Ella Doran is a multi-disciplinary, award-winning designer whose practice spans interiors, textiles, products and site-specific commissions. Her work brings together colour, material storytelling and regenerative design principles, operating at the intersection of craft, industry and cultural inquiry.
For over 25 years, she has led her own design studio, collaborating with British and international brands, institutions and manufacturers including Paloma Picasso, Tate Enterprises, the Royal Society of Arts, the V&A, Habitat, John Lewis, Portmeirion, SCP, Camira and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Her projects bridge studio experimentation and production, always grounded in material intelligence and narrative depth.
As Designer-in-Residence for the RSA’s Great Recovery project, Ella contributed to early conversations around circular design in the UK. In 2019, she presented her first solo exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Sheep to Seat, Fleece to Floor, tracing British wool from grazing sheep to finished domestic textiles. The project demonstrated circular-economy principles in action and established her ongoing commitment to bioregional materials and regenerative practices. She also currently teaches at the Royal College of Art as a Platform Associate Leader for superMATTER on the MA Interior Design programme.
Over time, her business has intentionally shifted from a stock-led wholesale model to a made-to-measure, project-based practice. This evolution reflects her commitment to sustainability: producing only what is needed, reducing surplus, and working in close dialogue with clients and collaborators. She partners with private clients, architects, and institutions to deliver bespoke interior commissions, colour and material consultancy, and bioregional design strategies. Creative reuse sits at the heart of this work, transforming overlooked or surplus materials into purposeful, enduring design.
Alongside her studio practice, Ella leads participatory, hands-on programmes that position creativity and making as both cultural practice and collective responsibility. Through weaving and colour workshops, textile and material labs, and collaborative public projects, she invites participants to slow down, engage the senses, and build material literacy through direct experience. Grounded in her ongoing mantra, We Must Create, these gatherings frame creativity and making as tools for connection, agency, and wellbeing, cultivating confidence, creative voice, and collective exchange through tactile, colour-led processes. Whether working with reclaimed textiles, bioregional fibres, or everyday domestic materials, her workshops offer accessible yet rigorous entry points into design. For Ella, creativity and making are not optional extras; they are shared human capacities and necessary acts in shaping more thoughtful, resilient, and connected futures.
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Ella collaborates closely with her clients to understand their needs and vision.
When required, the studio partners with other designers, including architects and specialists, to assemble teams with the right expertise and scale for each project. This dynamic, creative, and flexible approach enables Ella to take on a wide range of project types and sizes—each tailored to the specific brief or commission.
As a founding member of URGE, a signatory of Interior Design Declares, and a dedicated reuse consultant, Ella approaches every project through the lens of sustainability. This means prioritising the re-use of materials, reducing waste, and designing with long-term environmental impact in mind. These values underpin the studio’s practice, ensuring that creativity is always balanced with responsibility.
Whatever the enquiry—large or small—we invite you to start the conversation here.
Ella is a proud member of the East End Trades Guild