Pictured: The Voidz perform at Fortress Festival 2018. Photo by Ismael Quintanilla.
Just because there's no Fortress Festival this year, doesn't mean its founders haven't been busy working on other projects behind the scenes.
Their newest venture — Fortress Creative, a full-service creative agency offering brand design, content strategy, digital advertising, and the like to brands and businesses. Fortress Creative is the third company under the Fortress brand, which also includes the festival and production and promotions company Fortress Presents.
“Looking back, our evolution into a creative agency was somewhat inevitable and in the last year or so we’ve really leaned into it, conducting market research and branding exercises to determine what kind of agency we want to be and what we can most effectively offer our clients," Alec Jhangiani, co-founder and creative director, said in a statement. "From content strategy to brand design to digital marketing, our careers have always revolved around the major marketing disciplines, so it’s only natural that we take advantage of what we’ve learned and use it to help others."
Among their current projects is a soon-to-be-announced music venue at Wild Acre Brewing Co. and an upcoming concept album called Alamo Bootleg.
At Wild Acre, Fortress Creative will be in charge of producing, booking, and providing creative direction for the outdoor performance space expected to open at the brewery's original location at 1734 E. El Paso St., Ste. 190. According to a news release, Wild Acre plans to host a mix of local and touring acts and will announce a performance schedule and ticket information in the coming weeks.
Fortress Creative is also handling creative strategy, art direction, and marketing efforts for Alamo Bootleg, a 20-song project that tells the lesser-known stories from the Battle of the Alamo. Spearheading the album is Eric Steele, partner at The Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff just outside of downtown Dallas, with Josh Block, co-founder of Fort Worth music studio Niles City Sound, on production and artists and repertoire (A&R) support. Texas musicians Robert Ellis and Charley Pride are among the performers.
“With the formation of Fortress Creative, we celebrate the next phase in a longstanding collaboration with a unified team of experts responsible for the success and growth of the Fortress brand,” Ramtin Nikzad, co-founder and creative director at Fortress Creative, said in a statement. “We now welcome the opportunity to turn our attention outward and put our insights in creative design and storytelling to work for our partners."
