Ella initially made her name when she created her own homewares business in the late 1990s. She quickly won fans and plaudits for her pioneering application of photography-based images and patterns onto functional, everyday products. ‘Ella Doran Homewares’, is now an established part of the homewares market and features regular product launches for ranges that consistently delight the brand’s direct customers and nationwide network of retail suppliers www.elladoran.co.uk
Commissions
Ella has been commissioned by a roll call of British and international brands, retailers, institutions and manufacturers, as well as a number of fashion and product designers. These include Paloma Picasso, Tate, The Royal Society of Arts, G-Wiz Cars, The Royal London Hospital, John Lewis, Portmeirion, Twentytwentyone, The John Radcliffe Hospital, & The Yorkshire Sculpture Park. If you would like to talk to Ella about a creative commission or collaboration, start the conversation here.
Hackney and the Wider World
Ella works out of a studio in London’s Hackney, but has a passion for travel, which is often a key inspiration, and possesses both a natural and a trained eye for colour, nature and form. She is a fellow of the RSA and invited to speak regularly on design, innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and the circular economy at leading design-world events, including for The Sorrell Foundation, The Crafts Council and The RSA and at 100% Design and Clerkenwell Design Week. She regularly runs creative events at locations such as the V&A Museum of Childhood and local workshops in Hackney.
Awards
As a fellow of the RSA, Ella champions the work of the Great Recovery through various public engagements and student teaching projects, to help promote and inspire the design industry’s shift towards a circular economy. As well as regular media recognition, Ella’s work has won a number of awards, including at The Laurent Perrier Designer of the Year Awards and the Grand Designs Awards. She has also been invited to be an awards judge, including at The Interiors Awards for Scotland Redesigned in 2017.