Meet Chris Draney and Carrie Draney | Artist/Graphic Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Draney and Carrie Draney and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris Draney and Carrie Draney, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The answer is pretty clear cut, we were poor college students. As a newly married couple we rented a tiny but charming pioneer home. Chris is an artist and was determined to find an inexpensive way to decorate the walls. The idea was to use free wooden pallets and to paint signs from our favorite places. The first place Chris painted was our favorite national park – Arches. Everyone who saw it wanted one, and we started selling these painted pallet signs at our local farmer’s market. We discovered that we could actually make money doing something we loved. As demand increased, we couldn’t paint pallets fast enough. Now we design original posters inspired by vintage WPA national park posters for all of our favorite places.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
We are passionate about the outdoors and want to see and do as much as we can. Our art allows us to see the world and to share our adventures with everyone. The Window West also allows us to connect with people. We can’t see it all but you can help us. We love working with customers to create beautiful posters from all over the world. Many of our designs are based on customers’ travels. We value our customers and we value the integrity of our business. Building this business has taken time and is not without its challenges. For example, when we started to ship our posters we were having issues with lost items. We decided to take a tour of the shipping facility to see where the issue was occurring. After seeing a very complicated sorting process, we realized that round shipping tubes rolled all over. Seeing the process first hand allowed us to modify our packaging materials to minimize issues, thus the triangle shipping tubes. This is just one of many challenges we have overcome but we try to take the same approach to each issue. As business owners we want to be involved in every process and we want to make sure we are providing the best service possible to our customers.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Utah is the adventurers playground with the mighty 5 National Parks but first you need to fill up with a square donut from Lehi Bakery and a delicious drink from Sodalicious. Now you must see all of the mighty National Park but our first trip would feautre our favorite National Park – Arches National Park. A beautiful place to explore the natural stone arches. Hiking to Delicate Arch is a must but they park also features over 2,000 arches. We must see the tallest arch, Double Arch at 144 feet and the longest arch, Landscape are at 306 feet. When we visit the parks, we like to camp nearby. Nothing beats getting back to the basics: sleeping in a hammock and cooking on the fire.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
This truly is a family run business. We have spent countless hours designing, printing and packing orders together. Our children have spent countless hours placing stickers on packages and watching mom and dad work. Our extended family has stepped in when we couldn’t keep up with demand. We are lucky to have such supportive parents who have helped us move the business and pack orders themselves. We are incredibly grateful for our family!

Website: www.thewindowwest.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thewindowwest

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thewindowwest