Hey guys! I’m Nathan (he/him) - a Melbourne-based student and welcome to my cover letter for the Strategy Internship at Jack Nimble! Finishing up my Data Science studies at the University of Melbourne, I bring with me a wide swath of interests and skills. I am a photographer and video producer, video editor, an emerging game designer, developing both video games and board games, and graphic designer.
In this cover letter of sorts, I want to really take you on a journey and show to you who I am, and the creative whirlwind of a journey I’ve had over my life which has shaped not only who I am, but also given me the skills needed which I think make me an awesome addition to the Jack Nimble team. I will be referring and linking to many of the other pages on my website, so I encourage you to click on them and explore what’s within!
So let’s take it back to the beginning…
Like many kids my age, I wanted to become a YouTuber. So I became one! At the ripe old age of 7 years old, armed with an iPad, unsupervised internet access and a dream, I created my first YouTube channel.
And what did I make videos about? Everything a 7 year old boy cares about… Lego stop-motion animations and Minecraft tutorials, of course!
And so, throughout my childhood, I would hone my YouTubing skills through trial and error, finding the best OBS settings and fighting with Windows Movie Maker.
Growing older, I started to learn graphic design, trying to make the best thumbnails for my barely-edited, seldom watched Minecraft gaming videos, spending my spare minutes not recording a video, inside of the depths of Paint.net and Blender. Which lead me to a childhood side hussle?
Childhood side hussles?
Still at the ripe age of 10 years old, through my YouTube videos I began to become connected to other Minecraft YouTubers online who were also after video thumbnails and channel banners. And so began my first foray into entrepreneurship - “freelance graphic design”!
In vogue at the time, too were “speedart” videos, where graphic designers would record themselves crafting designs, sped up to 5x speed and accompanied by nightcore or EDM music. I too would join this trend, posting my “speedarts” alongside whatever Minecraft videos I was uploading too.
I’ve embedded one of them below in case you weren’t around for this mid-2010s niche YouTube subculture!
Anyway, childhood cringe over
And into teenage cringe - although many of my peers and I eventually stopped playing Minecraft as it was deemed “too cringe” and moved onto other games, I never really stopped my content creation journey. I never stopped learning new tools and software and eventually during high school I was introduced to the Adobe Suite including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and illustrator, and during that time I spent a lot of time experimenting, failing, surprising myself and continually learning. And of course, that was during the COVID lockdowns, where I had plenty of time to spare, and a restless imagination.
My life was never the same again after I discovered how to use plastic textures in Photoshop…
I continued my freelance graphic design work for YouTubers with hundreds of thousands of followers…
And studied Visual Communication Design! See some of my early struggles with rendering…
The camera that started it all
It was not too long after the end of the (first) COVID lockdowns where I had the opportunity to use a camera for the first time - it was Athletics Carnival and the nascent Melbourne High School Creative Studio was looking for photographers to cover the event for the yearbook! Little did I know that this decision to field a Canon 700D for the first time would lead me head-first into an obsession with photography, video production and cameras.
Over the next couple of years, I would take every opportunity I could to skip class to take photos of whatever event was happening at school, from water polo tournaments, to public speaking events and orchestra concerts! My omnipresence with a camera quickly earned me the title, “that camera guy”, one that would both get me out of class to take photos, but also place expectations upon me to get those deliverable photos “as soon as possible”.
MHS Creative Studio
Which takes me to my biggest project of high school - being the Creative Director of the Melbourne High School Creative Studio, inheriting an organisation of only a couple dozen and growing it to over a couple hundred.
During my tenure as Creative Director, we were able to to grow to ten departments, including Photography, Video Production, Post Production, Animation and Game Develop studios and release seven main video projects.
During my time in Creative Studio, I also learnt the ins and outs of video production, learning Blackmagic and Lumix camera systems, the basics of lighting and sound equipment, but most importantly, the communication and organisational skills required to manage and lead hundreds of students. I probably spent more time writing organisational how-tos and documentation than studying that year!
My university era
But everything I’ve covered up until now is kind of child’s play, literally. During the past three years of university, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience so many different things and really grow as a creative individual. Each of these experiences could be a chronicle on its own so I’ll quickly fire through them.
Joined the student magazine
In Farrago Magazine, I got to manage the Photo and Video Departments, did some cover photo shoots, which you can see here, here, and here! I got to go to the Student Journalism Conference in Sydney in 2024 and 2025, and I got to write a piece on public transport!
Joined a youth organisation promoting social entrepreneurship!
In Enactus Melbourne, I honed my design and social media skills in the Marketing Department, then my entrepreneurial spirit in the incubator program and eventually supporting student start-ups as a Vice President of Projects!
During my time there, I got to work on social issues such as venue accessibility, food insecurity, housing insecurity, equitable education and more!
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Built a start-up incubator program
Taking over from the previous co-founders, we taught students how to build their own start-up in 10 weeks, and hosted events with Notion Student Ambassadors and VC firms.
Worked on five student short films
As a Producer, Production Assistant, Gaffer, and more! This is where I learnt what it meant to buy public liability insurance for a forest shoot, the satisfaction of a good crew meal and how to be quiet on set.
Insert Frame
For the past two years, I’ve also been working at Insert Frame! To put it shortly, we’re a start-up all about designers, and developing tools to empower designers to put what they create on the web. We’ve worked on Framer plugins, design education courses, and right now we’re building our own design software! And that’s putting it in short terms.
During my time at Insert Frame, I’ve worked as a Operations Intern, working on all kinds of things, such as lead magnets and email marketing campaigns, to backend automations using Zapier, and designing websites using Framer and Figma! And for the past year I’ve taken on the role of an Operations and Product Analyst, using my skills to contribute to the products we’re building and our customers use every day. I’ve lead marketing campaigns, product launches and midnight live streams. The start-up life, I guess!
Did I mention we also worked on a documentary?
Now
Which brings me to now. I’m beginning finishing up my degree in Data Science, with one more semester left in Berlin! I’m always looking to combine my technical skills and insights with my creative career to contribute to creative production environments and the arts.
The reason I chose the Strategy Internship at Jack Nimble as I believe my breadth in creative skills accrued over a lifetime combined with my data-driven and methodical approach learnt from my education combine to position me as someone who understands the many creative languages spoken every day in a dynamic environment, but also has the right approach to execute it.
I hope that by taking you through a chronology of my creative journey, you can see the years of experience and breadth of skills I bring with me. Please feel free to check out the rest of my website or get in touch!