Nia Dara
Designer - Storyteller - Artist - founder of ndny studio
Miami, FL
Q What do you do?
“I make stories visually real.”
I take raw ideas and turn them into visual, contextual experiences that people can feel. Whether that’s a website, a digital project, or a tangible creative format like interactive books and printed materials, my role is to translate a person, brand or product from a vision, and idea, into something that can actually be experienced.
I work through emotion first, and the use of technical tools like web and graphic design, or brand strategy, and art direction to bring that story into form. The goal is always that the result feels true to them or the brief, not simply a reflection of my own creativity.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
I found my way here through experimentation in the digital space.
I’ve always been future-forward and curious about what’s next. The internet felt like momentum. Web design became a form of architecture for me, while social media felt like story and connection. Those two spaces allowed me to do what I’d already been doing since childhood, collaging, assembling worlds, and creating meaning from fragments, just in a digital form.
In the early days, I started by tinkering and exploring, making newbie websites that were really experiments in contrast, depth, and structure. Over time, people began asking for help with websites, graphics, and digital communication. What started as exploration slowly became a career rooted in visual thinking, narrative, and technology.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
What sets my work apart is that I design for the person who has to live inside the system after the project is complete.
With over a decade of experience in web design and brand work, I think deeply about who is running the business, what they can realistically maintain, and how the tools will support them over time. I do not just focus on how something looks, but on how it will actually function in someone’s day-to-day business.
Alongside my digital work, my background includes hands-on production experience from years working on set, including self-produced photo shoots, styling, and visual direction. That real-world understanding of how images come together still informs how I approach digital storytelling and creative direction today.
My process is collaborative and educational, bridging the real and digital world. I am highly collaborative, and involve clients throughout, explaining decisions as we go, and make sure they leave the project feeling informed and confident. The goal is not just a finished deliverable, but a sense of ownership, ease and satisfaction.
I’m always balancing vision with practicality, creativity with structure, and aspiration with what will truly support a business or project long-term.
Q What are you working on right now?
Right now, I’m most excited about an evolving personal project exploring short-form, cinematic storytelling. I’ve worked with digital and AI-assisted visuals for some time, but what’s new for me is shaping these ideas into short, narrative-driven micro films. These pieces are rooted in reflection, imagination, and emotional storytelling— bridging entertainment and art.
I’m currently experimenting with pacing, sound, visual continuity, and series development. It’s an exploratory phase, but one that feels deeply aligned with immersive storytelling and experiential formats I’m actively developing toward, and new and continued series are currently in development.
Q What’s your style?
My style is more of a sensibility than a fixed aesthetic.
In my personal work, I’m drawn to bold color, contrast, collage, surreal and layered imagery. There is often an expressive, feminine quality to it, paired with texture, energy, and a willingness to let things feel alive rather than overly polished.
At the same time, my professional work is highly adaptable. I always consider the brief, encourage references, and establish clear guardrails before designing. I try not to impose a personal style, but to translate what is right for the person or project. That said… don’t tempt me with a good time. As I do love opportunities to explore daring aesthetic stylings of bold prints and colors. Or quieter palettes with deeper tones, and minimal expressions when the project calls for it.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I’m currently focused on developing greater clarity in experiential creative direction. I want to translate my real-world and digital experience into systems that can be refined, repeated, and scaled without losing the heart of the work in both the digital and tangible spaces.
Alongside that, I’m continuing to strengthen my technical video-editing skills, especially around pacing, and layering, as I move further into narrative projects.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
I’m navigating the shift from years of technical processes within the work and into a more artist-led, exploratory way of creating. That part feels exciting. The friction comes in defining it clearly enough to scale it. I’m figuring out how to let the artist lead while building a structure underneath that can actually sustain it long term.
That balance is the work I’m in right now.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
I would immediately have them focused on outreach and relationship-building, warming connections, following up, and helping create momentum through human-to-human communication. Supporting social media management, especially scheduling and ongoing engagement. Getting those community members from DMs to the calendar.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
I would have told myself not to wait for permission or a traditional path, especially the idea that I needed to build a conventional career to be taken seriously. Trusting my layered, multidisciplinary way of working earlier would have saved time spent trying to fit into structures that were never quite right.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
I’d love to talk with an expert about intellectual property and scalable creative models, specifically how artist-led work can evolve into something sustainable without flattening the creative. How creative IP can live across formats, how distribution works in emerging spaces in viable ways.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
I’m looking for collaborative projects at the intersection of story, design, and experience.
That includes brand and web projects for beauty, fashion, wellness, and creative-led businesses, as well as collaborations with creative agencies and studios seeking narrative-led concepts.
I’m especially interested in projects that allow for emotional storytelling, visual experimentation, and thoughtful systems behind the work.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
My ideal collaborators see me as a creative partner, not just a service provider.
I work best when there are clear goals and guardrails, trust in the process, and space to explore creatively. I love clients who say, “Here’s the vision. We're open to what’s possible.”
My work spans personal brands, artists, entertainers, coaches, authors, public speakers, and creative-led businesses in beauty, fashion, wellness, and future-forward sustainability led brands. I’m always open to projects that feel a little unconventional, the kind where others might hesitate, but I see potential.
Q: What is your rate?
The best place to begin is a short conversation to align on goals, scope, and what feels possible, as there are several ways to support new and ongoing projects.
Artist-led ideas, experiential concepts, or narrative projects that don’t fit neatly into a category, scope is generally shaped around the vision. For larger brands or collaborative teams, proposals are tailored to the scale and complexity of the project.
Full custom Squarespace websites generally begin at $3700. I also offer streamlined site builds (on various platforms) for brands that need a timely, focused, and strong start. As well as ongoing support for those who want a steady creative partner beyond launch. Monthly retainers and packages available—hourly consulting/design range $75–$150/hr.
Most work falls into one of these categories:
• Custom websites
• Brand and visual identity
• Creative direction and visual storytelling
• Experiential creative projects
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
Email is the best way to connect for web design and branding. A great introduction includes a bit of context about the project, scope, or budget, and timeline expectations.
For informal chats, creative collabs, and/or the love of art, DMs on Instagram are always welcome.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
I’m often drawn to artists who do their specific thing exceptionally well. I admire the futurist worlds of Lawrence Lek, the awe carved into nature by David Popa, the playful graphic language of Noémie Pino, and even the quiet ritual of scrapbooking with Queensart20 (I love to scrapbook). From the dystopian dreamscapes of She Is in Black Art to the expressive canvas works of Maddalena Fanfani, each carries a distinct voice.
And a very honorable mention to the time-bending surrealism of Salvador Dalí. I saw art differently after encountering his work as a kid.
This list only scratches the surface, but it reminds me to keep refining my own narrative, whether through collage or by building digital worlds from my own perspective.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Follow the story. Build the system.
This member profile was originally published in March 2026.