Fergus Creative

📚 Why Branding Matters for Your Business 📚

Branding is more than just a logo; it's the heart and soul of your business. Here’s why investing in strong branding is crucial:

First Impressions Count: A professional brand identity creates a positive first impression.

Builds Trust: Consistent branding establishes credibility and trust with your audience.

Differentiates You: Effective branding sets you apart from competitors.

Emotional Connection: Strong brands create emotional connections with customers, fostering loyalty.

Boosts Marketing Efforts: Cohesive branding enhances the impact of your marketing campaigns.

Investing in your brand is investing in your business’s future. Let’s make your brand unforgettable! 💡

Let's discuss how we can elevate your brand together.

While I get back into the swing of things and continually pivoting from in-house thinking to a more creative approach with my freelance I wanted to showcase some of my thought process and challenges. I have found it hard to translate my ideas from my head into something tangible that even closely represents a logo. Mostly because of being out of this type of work and jumping back into it I have to dust off the cobwebs. It's easy to think that logos take seconds and you can take an idea, slap it on your screen and it's done but ultimately a brand can take weeks, if not months or years, to perfect.

The Bear has been a show that I recently got into watching and relate to it so much. The social and mental challenges of Carmy was something I could really connect with. The way they are able to achieve this, even in the last season where dialogue was half of what it was in the past, was extraordinary and I cannot wait for season 4.

I decided to take up the challenge of creating a brand for the Michelin Star chasing restaurant with the same name. Taking frames from the show and grabbing colors along with inspiration from my 2nd hand experience with restaurants, I am working on developing a logo that is messy, organic, and shows the ego of a head chef while also being methodical, purposeful, and detailed. I want this logo to show every inch of texture, of realism, and in a growing digital industry of design, of organic creation. Stay tuned for my continued work on this but for now here is a glimpse of the mood board and inspiration behind this brand project.

🔔 Reminder: I'm Here for All Your Design Needs! 🔔

Did you know I offer a wide range of design services to help your business stand out? Here’s what I can do for you:

🌟 Logo Design: Custom logos that capture your brand’s essence.

🌟 Branding: Complete brand identity packages.

🌟 Web Design: Stunning websites that convert visitors into customers.

🌟 Digital Marketing: Having a hard time interacting online?

🌟 And More!: See something I haven't included or just want to have a chat about your business? Let me know!

Whatever your design needs, I’ve got you covered. Ready to take your business to the next level? Contact me today for a free consultation!

Graphic design is a challenge and competitive industry. With the mix of agency,
in-house, and freelance opportunities it can be hard to stand apart from your fellow designer. Here are some quick tips on how to rise above the others and make yourself stand out. To read more about this topic go to https://www.ferguscreative.com/resources/5-ways-to-stand-out-as-a-designer

Develop a Unique Style.
Build a Professional Portfolio.
Leverage Social Media.
Network and Collaborate.
Always be Learning and Improving.

Showcasing some recent work that I've done!

My Brand Booster was a digital marketing agency looking to increase brand's exposure. The lightning and "B" was direction from the client. I created a simple and concise logo that still provided some uniqueness with fitting the lightning bolt using the same angles as the "B"

Daylight Donuts is a local donut shop that I remember our babysitter taking us to every week when I was younger. Their logo hasn't changed in 20 years and so I wanted to update it using brighter colors and modern elements. They have moved to an area with lots of business turn over and a busy street so having bright bold colors helps drivers see the sign from the street.

RockLife Consulting is a life coach and consulting business. I wanted to create a bold, strong design that took elements from stone, while also showing the different elements of life, represented by the different triangles.

1 aspect of this business that I enjoy so much is being able to bring people's ideas into something tangible. I was so happy to turn this person's hard work, and passion into a logo that can show and represent that.

Take a look at some of the recent logos I've been lucky enough to work on!

Ferg's Lockout
My brother runs a lockout business on the side and wanted to have a logo to put on the back of his window. People come into town for concerts and lock their keys in their car so the key logo was obvious. Color scheme from the place he was working at at the time had a lime green logo and he liked that.

