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In this email:

• ​Video: We dressed up as our dogs for Halloween. 😂 See the results below.
• Introducing, "NikkiMaki!" A collaborative creative project between Maki Naro and I. Join us and follow along for fun and creative shenanigans!

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Hello, friends!

It’s been a while since I’ve written, and A LOT has happened in the past weeks. Something I’m extra excited about and want to share with you is a new side project I’m working on with my partner, Maki. We’re calling it…

As self-employed creatives who are married, we thought it was high time we explored “marrying” our work. Our goal? To find a fun, no-pressure way to combine his world of illustration to mine, design. Solely for the purposes of creating the things we want to make.

For a little background, we’ve had the pleasure of working together on a few client projects over the years. We’ve combined our skills to provide beautifully designed and illustrated book covers, board game packaging and assets, video game promotional graphics, and more for a variety of clients.

While it's fun working together on client projects, we’ve been craving an outlet to explore non-work-related creative projects together with a heavy focus on exploration and play. ✨

For example, this past Halloween, we committed to hand-making masks for our costumes. The result was pretty incredible! Wacky and weird, but in the most FUN way possible. I haven’t laughed so much in ages! 😂 Watch the video below for a quick look at our shenanigans.

Maki even got a random hug from a small trick-or-treater who was instantly enamored. The sweetest thing!💖

The process of making the masks was just as fulfilling. We spent 4 days on them and looked forward to each work session. We got lost in the unknown (learning tons along the way) and successfully tapped into the excitement you get from creatively charged projects with no limitations or the need to please anyone, but ourselves.

It was solely for us and it felt incredible.

A few days later, we were on our daily walk when the idea for NikkiMaki was born. As we explored the idea, we thought we'd try an experiment. Why not bring you along for the ride? Invite you to participate in the mayhem and even gain from our experiences.

If we draw something funny and worthwhile, maybe it could go on a card! If we design a pretty pattern, maybe we could have handkerchiefs made! Or maybe it’s us documenting our process and lessons learned on a project like our masks and providing easy to follow instructions so you can make your own!

With that, our first project is a collaborative set of holiday cards. We’re in the process of sketching ideas and have set up a page for you to join in the fun and follow along.
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Consider this your official invitation to come along for the ride! We'd love to have you. Click here to join the fun! ❤️

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👩🏻‍💻Work with me:

I have a few project openings in my calendar for the Winter season. Are you starting your own business? Have a new product you’re launching? Need graphics for that presentation or marketing campaign? I can help! Schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation to tell me about your project and how I can help create or improve your Visual Brand Identity’s Strategy and Design.

Have a logo and brand identity that isn’t quite doing what you hoped it would? My Light Brand Identity Audits are for you! Learn what's done well, what needs work, and uncover areas of opportunity. Schedule yours today.

Don’t have the budget quite yet, but are looking for guidance on how to best DIY your Visual Brand Identity? Logo To Go: A DIY Visual Brand Identity Assistant was written just for people like you! Buy it today or download the first chapter FREE. ​

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Tapping into my creativity,

Nicola