From a Zero Waste Business to Designer.

For eight years, Nikki ran a zero-waste business designing plastic-free school and office supplies. The work was meaningful, but relentless. The pandemic reshaped everything and it pushed the business online, increasing financial strain, and eventually forcing a shutdown.

Through all of it, design sat at the centre.

“We were bootstrapped. We were doing everything ourselves. Graphic design was the medium we used to tell our story.”

Nikki wasn’t new to creativity. She’d studied oil painting years earlier and understood composition. But graphic design required a different mindset: systems, structure, and decision-making beyond personal taste.

She didn’t want shortcuts. She wanted clarity.

Scrolling Instagram late one night, she saw a Shillington ad: Stop scrolling. Design your future now.

It worked.

Not because it was loud, but because it was considered.

“It was the first design school whose marketing actually used good design. That mattered.”

There was just one problem: cost. Nikki had no job and debt from closing her business. She applied anyway, submitting a scholarship video filmed while making matzo ball soup. When the acceptance email arrived, she threw her phone across the room.

Three months later, class started.

Nikki arrived nervous.

She wasn’t fluent in Figma. She wasn’t confident in Adobe. She assumed everyone else would be ahead. What surprised her most was the pacing.

“It didn’t start out brutal. That really mattered.”

The course built momentum intentionally, giving students time to understand tools before pushing them harder. By the time portfolio phase arrived, the challenge wasn’t software. It was thinking.

“That’s when you realise it’s not the platforms slowing you down anymore. You just keep iterating.”

One project became a turning point.

The brief: an off-screen project. Make something physical. Photograph it. Bring it into a design system.

For Nikki, it became a rollercoaster.

She researched obsessively. Changed concepts. Started again. Shot images on her iPhone in laundromats, bus stops and bathrooms. Tried literal solutions that didn’t work. Nearly quit.

“I stained my outdoor space with oil and cornstarch. I was convinced I had to drop the project.”

Teachers didn’t let her.

They didn’t give templates or fixes. They pushed her back to the work. To research, to concept, to restraint.

“Don’t skip research. Don’t rush it. You never know what you’ll uncover.”

Eventually, Nikki let go of literal imagery and leaned into abstraction. Paint replaced props. Process replaced panic. The final concept, Let your dreams spill, came together through hundreds of decisions, failures and revisions.

“It wasn’t one breakthrough. It was about 150 million small steps.”

Just as important was how she learned to ask for help.

Early on, Nikki hesitated. She didn’t want to bother anyone. Portfolio pressure changed that.

“I asked teachers. I asked classmates. I even emailed a former student.”

What she found was a studio, not a classroom.

Constant feedback. Shared stress. Collective momentum.

“My design improved immeasurably once I stopped trying to do it alone.”

Nikki's Company Rebrand project at Shillington, Industry Standard Salt Co.

A year later, Nikki doesn’t talk about Shillington like a course she completed. She talks about it like a place she still carries with her.

“I miss setting up my desk at home for class. I miss working through ideas with people.”

More importantly, her relationship with design has changed.

Creative blocks don’t spiral into self-doubt anymore. Iteration feels normal. Feedback feels useful. Asking for help feels smart.

“Now it’s just: keep going. Keep iterating. It’s not that serious.”

That’s the real outcome.

Not confidence from talent. Confidence from practice.

Not polish. Process.

Not isolation. Community.

Designers aren’t built by waiting until they feel ready.

They’re built by:

• Doing the research
• Changing direction when needed
• Letting go of safe ideas
• Asking for help
• Iterating until the work earns its place

Shillington didn’t just teach Nikki how to design.

It taught her how to think like one.