In 1984, while he was still a student at University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB) Chip was eager to put his savvy business skills to use and started his first company. Chip organized a contest where the sororities of UCSB voted for the cutest boys on campus. Chip had photographs taken of the winners, printed a quick black and white calendar, and then sold it on campus. Due to the wild success of the calendar, Chip had a hunch that there was a broader market than just the girls at UCSB and Day Dream Publishing was born.
With help from his sister, Joellyn, and brother, Chris, they began developing a modest selection of generic themed calendars like kittens and puppies. However, the Conks had their collective finger on the pulse of popular trends and fashion, and began focusing on acquiring the top licenses in the marketplace.
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Within a matter of a few years, Day Dream employed over 600 employees and developed into the largest calendar and poster publishing company in the world. Day Dream licensed marquee names including:
All Disney animation such as The Lion King
The National Basketball Association
The NFL
Major League Baseball
Sports Illustrated
Warner Brothers themes - Looney Tunes and Jurassic Park
A host of super models (Paulina Porizkova (1,2,3), Cindy Crawford (1, 2, 3), Kathy Ireland)
Music greats (The Beatles, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks)
Hit television series (90210, Home Improvement)
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At their peak, Day Dream had over 300 of these exclusive licenses and sold over 2,400 different types of calendar and poster products.
Read an article about the Conk clan's calendar coup.
On the retail side, Day Dream became a preferred vendor to Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Sam’s Club, Costco, Waldenbooks and B. Dalton - ultimately selling products in 27,000 stores in the USA and 26 countries worldwide. As President of Day Dream, Chip not only oversaw the financing of the company and big picture vision for its future, he also directed the creative focus. Joellyn focused primarily on sales to Kmart and the book retail trade while Chris began handling all international sales.
Steady growth enabled the company to invest millions in technology making them an innovator in complicated sales curve analysis for “just in time” product delivery. Because of the commitment to knowledge based printing and sales as well as its talented employees, Day Dream earned the reputation as the vendor delivering the most profitable square footage in many mass merchant venues. In addition, the “just in time” analysis allowed stores to carry considerably less inventory while enjoying increased sales.
Under Chip’s stewardship as CEO and Chairman, Day Dream enjoyed an annual compounded growth rate of 30% from 1984 to 1997. The business community took notice of Day Dream’s phenomenal success and, in 1993, Chip was a finalist for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year award. After 14 years of solid growth and a highly successful journey, Day Dream was sold in 1997. Present >>