About

We are an atelier of architects, artists and designers who have been creatively envisioning and producing for many decades. Our work evolves from our backgrounds in architecture, furniture design, landscape, interiors, painting and digital design. We celebrate the art of collaboration, engaging the talents and expertise of our creative team.

  • Thayer Hopkins is an architect and designer with over 40 years of experience in architecture, interiors, and furniture design. Thayer graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with degrees in Architecture and Fine Arts, where he studied furniture design with Tage Frid, internationally known woodworker, educator and author.

    Thayer brings his background as an artist, designer, furniture maker, and family history (his grandfather was an architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts) to Ocean Atelier’s furniture design. He is passionately committed to the art of sketching as part of the process of ideation.

    Thayer’s award-winning furniture designs are seen in many showrooms and publications, and have been selected for hotels, resorts, residences and cruise ships. He has collaborated with and designed lines for The Wicker Works, Harvey Probber, Tropitone Veneman Collections, Design Discoveries International and Walters. His designs have received recognition including an award for innovative children’s furniture made from corrugated board, a NeoCon Award, and a Pinnacle Design Achievement Award from The American Society of Furniture Designers.

    He is the founder of an architectural practice in San Francisco, and his creativity has led to designs for theater and opera sets, interior spaces on an aircraft carrier, exhibit design and graphic identity projects.

    Thayer’s furniture designs have published and advertised in Architectural Digest, Fine Furniture International, Interior Design, House Beautiful and House & Garden. He was profiled in the book Furniture: Architects & Designers’ Originals by Carol Soucek King.

  • As a furniture designer for Oceans Atelier, Ellen combines her love of color and fabric with her training as an abstract painter. She credits her maternal roots (her grandmother was a skilled dressmaker and her mother a visual artist who often worked with fabrics) as well as her parents’ mid-century custom-designed house, for her passion for creating a beautiful and comfortable experience.

    Ellen’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries in group and solo shows, and they hang in private and corporate collections throughout the United States including a commissioned tryptic for a major collector in Florida. She has since created a portfolio of digital imagery for products that can be manufactured from her designs, which can be seen at ellenbrodydesigns.com. Additionally, she has applied her creative artistic vision to advertising agencies and digital media industries, collaborating with creative teams and managing clients and projects for major retailers and brands.

    Ellen brings the breadth of her experience as the management & marketing consultant for Thayer Hopkins Architects, where the sum of her art background, acquired business acumen and understanding of human interaction benefit of the practice. Ellen received her B.A. Practice of Art, from U.C. Berkeley. She studied Interior Design in the Certificate Program at U.C. Berkeley Extension.

Collaborations

WALTERS

JAMES LINO
CONSTRUCTION

LIZ ROSSI

Let’s Work Together

We’re always looking for new opportunities for collaboration and are comfortable working internationally. Please get in touch and we will contact you about beginning a conversation.