Wayzata’s Fuzzy Duck invigorates branding with a clear direction.

There was never a dull day on the farm where Eddie Ulrich grew up in southern Minnesota. “I had ample opportunities to exercise my imagination,” says Ulrich. “This manifested itself in activities such as drawing comic strips and creating full plot lines and character dialogue with my GI Joes and Fisher-Price Adventure People.” He earned a reputation for his ability to draw and it was not long before people came to him with requests for artwork for lemonade stands and then small businesses.

One day, a farmer came to Eddie asking for a simple sign advertising ducklings for sale at an upcoming flea market. “I drew a little cartoon duck and in stylized letters wrote Fuzzy Ducks for Sale,” Ulrich says. “Although the farmer was puzzled by my choice of adjectives, he used the sign and sold every last duckling within the first half-hour of the flea market.”

Then, when the farmer got home, people kept asking him about ducklings. “He couldn’t understand all the fuss over common ducklings—especially in a farm community,” says Ulrich. “What he didn’t realize was that I had unwittingly made them into more than just ducklings—I had given them a unique graphic identity that set them apart.”

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