The story started with Gregg who lived in NYC and worked as a print broker out of college. Being an avid music enthusiast, he used an image of a roasted chicken from an obscure band to create a piece of film positive at one of the print shops.

Gregg eventually moved to Portland and found a job mixing inks. He used this roasted chicken image to create a test screen for testing ink colors. The print shop created ads for busses that had an adhesive backing, so it didn't take long before Gregg had a huge stack of multicolored Roasted Chicken stickers. Then he was laid off.

Gregg started printed t-shirts in the basement for a lot of local bands. He used all those chicken stickers to write his contact info on the back - and used them as business cards

It didn't take long before people started referring to him as: the chicken guy that prints T-shirts. Gregg met Gail playing pool at a local dive bar and soon they became a team in personal and business endeavors. Gail learned Photoshop and Illustrator and created show posters, cards, and basic t-shirt designs for Gregg to print. She quit her last bartending job in 2000 to work with Gregg full time.

At first the name of the house they lived in became the name of the business: Big Blue. However, when the internet started up and they needed a website, that name was taken and so a new name was necessary. Since people already saw Gregg as 'that chicken guy' the word: chicken had to be in the name.

Working in the basement, away from the public, while also having a very public online presence, it felt like being hidden - like a ghost... and that's how Phantom Chicken emerged in 2002 with a brand new chicken logo.