Alexandra Nikolova

Who am I

Master in: visual communication, visual thinking and facilitation, digital marketing, storytelling, (re)design of experiences

Focus on: (visual) communication, visual thinking and facilitation, storytelling, design

Number of trainings done: 30+

Number of sprints: 20+

Industries: IT, NGO, education, social design, entertainment, restaurants, bars & food services, art and culture

Еver since I was a child, I’ve adored drawing. My earliest “artworks” were city plans designed around circulating tram roads, as seen from the sky. I loved creating worlds - continents, countries, cities, languages, characters.

Even though I have been working in different fields, I was always attracted to visual language and communication. As a typical T-shaped person, I am interested in various topics and I specialised in visual communication, design and visual thinking.

Thanks to the many teams I’ve worked with, I managed to dig deeper into some other professional fields: digital marketing, non-formal education, graphic design and entrepreneurship. During the last few years, I had the opportunity to work on multicultural and international projects. They taught me a lot about nonviolent communication, storytelling and how to use art as a tool for inclusion and social integration.

The three most important professional projects

In 2012, together with my two co-founders, I jumped into a brand new and exciting adventure - the creation of our startup Eventyard. Everything we went through was full of professional and life lessons. We did not only learn a lot about ourselves but also about the importance of the team and the people you’re working and about starting a new business in a completely new and arising entrepreneurial environment in Bulgaria at that time.

After being a participant in a digital nomadism training course, organised by the french association Nomadways, I discovered the world of non-formal education. Shortly after I became part of that team and together we designed and implemented numerous workshops. Our training courses created space and time for educators and artists to experiment and find new points of view to the social and educational challenges they were facing.

Since 2020 I have the honour to be part of the creative journalism platform “Brush & Bow”. As a contributor, I illustrate articles, poems and prose created by authors living in the most eventful places on the planet. Collaborating with people who sailed the Mediterranean sea to escape the war or flew to an unknown country in order to be able to feed their family in Kenya is a unique experience that opens your eyes to the complexity in the world.

Your biggest failure and lessons learned

One of my greatest achievements is also my biggest failure. Thanks to creating Eventyard I also learned the lessons of building a startup from the ground up, finding investors and funding, and suffering its downfall.

Lesson learned: when you lack expertise within your team don’t hesitate to look for an expert to help you. There is always someone who has experience and knowledge to get you out of trouble and help moving forward.

On Sunday I wake up early to…

It is more like “On Saturday I go to bed late to...” draw something, to work on a personal project, read a book or watch a movie - to discover a new story. I am not a morning person, I am an owl. I am most inspired and happy when I am on the road.