Gregg Hogan
Coffee Shop Creations
By Kathleen Downey
- Gregg Hogan
Gregg Hogan is young, caffeinated, laid back, and ambitious. The last two descriptors might seem to cancel one another, but these traits instead are complementary attributes of Hogan’s personality. Sitting in his remote “office” at Plum Island Coffee Roasters, with his laptop and coffee cup before him, Hogan is both relaxed and enthusiastic while talking about his entrepreneurial endeavor, Coffee Shop Creations. The unassuming web developer with the townie lineage (his father is Newburyport carpenter Mark Hogan), started his web design business in 2009. “The name might sound a little cutesy,” Hogan allows, but he explains that the social atmosphere and conviviality that local coffee shops provide feed his creative muse—hence, the title. A handful of collaborators comprise Hogan’s inventive and imaginative young staff.
When he was growing up, Hogan aspired to become a carpenter—like his dad. “But my father sweet-talked, ‘guilted’ and threatened me into going to college first,” Hogan says, laughing. So Hogan went off to the University of Vermont, in Burlington, where he majored in marketing. When he wasn’t studying, Hogan says that he enjoyed being a ski bum, or more precisely, a snowboarding bum. This was also the “goldfish period” of Hogan’s life. He kept his aquatic friend in a Magic Hat growler (filled with water, not beer, Hogan stresses), sparking animated conversation, especially when Hogan stopped at a bar. “I took Greggg [‘that’s three g’s,’ Hogan spells out] with me everywhere. He lived to be five-years-old, pretty good for a goldfish, I think!”
Hogan’s lighthearted banter fits like a puzzle piece, easily interlocking with the serious facet of his personality that is focused on developing and promoting his business. “I’m not your typical nerd,” Hogan asserts. The technical aspect of web design appeals to him, he says, challenging and honing his design abilities while allowing him to have fun in the process. Speaking to a career stereotype, Hogan says, “a lot of coders are a little bit ‘socially awkward,’ but I am not that way at all”; his blue eyes smile at this declaration.
Web design had been a hobby for Hogan since he was a student at Newburyport High School. Recalling a course he took in this subject, Hogan says, “The teacher gave us a project that was supposed to take the entire semester to complete. But I finished my project in two weeks.” His natural aptitude forced his teacher to develop additional assignments for him that further broadened Hogan’s expertise and nurtured his talent. But it wasn’t until he graduated from UVM and accepted an interning position as a web designer that Hogan received his light bulb moment. “I could do this for a living,” he remembers thinking.
One of Hogan’s first (and most unusual) web design assignments came to him while he was living in Vermont, freelancing through the Burlington Free Press. “I designed the website for a strip club in New York,” he recalls. (Hogan reveals that the name of the strip club is Scores: a favorite hangout of shock jock Howard Stern). “It’s no longer on line,” Hogan says of the site he designed, “and it’s not in my portfolio!” he laughs.
Back in his hometown of Newburyport, where Hogan’s business is based out of his home and various Port coffee shops, Hogan is intent on increasing his local customer base. He recently designed the website for the newly revitalized Mad Martha’s Island Café. And he designed the new website for his father’s carpentry business, Mark A. Hogan and Son, Inc., where on the site Hogan writes, “My pops makes one heck of a house.”
When Hogan speaks of his father, admiration and respect shine through his words. He shares that one of his favorite family photographs depicts Hogan at three-years-old, with a with a rubber hammer in hand, sitting atop the roof of a house with his father securely at his side. “My dad took me with him on a lot of jobs,” Hogan remembers. “It was really cool bonding.” Recently, a friend of Hogan’s dad said to him, “You’re getting to be more and more like your father.” Hogan says that he told his dad’s friend, “Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.” His father, Hogan states, is one of the most inspirational and influential individuals to have informed his life.
Hogan gets his artistic flair from his mother, whom he describes as “very artsy.” Hogan adds, “My mother is the real townie,” sharing that the family home is the house that his mother grew up in. With brotherly admiration, Hogan shares that his sister (two years his senior) is a first-grade school teacher. “We have big ‘family bible’ at home,” he says. “Records of births and deaths go back generations,” he says of the Hogan townie tome.
Cultivating his own “townie-ness” is something that Hogan says he’s working on. Taking in karaoke night at the Port Tavern and open mic night at the Grog are two townie pastimes that Hogan enjoys. He is also intent on experiencing other cultures, stoked by a three-month stay in Guatemala this past winter. The simple, humble, and welcoming nature of the villagers whom he met left a deep imprint upon him. He’s hoping to visit Nicaragua next year, expanding his Central American cultural experience. But it’s America’s Rocky Mountains that beckon right now. Hogan lived in Boulder for a time, just after college. “I met a girl while in Vermont and followed her to Colorado,” Hogan shares. The romance is now a friendship, and Hogan will spend the next couple of weeks visiting his friend. He’ll also connect with one of his Coffee House Creations’ collaborators who lives in Colorado.
Reflecting on his 25 years of living, Hogan says, “I think I’ve found helping others is a big part of my life.” His statement is offered with humility and perhaps self-revelation. Hogan adds that it’s the “little things like babysitting for friends . . . or helping friends move” that allow him to make an impact.
Kathleen Downey is the Features Editor for Newburyport Today. If you are a townie or a citizen who would like to be profiled (or to suggest someone to profile)—or if you have a local story idea, please email: Kathleen@Newburyport-Today.com.
