From Skate Deck Scribbles to Strategic Storytelling
Meet Kyle Nielsen, Founder & Creative Director of The Ageing Sea
The first spark: skate culture & serendipity
Kyle Nielsen’s design journey began on the underside of a skateboard.
“Tony Hawk’s deck graphics were my early influences in the world or art and design,”. The bold illustrations and colours were extremely eye catching and the 1980s skate culture seeded a lifelong fascination with how graphics move people.
The Hook: a Sharpie & a Surfboard
“My first commercial logo? A freehand design for Ben Biggs Shapes, a mate shaping surfboards at Beach Beat. I had no idea it was the start of a career.”
London lessons & a leap into formal study
Having worked at the Gold Coast Bulletin for 4 years since finishing high school Kyle was armed with curiosity, but no formal qualifications. Kyle left Australia for London. There he discovered that raw talent alone wasn’t enough: “Every job I applied for I needed a graphic design degree.”
Back home he enrolled at Design College Australia, immersing himself in design history, psychology and theory. A quote from modernist pioneer Lester Beall still guides his practice:
“A good designer has to be by nature a student and an experimenter – constantly trying to find new tools for expressing his (or her) ideas, as well as new inspiration for the restocking of his (or her) creative potential.”
~Lester Beall (1903 – 1969)
Why He Does It
Hard-won lesson:
“Don’t take yourself too seriously. If you write a bad headline no one dies—so have fun.” ~ Barry Dye, Creative Machine Gun / Design College Australia lecturer.
Kyle’s one-sentence mission echoes that mantra: keep it fun, keep it curious, keep it human.
Studio years & the thrill of the rebrand
Post-college, Kyle cut his teeth in a string of Queensland studios—from Kingsbury Design, Peter Sexty Design to Cocojambo, the in-house team behind Jetts Fitness Brand. Cocojambo stands out for its creative freedom and Kyle’s favourite pre-startup project: rebranding Morris Corporation (now Sodexo).
“Travelling to the Pilbara and North Queensland to interview miners at sunset in the mess, that’s when I realised branding was about people, not just colour palettes and pixels.”
Morning Rituals & Everyday Quirks
Sunrise reset: Walks Pinto the kelpie/collie cross to Fee-ka café, then checks The Bluff for a surf with his wife.
Midday fuel: Honeysuckle’s fried rice & Korean wings (“They call me Take-away Kyle”).
Office soundtrack: 90s Acoustics on Spotify for a dose of nostalgia-turned-focus.
Start-up roller-coaster: music, millions & hard truths
As smartphones reshaped media, Kyle worked in a digital start-up tackling music piracy with an ad-funded streaming model. He designed Graphical User Interface (GUI) which doubled as an investor presentation, for the founder to pitch to record labels and help raise AU $8 million.
The experience delivered two enduring lessons:
Keep learning new tools, tech never stops moving.
Choose partners wisely, equity is worthless until it’s worth something.
Agency life in the big smoke
Stints at Brisbane independents Nick Did This / Wunderkarma and Rumble, followed by global network Ogilvy, honed Kyle’s pitching skills and revealed a gap:
“Traditional agencies were brilliant at ideas but a little light on digital.”
Long hours and thin pay cheques accelerated the inevitable advice from mentors - start your own shop.
Mini-Timeline: Five Pivotal Beats
First sale: Designed business cards for a Chevron Island bar. Realised design can pay rent.
$8 million raise: Designed UI & investor decks for an anti-piracy music start-up. Cut teeth on tech, funding & global pitches.
Pilbara rebrand: Flew to WA & Nth QLD to rebrand Morris Corporation. Learned branding is about people, not pixels.
Agency stint: Presenting at Rumble, Wunderkarma & Ogilvy. Perfected the art of the sell, saw the digital gap.
2016 launch: Opened The Ageing Sea in Buderim. Turned advice into reality.
Enter The Ageing Sea - the phonetic wink
Say it quickly and “The Ageing Sea” morphs into “The Agency”. It’s a playful nod to both wordplay and Kyle’s love of the ocean. Doors opened in 2016 on the Sunshine Coast, with a purpose as buoyant as its name:
Purpose (Why): A vessel of curiosity, creativity and fun.
Vision (How): To be the go-to creative partner by combining empathy with a simplified approach to branding.
Mission (What): Listen, learn, educate - then deliver high-quality, high-value results.
Signature work & proof of concept
The agency’s portfolio blends big-brand thinking with small-business pragmatism. Highlights include:
Primec (formerly Haynes Mechanical) – full rebrand, brand architecture and rollout across national sites (2022).
Haynes Labour Hire – 18-month transformation that cemented the agency’s early reputation (2017).
MBFG Property – applying enterprise-level strategy to a regional finance and accounting firm, elevating them into a lifestyle-finance brand.
Explore the case studies: Primec, Haynes Group, MBFG Property.
Team culture: small, fluid, fiercely curious
The Ageing Sea scales to larger briefs, tapping into a network of specialists while mentoring junior talent in-house. “Whether it’s one designer or four, the vibe has to be welcoming, collaborative and fun,” Kyle says.
Creative philosophy
“Stay curious and listen - your client’s offhand comment might be the genesis of the next great concept. When customers proudly join a brand’s tribe, you’ve done your job.”
Proof in the Portfolio
Acres Noosa Launch Campaign
20,000 Google Maps searches in 4 weeks after a social ad blitz.
Values in Action
When a client’s Google Business Profile and Facebook page were mistakenly marked “closed,” Kyle spent 14 straight hours hunting down long-lost admins and restoring access. The client never saw the sweat, just the solution.
Third-Party Credibility
“Having worked with Kyle over many years on multiple business rebrands and related projects the team at The Ageing Sea have shown to be 100% reliable. Always a pleasure to work with, on time and consistently delivering outstanding results for our respective budget. You will pay much more from the bigger agencies.”
~ Rob Freeman, CEO, Sime Darby Industrial Services
Biggest juggling act
Running a studio means balancing invoices, inspiration and inboxes. Administration has been Kyle’s toughest wave to ride, “but every year the routine gets smoother and the creative gets stronger.”
Beyond the boardroom
When he’s not crafting brands, Kyle is chasing waves, rolling on a skateboard or supporting local sport - North Shore Boardriders, Grammar Rugby and Yandina Cricket Club all benefit from his creative and community spirit.
Beyond Billables: Community Footprint
North Shore Boardriders: websites, merch, event collateral since 2019.
Yandina Cricket Club: social media support.
Grammar Rugby: coached U12s Boys & U17 girls; ran the clubs email campaigns to members.
Looking ahead: new shores to chart
Growth: expand the client roster and build a permanent core team.
Dream brief: design a series of boutique wine labels that marry storytelling with tactile packaging.
“Maybe launching a design-heavy joint venture, or a boutique wine or whisky club, or even a skate brand for old blokes.”
Space: secure a bricks-and-mortar studio close to the coast - whiteboards, surfboard racks optional but likely.
Creative philosophy: Stay curious and listen, the next big idea is usually hiding in something the client says.
Ready to chart your brand’s course?
Book a discovery chat or dive into more case studies. Or simply drop in for a coffee at Buderim HQ (surf report optional).