Nika van Olst is an author, podcaster, blogger and sustainability strategist.
Systemic design and communication for sustainable change.
We live in the best time. We have the ability to raise our voices and find a community to support our work. The internet has given us access to wide-ranging knowledge. We can contact anyone and ask for answers – we can make friends, connect to mentors. It’s become easy to befriend people around the world and learn from them, too – in just a few clicks.
I believe we have everything it takes to collectively create a just, sustainable future.
From my perspective, the challenges we currently face are a creative playground full of opportunities to improve and innovate.
As a trained designer,
I like to make ideas come to life and take projects from idea to implementation.
I’m fascinated by how human systems work and have a drive to experiment to eventually come up with clever solutions. In my work, I use design to create systems to encourage sustainability – in a social, environmental, and economical sense.
I’m excited you’ve found my portfolio website and
are keen to learn more about my projects.
You might know me because of
NEW STANDARD.STUDIO
I co-founded a Berlin-based systemic consultancy and design studio focusing on sustainability. We offer sustainable strategy development, trainings, and team building for companies interested in setting new standards.
BOOKS
After realizing there aren’t enough female role models talking about self-employment, I’ve written three books on freelancing in the creative industries. I’m currently working on a book about making sustainable change in your personal life.
ZUKUNFTSWÜNSCHE
Together with the podcast label Oh Wow, I’ve created a show talking about my wishes for the future. In my podcast, I share stories of my childhood memories, sustainability facts and figures, and my ideas for sustainable change. In the first season, we talk about waste and look at the topic from different perspectives.
I’ve worked with clients such as:
“Monika transformed how we should think about our project. In general, she understood our needs, our vision and identity, and was able to tailor our approach specifically to what we are trying to achieve.”
— Noah Telson, Comedy Café Berlin
“Monika’s final deliverable was in-depth, concise, and thoughtful despite having an insanely quick turnaround time. She was highly communicative and quick to respond – it was a pleasure working with her.”
— Ami Werner, Badger & Winters
“Monika inspired us with confidence from our first online meeting. Despite being unfamiliar with our business model, Monika quickly grasped how we operate and what we wanted to communicate to both existing and potential clients. We are delighted with the end result.”
—Sarah-Jane Newton, Go Global Outsourcing
“Monika pushed us to answer some difficult questions when we first began our website project, to really help us get under the skin of the problem. She was then super focused on the solution and came up with exactly the content we were after. Organised and always smiling, she's great to work with!”
— Jamie Milnes, Double underscore
