Nikki Prokop
Creative Director | Senior Brand Designer | Systems & Craft
Melbourne, Australia
Creative direction for brands that need more than a look.
I help organisations find the idea, build the system and carry it consistently across brand, campaign, digital, print, packaging and content.
Creative Director and senior brand designer with fourteen years' experience leading work across Australia and New Zealand.
- 14 yrsleading creative work
- 50+client accounts, AU & NZ
- 20,000+hours in design tools
- 2xsmall humans (my most demanding clients)
What I do
Where I can help
Brand strategy & identity
Find what the brand is really trying to say.
Positioning, naming, value proposition, visual and verbal identity, guidelines and narrative — find the thing a brand is really trying to say, then build the identity and language to carry it.
- Positioning & naming
- Visual & verbal identity
- Brand guidelines & narrative
Creative direction & campaigns
Lead the idea — then protect the standard.
Concept development, campaign direction, multi-channel rollout, stakeholder presentation and creative review. I lead the thinking, present it, and step back onto the tools when it counts.
- Concept & campaign direction
- Multi-channel rollout
- Creative review & quality control
Client & business leadership
Carry the relationship, not just the work.
Client and stakeholder relationships, presenting and selling ideas to CEOs and non-design leaders, and owning the commercial side of delivery — scope, timelines and quality. Fourteen years running creative as a business, brought in-house.
- Client & account relationships
- Stakeholder management to C-suite
- Commercial & delivery ownership
Website, content & UI/UX
Make complex organisations easier to understand.
Content design, information architecture, audience framing, plain-language writing and interface direction — built to WCAG accessibility standards and refined with web and email analytics. I work where content, UX and brand meet.
- Content design & information architecture
- Accessibility & inclusive design (WCAG)
- Plain-language, user-first content
- Analytics-led improvement
Design systems & operations
Protect quality when the work gets busy.
Brand guidelines, templates, request workflows, approval processes and repeatable systems — the infrastructure that keeps creative work consistent under scale, speed and stakeholders. I can own the creative product while partnering with operations and delivery leads to keep workflow, resourcing and standards moving together.
- Templates & design systems
- Request & approval workflows
- Brand governance
Packaging, print & production
The practical side of design, done right.
Label design, packaging, signage, posters, print collateral, production-ready files and supplier coordination — years across printers, signage suppliers and real production constraints.
- Packaging & label design
- Signage & print collateral
- Production-ready files
- Brand & product photography
AI-enabled systems
AI that sharpens judgement — not replaces it.
Brand-trained GPTs, AI-assisted workflows and practical internal tools that use AI where it helps the work move faster or become clearer — shaping first drafts, testing structures, simplifying language, checking consistency and spotting gaps. I never treat AI output as finished work: facts, tone, context and brand fit stay a human decision before anything ships.
- Brand-trained GPTs
- AI-assisted workflows
- Practical internal tools
Brand strategy & identity
Find what the brand is really trying to say.
Positioning, naming, value proposition, visual and verbal identity, guidelines and narrative — find the thing a brand is really trying to say, then build the identity and language to carry it.
- Positioning & naming
- Visual & verbal identity
- Brand guidelines & narrative
Creative direction & campaigns
Lead the idea — then protect the standard.
Concept development, campaign direction, multi-channel rollout, stakeholder presentation and creative review. I lead the thinking, present it, and step back onto the tools when it counts.
- Concept & campaign direction
- Multi-channel rollout
- Creative review & quality control
Client & business leadership
Carry the relationship, not just the work.
Client and stakeholder relationships, presenting and selling ideas to CEOs and non-design leaders, and owning the commercial side of delivery — scope, timelines and quality. Fourteen years running creative as a business, brought in-house.
- Client & account relationships
- Stakeholder management to C-suite
- Commercial & delivery ownership
Website, content & UI/UX
Make complex organisations easier to understand.
Content design, information architecture, audience framing, plain-language writing and interface direction — built to WCAG accessibility standards and refined with web and email analytics. I work where content, UX and brand meet.
- Content design & information architecture
- Accessibility & inclusive design (WCAG)
- Plain-language, user-first content
- Analytics-led improvement
Design systems & operations
Protect quality when the work gets busy.
Brand guidelines, templates, request workflows, approval processes and repeatable systems — the infrastructure that keeps creative work consistent under scale, speed and stakeholders. I can own the creative product while partnering with operations and delivery leads to keep workflow, resourcing and standards moving together.
- Templates & design systems
- Request & approval workflows
- Brand governance
Packaging, print & production
The practical side of design, done right.
Label design, packaging, signage, posters, print collateral, production-ready files and supplier coordination — years across printers, signage suppliers and real production constraints.
- Packaging & label design
- Signage & print collateral
- Production-ready files
- Brand & product photography
AI-enabled systems
AI that sharpens judgement — not replaces it.
Brand-trained GPTs, AI-assisted workflows and practical internal tools that use AI where it helps the work move faster or become clearer — shaping first drafts, testing structures, simplifying language, checking consistency and spotting gaps. I never treat AI output as finished work: facts, tone, context and brand fit stay a human decision before anything ships.
- Brand-trained GPTs
- AI-assisted workflows
- Practical internal tools
Selected work
Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future
2025Helping a multi-partner Antarctic research programme make complex science clearer, more accessible and more useful to the people who need to understand it.
View case study
Wilderlands
2021–2022From an accurate name to a brand people could understand, remember and care about.
View case study
Mountain Valley Honey
2019–2026Stewarding a family-run honey brand to a successful sale — and being retained by the new owners.
View case study
Magicians Touring Theatre Show
2017Creative direction and campaign delivery for a premium touring theatre production.
View case study
Coldstore Construction
2017A strategic rebrand for a specialist construction business, built around a familiar penguin that needed to grow up without disappearing.
View case study
The Gardenist
2019A clearer website experience for a thoughtful gardening brand.
View case study
My Toolkit
30 years of learning new tools.
Open to the right opportunity
Available for Creative Director, Head of Creative and senior brand & design leadership roles — in-house, studio or agency.