ABOUT
Nicole Simmons is a Production Designer for Film and Television based out of Toronto, ON.
She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Fashion Merchandising at Humber College. In her last year of school she started a unisex clothing line called broke&living with her two partners.
It was through fashion and her photography that she found a love for Art Direction and designing sets. This passion led her to work as a Trend and Product Specialist for Homesense Canada. In this role she traveled from Toronto to India and parts of the U.S. to source, identify home decor trends, communicate the quarterly creative vision, and create products with her international teams. However, yearning to explore a more creative non-traditional career she left the corporate field to embark on a new path.
This sparked her journey into the film industry where she began working as a Production Designer in 2018. Since then she has garnered experience in a variety of formats including documentary, feature film, tv and web series, among others. Some of her most notable work is her production design of Scarborough (2022) which won Best Picture at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards. Revenge of the Black Best Friend (2022) which premiered at the Cannesseries Short Form Competition in 2022, earned her a nomination for Best Production Design at the T.O. Web Fest in 2023, and received 9 nominations at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards. Homeschooled (2022), which earned her a win for Best Production Design at the 2022 T.O. Web Fest. This Place (2022) which premiered at TIFF in 2022. Door Mouse (2022) which was a 2022 TIFF Industry Select. And more recently Shook which premiered at TIFF in 2024 and On a Sunday at Eleven which was part of the TIFF Shorts program in 2024. She is also nominated for another Best Production Design award at the 2024 T.O. Webfest for her work in Near or Far.
Nicole takes pride in creating colourful, visceral, and impactful worlds through her intentional visual storytelling. Her goal remains to amplify the voices of the BIPOC community through her designs, teams, collaborations, and platforms.
Let’s collaborate!
To inquire about projects requiring creative direction, production design, photography, and/or a consultation, please get in touch using my contact form to discuss rates and scheduling.
SKILLS & EXPERTISE
- Production Design
- Art Direction for Print
- Creative Direction
- Photography
- Design
EXPERIENCE/CLIENTS
- Co-Founder, Designer, Creative Director, Photographer- Broke & Living
- CBC Gem
- Sony Canada
- Popp Rok
- Rakuten Kobo
- Footlocker
- Adidas
- Staples
- National Film Board of Canada
- Work seen on: CBC Gem, TIFF 2021-2024, Cannesseries Short Form Competition, Canadian Screen Awards, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Crave, Hulu, Flare Magazine, The Fader, Fashion Magazine (also in Print), Elle Canada, Wonderland Mag, Hypebeast and Revolt TV.
SERVICES
- Production Design for Film, TV and Commercials
- Project based Creative and Art Direction
- Freelance Photography (in and out of studio, product, editorial, lifestyle, etc.)