Portrait — woman with phone, Old-Master chiaroscuro
ABOUT

Design Statement

A multidisciplinary practice.

I am a multidisciplinary designer, creative director, and architectural historian working across brand identity, interiors, film, and research. These disciplines meet in a question that runs through my work: how meaning takes form. Through proportion and material, image and atmosphere, the deliberate relationship between a detail and the whole, I give an idea a presence in the world.

Interior design gave that inquiry a physical discipline; architectural and decorative arts history gave it depth and context. Both inform the way I approach a project: attentive to the histories it inherits, the people it addresses, and the character it needs to express. I move between the languages of branding, space, and film, developing an idea through the particular demands of each medium. Through creative direction, I carry an idea across these disciplines, attending to how each part contributes to the whole.

I am as invested in the research that gives an idea substance as in the exacting work of giving it form.

Design Statement

Buildings taught me to read brands: both are promises kept in material.
Maker's Mark
The NP monogram drawn as a measured architectural elevation — the resolved mark with faint survey residue

Drawn as a measured elevation.

My own initials, constructed like an architectural survey — drafting grid, dimensions, and registration marks resolving into the finished mark, then receding to a faint trace. The method is the message: I build identity as a system, not a flourish.

Experience

Independent Creative Director

Self-Employed  ·  2023 — Present

Brand identity, marketing and visual direction, social media content, content strategy, logo and graphic design, videography and reels, digital storytelling, website and portfolio design, and AI-assisted creative workflows for lifestyle, hospitality, culture, and consumer-facing brands.

Production Design Assistant

Netflix — Black Mirror  ·  London · Feb – May 2024

On-set and location art direction; staged, designed, and produced props; liaison between production designer, art director, and director; prop-house sourcing and transport logistics.

Project Coordinator / Designer

bulthaup  ·  New York · 2017 – 2020

AutoCAD floor plans, elevations, and MEP coordination; client vision from concept to installation on luxury residential projects; coordination across architects, contractors, and engineers; multi-phase projects and international vendor logistics; site surveys, finish schedules, and showroom content.

Interior Design Intern — Creative Design Team

InDesign  ·  Barcelona · Summer 2014

Retail and commercial design support; AutoCAD plans and 3D renderings in 3ds Max / V-Ray; bilingual Spanish–English collaboration.

Education

MA

Fine & Decorative Art and Design — Sotheby's Institute of Art, London · 2021–2023

BS

Interior Design — High Point University · 2012–2016

Additional study

Lighting Design, Lorenzo de' Medici Institute, Florence · Catalan Identity & Modernismo Architecture, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2015)

Based

New York, working internationally

Research foundation

My master's dissertation examined the William H. Vanderbilt residence at 640 Fifth Avenue and its Gilded Age interiors, including the work of Herter Brothers. Reading the house within the changing fabric of Fifth Avenue brought questions of craftsmanship, cultural ambition, and architectural loss into the same frame. Its demolition gave particular weight to my interest in preservation: the buildings and interiors through which a city remembers itself, and the histories that become harder to recover when their material evidence disappears. Explore the research →

Skills

AI & Creative Technology

Claude Code, AI image & video generation, Prompting & creative systems, AI-assisted design & content workflows, Runway, Figma, Framer, Coded (Next.js) portfolio

Design & Brand

Brand identity, Art direction, Creative direction, Logo & graphic design, Editorial layout, Visual storytelling, Web design, Content strategy, Social media content

Software & Technical

Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, CapCut, Vimeo, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Revit, V-Ray, 3ds Max

Writing & Research

Architectural history, Art-historical research, Essay writing, Cultural analysis, Exhibition concept development, Research-led storytelling

Contact

Let’s build something with a history.

Start a project
nicolette@theoliveoilkid.com

© 2026 Nicolette Petrouleas. All rights reserved.