Biography

In the past 20 years, Jason Miller has emerged as one of the most talented and sought after designers and creative directors working in the United States. Jason designs an innovative, ever-expanding collection of furniture, lighting fixtures, household products and interiors, all informed by his unmatched sense of contemporary American culture. His work speaks to a keen cultural awareness and a classic American aesthetic. Jason Miller Studio was founded as the home for Jason’s design work. Jason is also the founder, CEO and Creative Director of Roll & Hill, the renown lighting and furniture manufacturer.

Jason was born in 1971 and raised in Darien, Connecticut. He received a degree from Indiana University in 1993, and a Masters of Fine Arts in painting from the New York Academy of Art in 1995. After school, Jason moved to the creative frontier of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at the time a lawless neighborhood of artists, designers, musicians, and misfits. Jason spent time working for the advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather and two of the biggest names in art and design, the artist, Jeff Koons and industrial designer Karim Rashid. In 2001 Jason Miller Studio was founded.

The studio’s early work was highly conceptual. Jason was creating design objects that spoke directly to his experience growing up in the unremarkable suburbs of New York City. Upholstered chairs were covered in leather that mimicked duct tape, vases that were broken and glued back together, tables were made with “dust” already on them. The pieces struck a chord in the nascent design-as-art movement, while standing on their own as beautiful, functional objects.

It was Jason’s unique ability to create designs that instantly seem iconic, however, that set him apart. The Superordinate Antler collection was one early example. Launched in 2003, it became a recognizable icon in fashionable New York City. Another lighting collection, Modo, has become an inescapable piece of contemporary design. Jason’s Elliot chair, Classon cabinets, Endless lighting collection and Knot mirrors all share the same seemingly contradictory paradigm that Jason is constantly striving for in his work. They are familiar and new at the same time.

Following the runaway success of Jason Miller Studio, Jason founded Roll & Hill to manufacture high-end contemporary lighting specifically tailored to the American market. At that time, most contemporary design was imported from Europe and characterized by a minimalist, industrial style. By contrast, Roll & Hill draws from a palette of rich materials such as brass, bronze, leather, wood, hand-knotted rope and mouth-blown glass. The firm produces work from some of the best creatives working today including, Lindsey Adelman, Jessica Helgerson, Jenna Lyons, and Jason.

Jason’s work has been shown all over the world and is a part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Arts and Design, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Brooklyn Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery. Jason still lives in Brooklyn with his family. He makes ceramics in his basement in his spare time.