We were lucky to catch up with Parker and Kalen Gohrick recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Parker and Kalen, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

In 2015, 2 years after getting married and living in a big city, we started dreaming of working for ourselves and of starting a family of our own. Parker, having an education in graphic design and owning his own 100 year old letter press wanted to use his skills and artistic ideas to create all things print (greeting cards, invites, business cards, etc.). Kalen, a dental hygienist, had no experience in the creative world but loved the idea of doing something different and creating relationships with customers. We decided to name our company Budding Brood, since we also had plans to start a family in the near future. We took a risk and up rooted our lives from Portland Oregon and moved to Ogden Utah. We were searching for a smaller town with a great community where we could live closer to mountains and have more sunshine! Ogden was a dream town for us, nestled in the Wasatch mountains with a thriving art culture, Ogden felt like home. We quickly built a community of friends and Parker began creating greeting cards to sell in local shops. We had some small victories, being written up in the local arts and entertainment newspaper, being nominated for an award as best new small business. Ultimately, we underestimated what it took to start a business, build a community, and start a family. We were busy, but also becoming broke. We both found full times jobs back in our original fields while still hoping to work on Budding Brood on the side. A year later we welcomed our first baby girl and life got even more busy and Budding Brood became less of a priority. Less then two year later we welcomed our second baby girl and Parkers full time graphic design job in the outdoor world was starting to grow. Less then a year later the company he worked for was purchased by a larger company and if we wanted to stay with the company we would have to move to Denver Colorado. By this point we were not putting any effort into Budding Brood. Even though we loved Utah, we chose to move with his job and relocated to Denver with our 1 and 2 year old girls. It was back to city life for us and the congestion and stress of that drove us all crazy. We lasted 9 months in Denver before COVID hit and we decided to return back to Oregon and be closer to our families. Bend Oregon has always been a city that Parker and I enjoyed visiting from when we lived in Portland. Bend has several of the same aspects that we loved about Ogden, community, mountains, sunshine! Again, we took a risk and moved here, no jobs no plan. I started working at a dental office and Parker stayed home with the girls while schools were shut down. It was a complete shift from him working full time in Denver. He had more time to spend with our girls all we all enjoyed the slower pace. By 2022 bother girls had resumed school so it was time for Parker to re-enter the design world. Bend, being the small, slightly isolated town that it is, doesn’t have a lot of large companies to work in house for. Remote work was going to have to be his niche. However, finding a job was not as easy as we had hoped for him. Even with over 10 years experience of graphic design, he was struggling to find a job where his experience would be valued and his creativity would be used. He wanted to find a job where his style and creativity mattered and was appreciated. By October 2022 he felt defeated. After weeks of talking about the frustration of working for other companies we circled back around to working for himself again. We discussed what had worked and not worked for Budding Brood and what he wanted to accomplish if we were to start down this road again. We wanted to build a studio that creates inspiring design, and has personal relationships with clients. Parkers unofficial slogan, ” I just want to design cool S***!” While we still have our letterpress, we wanted to focus more on branding, UX, packaging, and apparel. The first step was to come up with a new name, we had outgrown Budding Brood. Our new design studio would be called Good Vibes Club! We gave ourselves a deadline and started building a website and our socials. By November we were reaching out to potential clients and we approached by a few companies to work with them.
It took us seven years of dreaming and trying and failing and starting over to finally begin to succeed!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Good Vibes Club is a husband and wife ran design studio in Bend Oregon. Parker has always been creative since he was very young, dabbling in video and photography throughout his life. He studied graphic design in college and it has perfectly paired with his other creative outlets. Kalen however, has been a dental hygienist for 15 years, and while she doesnt possess the design skills, her career has honed her personal skills, and is easily able to connect, and build relationships with a variety of clients. Together we feel like both our communication and design skills mesh to create a unique design experience for our clients.
While we can do all things design related, we really thrive in brand development. packaging, and illustrations.
We are inspired by our surroundings which is why we have mostly worked with outdoor and active companies and are excited to expand out field.
We feel that design should communicate both who and what you are. it should speak to your audience on a subconscious level and make a positive impression upon them.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Co-founder, Kalen, is not a creative so she knows first hand the struggles a non-creative would have to understand what goes into creating a design business. Coming from the health world where everything has a protocol, and things are fairly black and white, and they always run on a schedule, it as been hard for me to let go and trust a more fluid conversation process.
To understand the creative world I have had to massively work on my patients. I like answers to be clear, and I want them immediately. Those things do not happen in this new world. There is a lot of communication back and forth between a designer and a client. There are drafts, and edits, and waiting for approvals, waiting on printers, a lot of waiting on other people when I am used to being fairly self sufficient. To help solve this frustration for myself, I have had to learn how important it is to have a great relationship and respect for our clients and vice versa. The more questions we can ask the better, so that we can understand their needs and their brand more clearly. Our job becomes learning them so that we can creating something they will love and will help to achieve their goals.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Seeing a small idea become a big idea through the growth of a project has always impressed and motivated Parker. It is also so rewarding to see your work in the real world, and see other people experience it as well. To walk through a popular store and see your work printed out huge on a window, or the packing that he designed on shelves next to other giant brands ,gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Seeing someone wear or use his merch design, and know that is is being enjoyed as much as he enjoyed creating it, is a great feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: vibesclub.co
• Instagram: vibesclub.co

Image Credits
Parker Gohrick