Designing Woman
Creative director Elizabeth Pembroke has designed quite a life for herself in Healdsburg.
As one half of Pembroke Studios, a design company she founded and co-owns with her husband Rich, Elizabeth has shared her creative genius with hundreds of wineries and other companies in and around Sonoma County and even internationally.
She has designed many marketing pieces for Mill District. She has designed many websites and collateral for beloved wine brands such as Arista, Caymus, Hanna, Lambert Bridge, Rochioli, Truett Hurst, VML and more. She has done the graphic design for many winery events including Wine Road, Passport, and designed parts of the costume for Matty Vino, a local mascot.
“We’ve really had our hands in a lot of different projects—soup to nuts design,” Pembroke said. “Being a part of this community and having spent more than two decades living here, we really understand who the community is, who is visiting us, and how the people who live here would want our part of the world to be portrayed.”
It’s no surprise Pembroke is such a design whiz; she’s been doing it for the better part of 30 years.
She got her start art directing greeting cards and many products for Shoebox Greetings (a tiny division of Hallmark Cards) in Kansas City, Missouri. During her time there she met Rich, who was an illustrator. At some point in the 1990s, the duo came to Wine Country for a wedding, visited Healdsburg, and fell in love.
When the Pembrokes moved here full-time in 1998, they bought an 1892 Victorian on Johnson Street. The home was built by Dr. J.R. Swisher, the town doctor, for years.
To say the house was in disrepair would be an understatement. Gradually, over the decades that followed, the Pembrokes made improvements and renovations. In 2010, they designed and built a detached carriage house to serve as their studio. Today, this sun-drenched space is where the magic happens; visit and you’ll find wine labels and Rich’s oil paintings displayed proudly on the walls.
Pembroke said she’s thankful so many iconic wine brands and local companies have turned to her and Rich for help telling their stories.
She includes Mill District in that bunch.
