Jess Novakova

Communication Design

Hi! I'm Jess.

As a recent graduate from Swinburne’s School of Design and Architecture, I specialise in creating thoughtful, purpose-driven designs that resonate on a deeper level. My work is rooted in a passion for social impact and storytelling, with a focus on bringing meaningful narratives to life through innovative design solutions.

Harm Reduction Victoria

Harm Reduction Victoria (HRVic) is a peer-led, non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the health and rights of people who use drugs through education, advocacy, and direct support services.

In the Harm Reduction Victoria rebrand project, I undertook a comprehensive redesign to refresh the organisation's visual identity while respecting its origins. The project involved creating a new brandmark, a detailed style guide, a website prototype, and a series of social media assets and print materials - including posters and brochures. The design strategy emphasised inclusivity, community engagement, and harm reduction principles, targeting both HRVic's existing community and broader audiences unfamiliar with harm reduction processes.

Chimera

Chimera is candle range inspired by forgotten female figures in Greek mythology, transforming their often misunderstood or tragic stories into a celebration of strength and resilience.

The project included crafting a cohesive brand identity, designing packaging that reflects the mythical and imaginative theme, and brainstorming distinctive scent profiles for each character. Through this project, I explored the interplay of narrative and design, creating a product line that invites users to engage with ancient stories in a contemporary and sensory way.

State Library Victoria Tourist Guide

The brief concerned the conception of a unique tourist guide with a focus on developing typographic style. To engage a Gen Z audience I opted for a bright, playful colour palette and experimental typography. The content is designed to entertain and surprise, focusing on humor and unconventional activities that challenge traditional notions of tourism, targeting younger travellers.

Level Up - Annual Report 23-24

Level Up is the theme of the State Library’s annual report, representing a year of growth, innovation, and strengthened community ties. This report showcases the Library's dedication to fostering connection highlighted through the unifying power of games, from digital experiences to timeless classics like the outdoor chess set in the Library’s forecourt. This iconic feature has become a beloved gathering point, inviting people of all ages to connect, compete, and collaborate in a vibrant public space.

New Long Leg Album Package

The design for New Long Leg, the debut studio album by London-based band Dry Cleaning, visually embodies the band’s distinctive blend of surreal lyricism and stream-of-consciousness delivery. The cover art, created through a digital collage technique, mirrors the fragmented and layered nature of the album’s lyrics, and the seemingly mundane yet chaotic composition (a mix of everyday objects and abstract elements) echoes the band’s exploration of the absurd within the ordinary. The digital collage process allows for a textured, layered effect, where disparate visuals converge, creating a dreamlike, introspective atmosphere that complements the album’s lyrical content.

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.