Nina Sakura

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I am a graphic designer with a passion for creating designs that balance fun and elegance, blending playful imagination with thoughtful visual storytelling. My work is driven by curiosity and a desire to connect with people through meaningful design experiences, whether it’s branding, packaging, or illustration. I believe that good design should not only look beautiful but also communicate clearly, evoke emotion, and inspire joy.

Throughout my projects, I love experimenting with colour, form, and typography to craft strong visual identities that express a brand’s personality. My process involves deep research, conceptual thinking, and a hands-on approach to design development, from sketching ideas to refining digital outcomes. I’m especially inspired by everyday life, nature, and human connection, often bringing a lighthearted yet refined quality to my work.

As a designer, I value collaboration and storytelling. I enjoy working closely with clients and creative peers to translate ideas into visuals that feel authentic and memorable. With each project, I aim to grow, challenge myself, and continue finding new ways to communicate visually. My goal is to create design solutions that not only meet a brief but also leave a lasting, positive impression.

Natureal

Natureal is a women’s self-care brand that embodies elegance, simplicity, and empowerment. Designed to celebrate natural beauty and confidence, the brand focuses on creating a calm, refined aesthetic that reflects balance and self-love. Through minimalist visuals, soft tones, and thoughtful packaging, Natureal encourages women to embrace their authentic selves and find strength in simplicity.

Ben & Jerry's

This rebranding project reimagines Ben & Jerry’s through a modern yet playful visual identity that highlights the brand’s values of kindness, joy, and community. The refreshed concept embraces warm tones and friendly typography to reflect a sense of togetherness and authenticity. The new tagline, “Scoop the Joy, Share the Peace,” reinforces the brand’s mission to spread happiness through every scoop while promoting peace and compassion. The rebrand maintains Ben & Jerry’s fun spirit but introduces a cleaner, more meaningful direction that connects emotionally with contemporary audiences.

Tireless Petals

Tireless Petals is a publication that explores the strength, endurance, and untold stories of women laborers in historical China. Through a balance of poetic visuals and minimal design, the book reflects both the grace and resilience of women who shaped the foundation of their society through quiet perseverance. Each page blends photography, texture, and typography to honour their legacy, presenting a narrative that feels intimate yet powerful. Tireless Petals captures the beauty within endurance, paying tribute to the women whose silent strength continues to inspire generations.

SUAX

Suax is a sugar wax packaging design that embodies a balance between playfulness and simplicity. The visual identity focuses on soft pastel tones, rounded shapes, and friendly typography to reflect the brand’s approachable and gentle nature. Each scent, Lavender Calm, Apple Fresh, and Strawberry Bliss, features its own color palette and illustrative elements, creating a cohesive yet distinctive system. The design aims to modernize traditional self-care packaging by highlighting comfort, cleanliness, and individuality, offering an inviting and refreshing take on beauty product branding.

Foodsomnia

Foodsomnia is a vibrant night market festival branding project that celebrates the excitement of late-night food culture through expressive typography and bold visual storytelling. The design blends playful letterforms with lively colors and illustrations to capture the energy, aroma, and chaos of a bustling food market after dark. The identity extends across various applications, including posters, tote bags, and other merchandise, creating a cohesive and immersive brand experience. Foodsomnia embodies the joy of exploring flavors, culture, and community under the glow of city lights.

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.