When I started my design company over a decade ago, I named it FireWing Media. The name came from the story of Icarus – the boy who flew too close to the sun. At the time, I was rebuilding after burnout, trying to find that balance between drive and discipline. FireWing became my reminder that ambition is powerful, but it needs perspective. It represented the spark to create and the awareness to keep it steady.
A few years later, I took a different path and launched Fundy Float Corp, a float therapy business built around stillness and clarity. While creating its brand, I sifted through countless typefaces until I came across one called Ikaros. It immediately felt right – another quiet thread connecting my creative story. Another reminder that peace and ambition can coexist, and that the same myth that once warned me could also inspire calm.
Fundy Float thrived for a while. But as time went on, challenges began to build. The pandemic didn’t close the doors, but it reshaped everything – and over the next few years, it became clear that the business wasn’t sustainable. Letting it go was one of the hardest choices I’ve made, but it cleared space for something new to grow.
That space became Rise LaserWorks – a business rooted in creativity, resilience, and renewal.
The name Rise is about more than launching something new. It’s about standing back up, rebuilding, and choosing to move forward with purpose. The phoenix naturally became its symbol – rebirth through flame. And in a poetic twist, fire is quite literally the tool that shapes every piece I make. Each design is cut by light, forged by heat – a process that mirrors the creative journey itself.
In many ways, Rise brings me full circle to FireWing. Both are built on ideas of transformation – myth, flame, and flight. FireWing taught me to respect balance. Rise reminds me to keep evolving, no matter what the world throws my way.
Looking back, each brand has reflected a chapter of that growth:
- FireWing was about ambition and awareness.
- Fundy Float was about healing and calm.
- Rise is about resilience and renewal.
Together, they form a story of creative evolution – of learning, adapting, and continuing to build something meaningful from every chapter that came before.
Interested in what I've been doing over at FireWing?
FireWing Media is a brand strategy and design consultancy. Our primary focus is helping brands build a visual foundation to help reach their ideal clients, and leverage brand recognition through visual consistency.
