It's nice to meet you!
Hi! I'm Nikki!
And I used to be the Year 9 class forger 😂
NIKKI DESIGN CO. Founder | Calligraphy & Engraving Artist | Proud Mama of 2
The wedding that started it all
It's 2017 and I'm planning my own wedding, deep in a Pinterest hole I never really climbed out of. I decide to make my own wedding signs and place cards, save some money (Sydney weddings are hella expensive!), add a personal touch. Easy, right?
I found a calligraphy meetup, pick up a calligraphy pen for the first time and I was BAD 😂 But, something about slowing down, letter by letter in a busy life pulled me in, and I keep practising.
Turns out...My questionable Year 9 handwriting skills came in handy after all.
2018: Started from Gumtree now we here 🩷
That calligraphy hobby turned into plenty of Bunnings trips and painting wedding signs on my living room floor on weekends, then selling them on Gumtree and Facebook groups. A $600 Cricut machine somehow became an $80K a year wedding signage business. Then I got made redundant from my admin job, so I figured, why not just go all in.
That's when I went full-time as a self-employed wedding signage artist.
2019: the first workshop, the first brand activation event, and expecting my first child
92+ workshops, 1,370+ students
In 2019 I hosted my first ever calligraphy workshop. I invited past wedding clients, posted about it on Instagram, and had absolutely no idea if a single person would turn up. They did. Fast forward to today: 92+ workshops hosted and over 1,370 students, and I'm so thankful for every one of you 🩷
I discover live calligraphy events
That same year, I also did my first ever live calligraphy gig, hand-lettering Christmas tags for CBRE in the city. My first live calligraphy event ever, and at the time, super pregnant with Abbie. I was so nervous. But I'm so glad I said yes to the opportunity because that first live calligraphy event opened up opportunities for me to create live personalisation experiences for brands like Scentre Group, Memocorp, Mounties Group, George Place, TikTok, Dior, Twilio, Chandon, Bailey Nelson and more.
2020 hit hard. Lessons learnt...
COVID hit right as I became a first-time mum. Running a business with a newborn and a pandemic was, honestly...a lot. I was a wedding signage artist when weddings weren't even allowed to happen 🫠🫠
I remember holding my newborn, Abbie, and staring down a business built entirely on people gathering in person, at the exact moment that became impossible.
Everyone around me would have understood if I quietly let the business go.
That was the moment I could have decided motherhood and this creative life simply did not fit in the same house.
If you've ever stood at that exact fork, a new baby in your arms and a part of yourself you weren't sure you were still allowed to keep, I want you to keep scrolling.
I tried anyway.
I launched a baby sign line, and it flopped, badly 🥲 I let it flop instead of letting it stop me. I launched calligraphy iso-kits for people who wanted to learn calligraphy during lockdown.
I strapped Abbie into an ErgoBaby carrier and kept working, one hand on a calligraphy pen, one arm around my daughter, because nobody was going to hand me the right moment.
I would have to take it, messy and unfinished, exactly as it was. I like mistakes, that's how I learn.
A morning where nobody needs you
Here's what I want every mum thinking about booking a calligraphy workshop to know: this isn't just a class, it's a morning where nobody needs you.
No one calling your name, no snacks to cut up, no one to referee. Just you, a pen, and the quiet sound of ink meeting paper, the closest thing to a holiday you'll find that fits inside a weekend morning.
You don’t need permission, perfect timing or a quieter season of life to say yes to the things that make you feel like yourself again.
Motherhood and a creative life were never meant to take turns, they were meant to grow up together, and a workshop seat is where you get to remember what it feels like to just be you.
2021: Workshops were back!
Workshops came back in 2021.
My second child Alex arrived in 2022.
And not long after, I decided go back to a 9 to 5 while still running the business, to save for our first home.
For a long time I told that part like a footnote, as if it meant the business hadn't been enough on its own. Like I had failed.
Now I know it was the opposite, it was proof of what I could carry for my family. In 2024, we bought our first home.
2024: Our first home
The same hands that once shook holding a calligraphy pen at that very first calligraphy meetup, signed the papers on our first home, built in part on workshops and brand activations I ran while raising two kids under five.
If you're waiting for the right moment, it's not coming. You get to make it 🩷
What's the thing you've been waiting for the ‘right time’ to start?
So... that's me! 👋
Self-taught calligrapher. Mum of two. Full-time uni employee. Founder of Nikki Design Co. All at once, held together by an alarming amount of caffeine lol 😂☕
If you're new here or have been following me for awhile, I appreciate you. Thank you so much x
This was never just about the calligraphy.
It's about the space it creates, for women who spend their whole lives pouring into everyone else, to finally pour a little bit back into themselves.
I see you.
So let me ask you again: What's the thing you've been waiting for the ‘right time’ to start?
NIKKI