A studio built around one designer being accountable
Creative Croods exists because the two normal ways to buy design — a big agency or a marketplace freelancer — both fail in predictable ways.
Creative Croods is a founder-led design and frontend development studio run by Faizan Ishtiaq, a designer with over ten years of brand and product experience. He is authorized to work in the United States; studio operations are based in Pakistan.
The studio offers fixed-price packages and a monthly retainer, serving startups and growing teams primarily in the US, UK and Canada.
Hi, I’m Faizan Ishtiaq
Founder & Creative Director · authorized to work in the United States
I’ve spent over a decade designing brand identities and digital products, most of it working directly with founders and small marketing teams through Upwork and Design On-Demand before starting this studio. I trained at the Step Institute for Art, Design and Management.
I started Creative Croods for a specific reason. Agencies bill hourly, which means nobody — including the agency — knows the final number when the contract is signed. Marketplaces solve the price problem and create a consistency problem: every project means re-explaining your brand to someone new and hoping the quality holds.
So the studio runs on three rules. Prices are fixed and published. The person you talk to is the person doing the work. And you own every file at the end, with no licence and no lock-in.
Over the years I’ve led design and brand work for teams including Fund&Grow, Deliver Capital, 1205 Marketing, Kaydem Credit, Moonshot Media, SAWA Event Co. and Source Station.
Three rules the studio runs on
Prices are published
Every package price is on the pricing page. You never have to ask what something costs, and the number doesn’t move unless the scope does.
One person is accountable
You talk to the designer. That caps how many projects run at once, which is a constraint we accept rather than hide.
You own everything
Figma files, Git repositories, exported assets. Transferred to you on final payment, with no licence and no reason to stay with us except that you want to.
How we got here
Step Institute for Art, Design and Management
Formal grounding in design fundamentals, branding and visual communication.
Freelance brand & digital design
Built a track record on Upwork and Design On-Demand designing identities and interfaces for clients across the US, UK and Gulf.
Founder, Creative Croods
Running a focused design and frontend studio on fixed prices, with a US-facing client base and a monthly retainer for teams that need design continuously.
About the studio
Faizan Ishtiaq, a designer with over a decade of brand and product work. He is authorized to work in the United States and personally handles every project — there is no account management layer between you and the person doing the work.
A studio: founder-led, deliberately small, with specialist collaborators brought in for defined scopes like illustration or motion. You get a single point of accountability with agency-grade process, without agency overhead priced into your invoice.
Studio operations are in Pakistan. Our founder is authorized to work in the United States and we serve US clients across all four time zones with overlapping working hours. Everything is contracted and invoiced in USD through Stripe.
Let’s work together
Tell me what you’re building. I’ll reply within one business day with a fixed price and a date.