Fortress Festival team launching Fort Worth-based creative agency

The team behind Fortress Festival is launching Fortress Creative, a new full-service creative agency focused on serving brands and local businesses.

The team’s current projects include a soon-to-be-announced new concert venue at the Wild Acre Brewery on Camp Bowie, an upcoming concept album entitled Alamo Bootleg, and several additional clients across various industries including financial services and publishing.

Fortress Creative is led by North Texas natives Alec Jhangiani and Ramtin Nikzad, who possess a combined 30+ years as filmmakers, film society directors and music industry entrepreneurs. The duo helped establish the Lone Star Film Festival and the Lone Star Film Society in Fort Worth, although more recently, the two local entrepreneurs launched a new event production and promotion company called Fortress Presents in 2015 that specializes in entertainment experiences and events across North Texas. 

“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. 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,” says Alec Jhangiani, co-founder and creative director.

The agency’s core capabilities include the following services:

• Branding
• Content Strategy
• Web Design
• Experiential 
• Digital Advertising
• Brand Response Marketing

The new company marks the team’s latest endeavor under the growing Fortress portfolio, in addition to the flagship music event (Fortress Festival) as well as event production and promotions company (Fortress Presents). Fortress Creative works directly with Facebook as a Facebook Marketing partner and is also a certified SharpSpring and Wix agency partner. 

 
After the team established the Lone Star Film Festival and Film Society in Fort Worth, in 2017, the team launched Fortress Festival, an independently-produced and award-winning boutique multi-genre music festival held each April in partnership with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The third annual event was held in April 2019 with the sold-out fest playing host to its largest crowds to date with fans traveling from across the country to attend.

The festival has continued to receive rave reviews from local and national publications alike, which includes being named one of the “10 Best Music Festivals in North America” by USA Today .

Following the success of the inaugural music festival, Fortress Presents has since continued to expand its clientele to include a diverse portfolio of branded events in North Texas while also offering additional services including talent booking, event production, and strategic partnerships. Past Fortress Presents clients have included 65th Annual Jewel Charity Ball held at the Fort Worth Convention Center featuring Earth, Wind & Fire; official launch party for Takashi Murakami’s “The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg” exhibit at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth featuring A-Trak; an annual summer concert series called “Modern Music” held at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; and creative direction behind a series of music videos for Dallas-based singer/songwriter Francine Thirteen, among others.

“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,” said Ramtin Nikzad, cofounder and creative director. “We now welcome the opportunity to turn our attention outward and put our insights in creative design and storytelling to work for our partners.  

More details about the new company are available online at FortressCreative.com.