Who We Are

Integrity, creativity, and empathy shape the way we work. These aren't just words—they’re the foundation of everything we build.

What began as a passion project has evolved into something more. We're proud of where we've been and even more excited for what's ahead. What sets us apart isn't just our process — it's the intention behind it. We take time to understand, explore, and create with purpose at every turn.

The Nave is founded by Jo Grams, who leads a team of highly skilled collaborators. Her path here wasn't a straight line — and that's exactly the point.

Jo started with a degree in graphic design, then spent the better part of two decades building an award-winning photography career, working across weddings, portraiture, and personal branding — published in Vogue, NZ Weddings, and Women's Day, and recognised with top honours from NZIPP, WPPI, and the AIPP.

But before the camera, and in between, Jo was learning business from the inside. She trained and worked in interior design, developing an eye for how space, layout, and visual hierarchy shape the way people feel about a place — the same instincts that now shape how a brand feels the moment someone lands on it. She went on to earn her branch manager accreditation in real estate, running operations, managing a team, and learning firsthand what it takes to build trust fast, close well, and keep a business moving. It's where she picked up the commercial instincts — sales, systems, client management — that a lot of creatives never get exposed to.

Along the way, Jo became the person friends turned to when they were starting something of their own. Helping a mate figure out pricing. Sorting out a logo over coffee. Talking someone through their first website, or their first hire. Nothing formal — just Jo doing what she does, taking a business from zero to hero because she genuinely couldn't help herself. It turned out that instinct — for spotting what a business needed and building it out, piece by piece — was as much a part of her as the camera.

Born on Australia's Sunshine Coast and based in Christchurch, New Zealand for over 21 years, Jo carried all of it — design, business operations, sales, storytelling, and that habit of helping people build something from nothing — into a photography career that took her from Barcelona to Bali to Singapore, capturing hundreds of love stories and building brands along the way.

Somewhere in that work, a pattern emerged. The businesses and brands she photographed often struggled with the same thing her couples never did: knowing how to show up authentically. They had something real to offer. They just didn't know how to communicate it — or how to build the systems behind it that make a brand actually work.

So Jo built The Nave.

Named for the heart of a church — the central space where people gather, where things of meaning happen — The Nave is a creative studio for small brands, founders, and service businesses that deserve to be seen clearly. It brings together Jo's eye for design, her operational instincts from running a business, her storytelling craft, and a method built to move fast without cutting corners.

The Nave method starts the same way every great photograph — and every good business decision — does: by listening. By finding what's already there. And then shaping it into something you're proud to put your name on.

Let's find your flow.