Bubble Exotics
A friend's girlfriend was opening up an exotic pet shop, specializing in axolotls. The idea came from their passion for video games and fantasy. I pictured an old wooden shop sign from Lord of the Rings or another fantasy world.

Droning on and on
They were starting a drone services business. I used aspects from google maps or apple maps and translated it into a logo while using muted colors to not have the favicon look like a blatant rip off.

After much prayer and contemplation, I am trying to lift my design agency/freelance business up to the point of taking it on as my fulltime career, and I wanted to ask you a HUGE favor: if anyone you know is looking for help in graphic design, branding, or digital marketing can you forward them my info?

I’ve found that my FAVORITE people to work with come from people with value the work of small businesses and the unmatched quality and human experience they can possess.

I plan to offer the following:
Digital Marketing
Identity Design(full encompassing brand package outside of just a logo)
Branding Consulting
General Graphic Design
Website Design

and I am always up for a challenge if the need is something more!

www.ferguscreative.com

Fergus Creative I'm a designer and brand strategist. I deeply care about the relationships and connections I make. Let's make sure your business does the same.

Well, my new year goal of posting more consistently ran into a road block, my own human nature. I had 7 other posts planned after January 10th. Ranging from short form content display latest work, my work from home set up (minus the renovation mess) and how I break down my pricing, but between the wild life of having a new born, trying to get some sort of routine back into our household, and trying to stay above water, I took a big step back and took some time away from the too familiar fast paced, go till you cant no more environment of content creation and trying to grow my social media following in hopes of generating leads. I have no idea where to start but I still have 11 months to reach my open ended goal of that and with God's help I will. I am taking a fresh step forward again.

Romans 3:23-24(ESV) "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,"

Matthew 19:26(ESV) "But Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'"

Hi! My names Ian and I am the owner and sole proprietor of Fergus Creative. Here are some facts to help you get to know me! I graduated from Des Moines Area Community College in 2014 with a degree in graphic design and love what I do! I especially love branding and logos but enjoy just about anything design related. I have 3 wonderful kids and we just welcomed our 4th in November! My goals are for this to replace my day job and allow our family to spend more time together!

In an effort to keep myself accountable and keeping my resolution of consistency, I am relaunching a lost idea of mine: Brand of the month.

Every month I will choose a random industry and document and create fort this "brand":
- Logo
- Package/Business Card
- External Signage

I am so excited to be able to dedicate more time to a passion I have had little time for.

To celebrate the new year I am offering 24% off all services! Reach out or visit http://www.ferguscreative.com to learn about all of the different ways we can partner to make 2024 one your business will never forget!

As we start the new year I wanted to share some of my New Year's Resolutions for this page and my business and be transparent about future/past endeavors.
- Post more consistently and frequently to increase traffic and increase conversion chances!
- Make this the best year for earnings! 2023 was the best year for me since 2019 for freelance earnings but I still have a long way to go. I am hoping that by implementing a social media schedule and posting my work more regularly it will be a driver to make this the best year yet
- Have fun and don't stress! Its easy to see December 31st and say "Shoulda, woulda, coulda." but this past year had its ups and downs, trials and rewards. So, I am taking this next year as it comes and giving it to God. Luke:12 24-26 "Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?".

Here's to a great 2024!

Creativity and logo design can a road of ups and downs, twists and turns, and a lot of getting out of your own head.

This afternoon I picked up my Apple Pencil for a quick logo design after quite the time away. Life has been busy and while I am still designing, it has been more corporate. This was a huge struggle to think of ideas and get back into the creative mind set but I think I did okay. It's interesting to see how much your current state can dictate your creativity.

Siam Table is a Thai restaurant at the north end of Ankeny. Looking at some reels I noticed a few people doing random local business redesigns and so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon. The logo uses the Thai letter for "S" and the typography leans on Thai themes without aggressively fitting stereotypical asian fonts. The letter itself had some very harsh lines when referencing so rounding them off made a softer, more personal approach.

