Dr. Nicola St John
Details
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Department: School of Design
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Campus: City Campus Australia
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nicola.st.john@rmit.edu.au
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ORCID:
0000-0003-2713-4845
Open to
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
- Media enquiries
- Collaborative projects
- Industry Projects
About
Dr Nicola St John is a communication design researcher, co-designer, and educator fostering collaborations between First Nations creatives, community schools, design organisations, and tertiary institutions to encourage and foster knowledge transfer, intercultural collaboration, participatory methodologies, and student belonging. Nicola has received funding from Creative Victoria and Creative Australia, accolades from the Good Design Awards as well as the prestigious RMIT Vice Chancellor’s award for research impact. She is the co-founder of Indigenous-led design agency Solid Lines, and co-lead of the InterDesigning network, which encourages the integration of diverse knowledges and practices within design education.
Awards
2024 Victorian Premiers Design Award. Finalist in Communication Design for the RMIT Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) Field Guide
2023 Good Design Awards. Indigenous Design Award for Solid Lines
2023 Good Design Awards. Social Impact for Solid Lines
2023 Victorian Premiers Design Award. Highly Commended in Design Strategy for Solid Lines
2022 ACUADS Innovative Research Award
2022 RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Impact – Early Career Researcher
2022 RMIT University Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning
2022 RMIT School of Design Peer Recognition Award for Teaching
2021 Victorian Premiers Design Award. Finalist in Design Strategy for The Jacky Winter Statement of Commitment to the First Nations of Australia.
2020 Dean’s Award for best HDR Thesis, School of Design, Swinburne University
2020 School of Design Peer Award in recognition of teaching contribution, RMIT University
2019 Good Design Award. Social Impact for Ntaria Design
Grants
2024: Alastair Swayn Foundation Design Audio Grant. Designing with Country (National)
2024: Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund Grants. Celebrating First Nations storytelling practice through illustrated books (National)
2023: Advance Higher Education 2023 Global Impact Grant. Intersectional design history pedagogy (International)
2022: ACUADS Grant Scheme. A Decolonial Design History Educators Network (International)
2021: Creative Victoria. VicArts Grant. First Nations Futures in Design and Commercial Art (Victoria).
2021: Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. First Nations Futures in Design and Commercial Art (National).
2018: Strong Communities for Children, Australian Government, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Grant: Old way/New way: Telling Ntaria stories. In collaboration with the Hermannsburg Potters, Ntaria School and Tjuwanpa Outstation Resource Centre.
2017: Northern Territory Government Youth Engagement Grant: Working with Western Arrarnta young people to develop Ntaria Design: an Indigenous, student-run micro-enterprise through innovative digitally designed products.
Media
Research fields
- 330316 Visual communication design (incl. graphic design)
- 3303 Design
- 330304 Design history, theory and criticism
- 330306 Design practice and methods
- 330305 Design management
- 450212 Cultural responsiveness and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities education
UN sustainable development goals
- 10 Reduced Inequalities
- 4 Quality Education
- 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
Academic positions
- Lecturer
- RMIT University
- School of Design
- Melbourne, Australia
- 1 Feb 2020 – Present
Supervisor projects
- Studio Everybody: Instilling Intersectional Feminist Pedagogy into Design Industry Contexts and Practice
- 20 Jan 2026
- Exploring Tricky Ethics in Communication Design: A Pedagogical Perspective
- 24 Nov 2025
- Developing graduate capability through design education for culturally complex professional contexts
- 18 Jul 2024
- Futures as Medium: Exploring Pluriversal Approaches to Designing with Place
- 25 Jan 2023
- Cosmovision as a Relational Practice of Encountering and Making Worlds
- 1 Apr 2021
Teaching interests
Nicola's teaching practice encourages the incorporation of intersectional, pluriversal, and co-design methodologies within communication design practice and her contributions to student learning have been awarded through national and international teaching awards.
