Nicola Goodwin

About

Fifteen years of making brands work, from Cape Town to Philadelphia.

In short

I build brands from nothing, and I design the things companies use to explain themselves — to investors, to customers, to whoever has to make the decision.

01South Africa2010–2018

Where I started

ELLE South Africa

One of the smallest design teams in consumer magazines, and a job that ran well past the title. I managed back-and-forth with the repro house, the proofs, the monthly dummy book, and sending the magazine to press.

GetSmarter, Cape Town

I was the first designer the company hired, and for most of four years the only one. I wrote the brand guidelines, built the co-branding for courses run with MIT, the University of Cape Town and LSE, and produced the annual company book alongside the CEO.

2U acquired GetSmarter the year after I left.

Small studio,global brands.

Black Pack Design

At Black Pack Design, a two-person studio in Cape Town, I took Macallan, Highland Park, Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve across African markets on everything from a bottle neck tag to a vehicle wrap, coasters included.

Hence the first line of my homepage.

02United States2018–now

Washington, then Philadelphia

I moved to the US in 2018, and in 2019 joined ICBA, the national trade association for America’s community banks, as its only in-house designer. Then I was founding creative director at KLIK Media, until the agency closed in 2022.

Since then I’ve run The Designory, my independent practice: impact reports and investor decks for City Light Capital, brand identity revamps for Motimatic and Pathstream, and brands built from the name up for founders, OneThread and inSpring among them. OneThread was my second time as a founding creative director.

City Light CapitalCase study →
OneThreadCase study →
MotimaticCase study →
03Leading2012–now

When KLIK closed, several of its clients kept working with me.

That’s the short version of how I lead. The longer one comes down to three things, each learned somewhere specific.

  1. i

    Build the function.

    At GetSmarter I was the first designer and, for most of four years, the whole design function. At KLIK Media and OneThread I was founding creative director, with no brand, no process and no standards to inherit. Along the way I hired a junior designer at GetSmarter and a senior designer at KLIK.

    GetSmarter · KLIK Media · OneThread
  2. ii

    Make the case.

    At ICBA everything went to an executive team that held final approval, so every direction needed a clear argument to people who could say no. I’ll argue for a direction, take the pushback seriously, and usually land somewhere better than either starting point. The City Light system came out of exactly that kind of argument.

    ICBA · City Light Capital
  3. iii

    Own the client.

    In my own practice I own the relationship, not just the deliverable: the scope, the direction, the presentation, and being the person the client calls. City Light Capital worked with me for four years, across two funds’ impact reports, investor decks and website.

    The Designory · City Light Capital

I’m as happy with my hands in the files as I am directing someone else’s. The job decides which.

Work with me

The Designory is taking on new work in brand identity, decks and web. I’m also open to creative direction and design leadership roles.

nicolabarnesdesign@gmail.com →