Studio
Fourteen people in Rotterdam and Lisbon
An independent studio, owned by the people who started it, working mostly with small and mid-sized organisations that make or run something.
Since 2015
A room above a bicycle shop
Sanne Vermeulen and Duarte Leal started Corvel in 2015 in a rented room above a bicycle shop in Rotterdam. Sanne had spent six years designing signs and timetables for public transport; Duarte came from an identity studio in Porto. The first year was mostly shop signs and menus for businesses in the neighbourhood, and some of those clients are still with us.
Duarte opened the Lisbon studio in 2019, and the two studios now work as one team, sharing projects every week. We’ve stayed small on purpose. Fourteen people is enough to take on a rail network or a patient portal, and few enough that everyone knows every project and the founders still design. We don’t pitch for free, we don’t sell what we can’t make ourselves, and we’d rather turn down work than hand it to someone we haven’t met.
- studios, one team
- 2
- projects since 2015
- 112
- average time a client has worked with us
- 6.5 yrs
How we work
Watch first
Before we draw anything, we go and see how the thing is used: the packing table, the platform at six in the morning, the clinic waiting room.
Write it down
Briefs, decisions and trade-offs are written in plain language and agreed. It makes the work easier to defend later, by us and by you.
Show it in use
Concepts are judged on real applications at real sizes. A logo on a white page tells you very little.
Leave it workable
Everything we hand over should be usable without us: files you own, guidelines your team can follow, systems sized for the people who will run them.
The people
Eight of the fourteen. The others are on the projects.
Sanne Vermeulen
Co-founder, creative director · Rotterdam
Duarte Leal
Co-founder, design director · Lisbon
Ilse Brandt
Design lead, digital · Rotterdam
Ruth Achterberg
Strategy and studio director · Rotterdam
Tomé Cardoso
Senior designer, identity and type · Lisbon
Noor el Idrissi
Developer · Rotterdam
Bas Hoekstra
Designer, wayfinding and signage · Rotterdam
Leonor Pires
Producer · Lisbon
Eleven years, briefly
2015
Corvel starts
Sanne and Duarte start Corvel in a room above a bicycle shop in Rotterdam-West.
2017
First wayfinding
First wayfinding project, for a hospital in Dordrecht. Ruth joins, and the studio reaches six people.
2019
Lisbon
Duarte opens the Lisbon studio, with two designers and a shared table at a print workshop.
2021
A digital team
First product project, an online booking tool. Ilse sets up the digital team, now five people.
2023
One week of nights
Pell Bakery’s three shops re-signed in one week of night work. The studio grows to eleven.
2026
The rope works
Fourteen people. The Rotterdam studio moves to a former rope works on the Touwslagerskade.
Open roles
We hire slowly and keep people. Every role is paid, with a 32 to 40-hour week, and the salary range is in the listing.
Design2 roles
- Senior product designer
Rotterdam · Full-time, permanent
- Design intern
Lisbon · 6 months, paid
Development1 role
- Front-end developer
Rotterdam or Lisbon · Full-time, permanent