As part of the ongoing series of posts featuring the wonderful human beings who make up the Fierce People, I want to introduce you to Jack Burgess. When Jack first heard I was starting my own company called Fierce Strategy + Creative after almost a decade long run with my previous company, JDA, he insisted on doing the branding. I have known Jack since college and am a huge fan of his beautiful paintings and his wonderful scribe and design work with Fortune 500 brands across the country and I was eager to work with him on Fierce.
A big part of what I do as a creative director is create brands for multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies every day but I have learned that branding yourself is very, very different. I was so grateful for Jack’s wisdom and insight and patience as he guided me through the very steps that I have so meticulously guided our clients through over the years. He helped me stop and think about what was important to portray graphically with the newly minted Fierce brand and he took the brand to a place I could never have imagined. He asked hard questions, pushed back when he didn’t agree and forced me to think about everything differently, including myself.
The hand drawn Fierce logo and the beautiful bear are perfect in every way. Every time I look at them I smile. He captured the exact essence of what I desire FS+C to be. As I have debuted the bear and the brand to different ones who know me around the country and around the world, everyone has had an instant love affair with the bear. It’s been so wonderful to see how everyone personalizes him according to their own life experiences and how everyone has had an immediate affinity to what he represents. Insatiable curiosity, fierce loyalty, strength and quiet understanding.
I am so grateful for all the thoughtful conversations Jack guided me through in this process. He has made me see the Fierce brand and my personal brand in such a fresh new way. He has given me the courage to take only the good from my past two entrepreneurial efforts and bring it into Fierce with a renewed energy and a new perspective. He has helped me find my confident voice and I am so grateful. When I reflect on it now, I see that Jack is much like the bear he has created for me. His own professional, kind, quiet understanding has guided FS+C to a place visually where we are ready to get busy with my personal mission and that of FS+C of effecting change in our world.
See more of Jack’s work here: http://www.jackburgessstudio.com/
