WTF is Fine & Feral

What is Fine & Feral?

The original Fine & Feral Co. logo

Honestly, it’s a play on words that started as a random idea in a notebook (Field Notes ftw) and has become my obsession since 2023. I don’t recall where I was or why it came to mind but one day I was just thinking about the old phrase, “just fine and dandy,” and blurted out the alliterative contrast of “fine and feral” to myself. 

“How are you doing today, Jake?”

“Just fine and feral, thanks for asking!”

Whenever I thought about it after, I thought about how it represented my daily life of professional polish and oh-so-mildly-controlled chaos with a neurodivergent family of four at home. Fine and feral, an extreme contrast at face value, has actually come to  represent what I think we all strive for. Balance. Throughout history and especially in our modern times we’re inundated with balances of high and low, refined and wild, classy and lowbrow, city and country, activity and rest. 

From an ungendered perspective, it’s how my neurodivergent brain (and I suspect others’) works and how I conduct myself in professional vs. private settings. I can mask all the way the fuck up and speak executive to present business cases for both my success and the additional resources I need to drive even greater results. It’s also how I come crumbling down after that, stripping to boxers as soon as I get home and inhaling Cool Ranch Doritos straight from the bag, quoting Super Troopers to stim; “I am all that is man.” 

Sorry for the visual but facts are facts.

For me, as a cis-gendered man, it’s become the ethos of who I am, and I think for men like me it represents a version of the masculine ideal that we can aspire to in a positive way. It’s the cowboy that can mend a fence and quote Camus. It’s the dad that can change his own oil and paint the perfect pedicure for his daughter. It’s the strong person we’ve all been told to be, who also supports the feelings, emotions and needs of his loved ones and community. 

One of my special interests since I was in kindergarten was creating brands. Not kidding; I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I’d brand my cardboard inventions, the microwaved pepperoni omelettes I’d taught myself to make, my budding dinosaur research firm… Now older, when I sketch or come up with a creative idea I immediately try to figure out how to brand, and often monetize it. Fine & Feral was no different, and as my web store indicates it was originally envisioned as a sticker and apparel business. Huge moneymaker, I know, but it scratched my creative itch from a lot of different angles. My sketches and ideas became both a leisure-time escape from the professional and autistic burnout that was accelerating, and something I was preparing to be “ready” to launch once I just had enough designs. 

In no particular order of importance, I draw creative inspiration from the DIY ska/punk scene of the 80s and 90s (that’s the late 1900s for you young ‘uns), photography, skateboarding culture, hiking and camping, nature in general, tiki culture, classic cartoons, traditional American tattoos, nautical endeavors, vintage advertising and graphic design, sci-fi and fantasy. All of these can be reflected in my drawings, my analogies, and how I connect sometimes disparate parts to make magic.

Burnout came. Alcoholism came. Layoffs came. Shame, sadness and hopelessness came. The end of 2025 and beginning of 2026 have been some of the toughest months of my life, but the one thing that’s stuck in my mind is Fine & Feral. I was still an accomplished marketer even if my wardrobe had taken a turn towards college-freshman-in-the-dining-hall-for-breakfast style. I was still a creative person even if the thought of picking up a pad and pencil gave me anxiety. I was still the perfect blend of wit and grit that the modern world needs. I decided that readiness was a myth, like so many inspirational Instagram posts had assured me, I registered my domain, I built my site, and I made Fine & Feral Co. a thing. It encompasses what I am professionally and personally, and whether it’s channeling my creative thinking into a web strategy or the latest drawing that I just had to make into a sticker, it’s all me.

I’m glad you’re here on this adventure with me. Like David Bowie famously said, “I don’t know where I’m going from here but I promise I won’t bore you.”

Jake