Studio Vermeil is the surface pattern and print studio of designer Amber Ellis. After more than twenty years in commercial design, I created the studio to focus on what I've always loved most: color, pattern and making beautiful things for the things we live with. My collections draw from vintage design, the natural world and a love of unexpected color combinations, with original artwork created for wallpaper, apparel and home décor.
“I have always been somebody else’s pencil. Now it’s time to draw for myself.”
For more than twenty years, I made things for other people’s brands—prints, graphics, packaging, websites, photo direction and whatever else the day called for. I loved the variety, but I was almost always designing inside someone else’s vision.
Studio Vermeil grew out of the desire to finally build a world of my own: one where color, pattern, vintage design and interiors could all live together. That commercial background still shapes how I work. I understand that artwork has to function on a product, across a collection and out in the marketplace—not just look beautiful on a screen.
Now I get to follow an idea because it delights me, build an entire collection around it and decide where it belongs—from wallpaper and home décor to apparel and accessories. The freedom is new; the practical experience behind it isn’t. Studio Vermeil is where both finally get to work together.
I’m always collecting visual clues: the geometry of a seedpod, a strange little animal, faded wallpaper, an old chair, or a color combination spotted in a garden or antique shop. Those fragments often become the beginning of a pattern. I love seeing what happens when natural forms, vintage references and an unexpected sense of color meet on the same surface.
Available for licensing, collaborations and custom design projects.