Ferry Clever
Company background:
Christopher Ferry first started his ‘Ferry Clever’ greeting card company when the first lockdown hit in early 2020 as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. He had one simple goal in mind at the time – to make people laugh during a rough time for everyone.
Christopher has been a graphic designer for over 15 years and was always kept busy however when the pandemic occurred, all his client work stopped as many local businesses were forced to close their doors unexpectedly.
However Christopher saw this as an opportunity to make his idea a reality and utilize his graphic design skills to launch his own greeting card business and this closely followed by a bricks and mortar store based in the Bishop Street area of Derry ~ Londonderry.
His graphic design client work was predominantly for the entertainment industry and included local dance legends Jike Jike. Christopher also created small design pieces for music icons such as DJ Jazzy Jeff, Mad Skills, Snoop Dogg, Phil Coulter and was honoured to do so.
Challenge:
The company wanted to record personalized messages using local legends and present these messages to customers in a unique and novel way. Christopher also wanted to embed scannable images into the cards which would generate an augmented 2D OR 3D experiences.
Solution:
To assist with the development of their concept, Ferry Clever was supported by North West Regional College (NWRC) Business Support Centre (BSC) through the InnovateUs programme which is funded by the Department for the Economy.
NWRC Creative & Digital Media Technical Consultant Aaron McKeever provided 60 hours of upskilling support in testing trigger images and creating 3D objects, testing trigger images, and testing AR experiences and creating 3D photorealistic interactive experiences.
Impact:
On completion of the project the company was able to develop an innovative range of interactive and augmented reality based cards for sale on his website and in his shop.
Christopher Ferry, Owner of Ferry Clever, described the benefits of working with NWRC’s Business Support Centre via the InnovateUs Programme:
‘’From start to finish Aaron was extremely helpful and creative. I never thought this would be possible as it seemed a very time consuming and expensive process, but Aaron and NWRC Business Support created and implemented the campaign straight away. The whole process was brilliant from start to finish, and I can’t wait to explore AR creation more. I would highly recommend any small business owner to get in touch with NWRC Business Support if you have any digital media ideas, they will point you in the right direction and be happy to help you. Thank you so much again for making my product better. Forever grateful.’’
