We recently connected with Madison Newman, of Found & Forged Design Co and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Madison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I started my business as Madison Newman Design but recently rebranded to Found & Forged Design Co. This rebrand means so much more to me than just changing my name; it really feels like stepping away from freelancing and stepping into being an owner and creative director of my company.

The name Found & Forged Design Co. is a small glimpse into my process as a brand designer. The first phase of my process is a strategy call where we “find” the why behind my client’s business. What is truly at the heart of their offering? What problem are they solving for their client on an external level as well as a philosophical one? You may be selling a mortgage to purchase a home but what you are truly providing your clients is the ability to experience the warmth of home.

Once we have pulled back the layers of their messaging and found that main offering, we begin to forge their brand’s visual identity and personality. Much like the forging of metal, this phase of the process takes intention and time to craft. Each piece of the brand, the logo, the fonts, the color palette, and down to the illustration style are intentional decisions built on the brand’s foundation of its’s strategy and messaging. Found & Forged Design Co. is unique, beautiful, and authentic, much like the brands, I build for my clients.

Madison, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I love design, and I always have. I graduated from UNT with a BFA in Dance. After that, I worked for a boutique consulting firm where I traveled around North America helping CEOs and Executives gain clarity on how to better run their businesses. I assisted during sessions, managed all of our consulting material, created custom tools for clients, and created graphics for the firm. After my time there, I worked at a real estate brokerage managing their marketing and graphics. In 2020 after my son was born, I started my own design business because I am passionate about providing small businesses with branding and graphics that showcase who they are as a company and will serve them for years to come.

Design and creativity have always been a part of my life, but I didn’t start learning graphic design until my mid-20s. As an adult, I’ve had a hard time “choosing a career” because I had so many things that I enjoyed doing but never knew how to pursue them as an actual career. Once I fell in love with building authentic brands for businesses, that all changed. I’ve put in a lot of hours learning the programs, like Adobe Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop, etc, honing my skill and eye for design, and understanding the keys to creating a successful brand. Books like, “Building a Storybrand” by Donald Miller have been such a huge influence on how I structure my own business and how I approach client projects. I’ve also been so fortunate to find a community of designers who want to help one another grow – shout out to Foxtrot Branding and Better: The Brand Designer Podcast for creating these spaces and education resources for designers.

My services include brand and custom WordPress web design, as well as additional collateral such as print design, or social media templates.

I think a lot of new business owners invest in a logo for their business and think that is all they need to be successful, but really there is more to your business’s visual identity and personality. Without the guidance of a professional brand designer, your website, print material, or social media may be inconsistent or not even target the audience that is truly interested in your business offering.

Unfortunately, people don’t always notice good design, but they ALWAYS notice bad design. If your brand isn’t capturing who your business is, you may be losing credibility within your marketplace. That is where I come in.

I help business owners create brands that are authentic to who they are and are incredibly simple to use.

My base branding package includes: 1. a strategy meeting to dig into your brand’s messaging, 2. a full logo suite with a primary logo and several variations, 3. a color palette, 4. a font kit (to determine what fonts to use for your headers, sub-headers, and body copy), 5. custom patterns, and 6. illustrations to give texture and uniqueness to your website/social/print material/etc. I provide all of these in a branding guideline that details your company’s messaging, what to do and not to do when it comes to your brand, and how to use various file types.

I strive to make the utilization of my client’s branding materials as seamless as possible. The average business owner isn’t educated in design or fancy design programs, so I want the utilization of their brand to be clear and simple.

One of my passions in life is helping people feel proud of who they are and what they bring to the world. Having the opportunity to bring someone’s passion to the forefront of their business gives me more joy than I could ever imagine.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Joining the Denton Chamber of Commerce has been the turning point in my business’s success. Being a chamber member, as well as one of the chamber ambassadors, has given me opportunities to share my business with the Denton community, and meet other business owners with whom I’ve formed some pretty incredible friendships.

I get to share my business in a genuine way at networking events that are structured to group members together at random. Events like this give people who may be shy, like me, the opportunity to network on a smaller scale and in a more relaxed environment. Selling your product or offering online is so challenging, so getting to speak with people face to face and build relationships with them is something I will never take for granted. It also makes the opportunity to work with these people even more meaningful. Denton has a supportive, welcoming, and genuine business community, and I’m thankful to be a part of it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Being a business owner is hard, and unless you own a business, you don’t always understand the weight that statement truly holds. My story as a business owner has been one of overcoming fears, doubts, and unlearning thought patterns that I never knew were there. I’ve had the absolute pleasure to work with a business coach, Sara Schroeder Coaching, and that piece of my story has been the most challenging and rewarding piece so far.

I don’t have a specific story to share, but over time, I have realized how often I allow my mind to create narratives that may not be true and have come to recognize how strongly these narratives affect my mindset. An example of this is repeating to myself that “I don’t have time.” This negative thought pattern would throw me into a need to constantly be “producing.” I was constantly worried about meeting deadlines, caring for my son, my home, my marriage, my pets, my friends, my family, and on and on. Do you feel stressed yet? But once I started to tell myself I did have time, the fog of overwhelm cleared, and I was able to more clearly tackle the many pieces of my days, whether that be work or personal. I was able to take a step back. Spending 5 minutes putting away the dishes allowed me to maintain a cleaner home. Taking ten minutes to send that email I’d been putting off allowed me to free space in my mind to focus on the bigger tasks for the week. This is a mindset shift I have to actively CHOOSE to remain in, and it’s a challenge every day. This is where resilience comes in. I want to be better, and I want to take control of my thoughts but this takes a lot of effort and it’s something I have to take the time to focus on every day.

Contact Info:

• Website: foundandforgeddesign.com
• Instagram: foundandforgeddesign
• Facebook: foundandforgeddesign

Image Credits
Tricia Marie Photo.