You know how we know a sales director or non-marketing person is in charge of your companies social media? Lack of engaging posts, lack of schedule, lack of purpose. Turn your lack of a marketing plan into an abundance of interactions and customers.

My wife and I had been searching for a church that met our spiritual needs for what feels like since the day we met. We were told about Heartland Church by a couple friends a few months ago and haven't looked back! They check quite literally every check box that we have for our family. From the worship, to the strong messages Pastor Dave preaches.

Anyways, while their logo and brand certainly is not in desperate need of a rebrand I want to dust off my creative thinking and problem solving skills and do a logo that have multiple meanings.

The mark itself is a lamp. In the Bible it talks about how we are the light of the world and to share the light with others. Pastor Dave mentions that quite a bit and I loved the idea of using it as a logo.

Within the lamp you have two elements: a flame segmented into 3 parts and farmland.

The flame is broken up into 3 parts to represent the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit while.

The farmland represents Heartland's heritage and history. The current building in north Ankeny just turned 20 years old and while the landscape in that area has changed drastically it is still surrounded by farmland. It also represents the reaping and sowing of the church body.

While talking with a few staff members over at Valley Church I was reminded of all of the good they do for their community. One thing being Alpha group. "Alpha is a series of sessions exploring the Christian faith, typically run over eleven weeks. Each talk looks at a different question around faith and is designed to create conversation." While I think the current logo (1st image) does a good job a representing the literal aspect of Alpha, I wanted to redesign it.

I created this modern type face and removed the crossbar of the "A" to reinforce modern trends while also looking like an upward error and representing what I thought the secondary purpose of this group. To elevate one's understanding of Christianity. This was a fun little project and while I am sure there is alignment and other type related issues that can be improved upon, it was great doing something a little different.

Fergus Creative updated their phone number.

Spent some time reworking one of my projects! Before and after: I made the tagline of the logo more bold, added more elements to the lid to make it stand out and fixed some spacing issues. Love the new, more unified look of Cosmino Gelato!

Little fun project I had in my head that popped into my head one night at Starbucks. I used the song "That's Amore" as inspiration while working on this, as can be seen in the box design. The emblen can easily be distinguished no matter the scale and also plays at the age-old theory that the Moon is infact made out of cheese.

I had the opportunity to do this branding project for an architecture firm! This company has been around for 50+ years, but none of their old partners that made up the firm named Finsted Narley Jones Architecture stuck around. They wanted to completely abandon their now irrelevant name and requested something fresh. I had so much fun doing this and was able to grow a lot as a designer in the short span of this project!

As I got to creating this I wanted something new and unique that you don't see in very many architecture brands, hence where the name came from.

A Corbel is a structure in a building that is used to carry and support additional weight. With being around for 50+ years it can be assumed that this place has helped surrounding firms and has supported the regional architectural community. The word "corbel" actually has its origins rooted in the word "corvus", meaning raven. The raven is a symbol for many things, including transformation, which was what this company was trying to achieve.

You can dive more into my design choices and reasoning at https://buff.ly/3tGAdlW .

Daylight Donuts is more than a small shop for me. I remember as a child my babysitter (we considered her our second grandma because she watched my other two siblings) to daylight donuts to get a glazed donut and an AE Dairy box of chocolate milk. Their logo being a simple rooster. I decided that in a world of crazy concotions like "Fruity Pebble", "Rocky Road" flavors we need a place that does the simple things right. Some days don't you just crave a great plain glazed donut? *Package and Menu Design coming!*
Daylight Donut Flour Co., LLC

The last months have shown me that something needs to change and that being comfortable is not always a good thing. So, I am diving head first into this business owner venture.

My website: https://buff.ly/3ostyss is now live. It showcases my work and life experience and I hope to add more and more to it as a learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship. I would greatly appreciate any traffic to this site I can get and so if you could share this with family, friends, random people on the street to help me gain traction that would be great!

Ian Ferguson Take