Having my first blog post be about purchasing my first press and launching my stationary studio just felt so fitting!
If you know me, you know I’ve been talking about creating my paper goods shop for YEARS. While I’m constantly churning out new designs for others all day for my day job and for my freelance clients, I felt like there was a massive hurdle in front of me in taking the leap to create my own. I’ve designed products for small businesses, nonprofits, large corporations, start ups, and more, and for some reason this passion project of mine took forever to get off the ground. I was beginning to feel like I’d never do it, and that was the most upsetting part of it. I’ll get into more detail on this topic in a later blog post, but for now, I just want to set the stage.
There is a trope in the design industry that we are our own worst clients, and after this process in launching Moraga Press, I can say I 100% agree.
I’ve designed what feels like over 20 different brand identities for my shop before finally landing on the one you see today. I’ve designed and scrapped countless websites, brand decks, product mocks, and each time, I’d save them away into dropbox and either never look at them again, or I’d revel in how much I hated them.
After I got married last year, I went through a sort of mourning period where I didn’t know what my next side project would be. I had let my dream of opening a shop fall to the wayside over the past couple of years, and it didn’t feel as realistic anymore. I was discouraged by the thought of investing in something with slim margins, I felt there was already so much competition out there, and truthfully, I just didn’t know if I could believe in myself. Further, I had enjoyed wedding planning so much that I felt lost when I didn’t have my next creative project lined up. I had some awesome clients I was working with at the time, and I was involved with some pretty involved campaigns for my day job, but I just didn’t feel inspired. I reflected on what exactly I enjoyed so much about the wedding planning experience, and I landed on a few things that helped guide me.
First was that designing my stationary was one of my favorite parts of the experience.
I went nuts on it - I created a 6 piece invite suite in my and my husband’s style using some of my favorite colors with custom line drawings of our venues, a family logo, multiple different seals and sub marks, matching menus- the whole shebang. It was so liberating having virtually no constraints besides staying on theme and elevating paper in a tasteful way.
The second I realized was that ultimately, branding is my bread and butter.
I’ve always known I love brand identity design, and I both freelance and work full time in the brand design space, but branding my event past the typical wedding must-haves was a BLAST. The amount of people that reached out to tell me how cohesive they felt the whole experience was for them literally gave me the biggest smile. I knew it was something I needed to continue to work into my design practice and flex the muscle for myself.
Third was that hosting / hospitality brings me so, so much joy.
I am called the mom in my friend group, partially because I just f*cking love to take care of people. I love to make or eat the best food, serve it in the best way, while gathering the people I love together in a beautifully curated space. I like people to feel important and well cared for. While I like to host dinner parties throughout the year, planning my wedding was by far (and obviously..) my biggest one yet! I reveled in selecting the right cups and tableware, creating mood boards for napkin color selections and chair types, all of it. I literally had a fat binder I gave to my coordinator with all my notes, moodboards, contingency plans, vendor contacts, you name it. Some would say I’m nuts, but truthfully, I just wanted my loved ones to have the best time they could while experiencing a glimpse of some of my husband and I’s personality. I wanted them to feel us and our vibe everywhere, and I really believe we achieved that.
Ultimately, in reflecting on these 3 points, I realized that they could all be tied to my paper goods business and give me that creative spark I was feeling lost without.
I also realized that after 5+ years creating primarily from my laptop every day, I was missing some of the tangible parts of design. I knew if I jumped in I wanted to be sure I brought something physical into the equation. I started researching manufacturers, local printers, product ideas, shipping costs, LLC formation, and a ton of other business-y stuff. I referred to my notes and designs from previous years and gathered everything I felt was usable into one central place. I worked on my business plan, my overall budget, my marketing spend, everything I could do to get ahead of things and set my business up for success.
I decided purchasing a press was what I wanted to do. Yes I could outsource my printing, but that would mean I was still behind my laptop all the time, and the cost per item would cut into my margins. I had taken a letterpress workshop back during my summer semester in London at CSM, and I had enjoyed the mechanical process of it. I had some experience with printmaking through my college advisor (shout out Kathy!!) and thought it might be a nice way to tie my graphic design background in with stationery.
I live in a relatively small townhouse with my Husband and medium size dog, so I figured a letterpress machine was out of the question (and truthfully, budget). I had seen table top foil presses and knew foiling was another method that could emboss, de-boss, and create that texture that I admired. I enrolled in a foil printing online course by @papel and co after seeing one of my favorite stationers, Swell Press, advertise it, and started immersing myself in how to learn the technique and get my hands on a press. I spent HOUUURRSS researching press types and finally found the Metallic Elephant KSF 3. Metallic Elephant is a leader in the hot foil stamping industry, and make all of their machines in the UK. To my understanding, they are one of the few press manufacturers left today for tabletop foil presses.
I got in touch with their team, and after a few months of going over all my questions, I finally placed my order. I was pretty nervous buying a machine I’d never seen before, let alone tried myself, and one that was from a company with no on-the-ground support in my country, but I decided to take the leap and was reassured after speaking to other stationers that they are very supportive, even remotely. It took about a month for my machine to arrive - and of course it arrived a day after I found out I had Covid. Since it shipped as a 200lb crate that was now sitting at my doorstep blocking my building’s communal space, I knew it needed to be moved inside. My amazing Dad and brother offered to mask up and help my husband get it inside and upstairs while I kept my distance.
We got it set up in our shared office, and after being intimidated for a day or two, I jumped in! I quickly found out that there is a learning curve to this type of machine. I am pretty tech and mechanically savvy, and I’d tried printmaking before, I’d even taken a course on it, so I thought “how much more difficult could it be?”
Truthfully, it was much more difficult.
I got discouraged a few times and thought I broke it -I couldn’t get my chaise back into the press, then I messed with the knobs so much that I couldn’t even close the thing to test print anything! After reaching out to them for help multiple times, emailing other stationers in my area to see if anyone had advice, and watching countless tik toks and youtube videos, my husband and I were able to fix it (thanks Matty!) Turns out when the manufacturer tells you you need to have a gentle touch, they aren’t lying to you ;).
Now that it was functional, I moved into the printing phase for my first few projects. I had designed my first 6 sku’s while I was waiting for the press to arrive, so I had my files ready. I found a copper plate manufacturer through the course I took, and I ordered my first set of plates! I ordered my paper and my foil rolls, and once everything arrived, got to work!
I struggled a bit at the beginning. My prints were flaky, had uneven pressure, were literally cutting through my paper, and so many other small issues. I was nervous to twist the knobs much because that is what caused some of my early issues, but I knew that is how I refine my prints so I had to get over the hump.
I’m about 1.5 months into using the machine now, and I feel so much more confident. I’ve successfully printed multiple batches of my notecard sets, I’ve tested and found some of my foil preferences, and I’ve begun to experiment with what is possible on my machine. I’m a long way from being an expert, but I am proud of the quality of my products I have made thus far, and I am so, so excited for what is to come!
While products are one vertical of my business, specialty stationary design and printing is another area I am focusing on. I am so excited to say I have my first client in this arena and I’m also participating in a local school fair by offering my services. I can’t wait to see what we create together!
Ultimately, I am so excited to be jumping into this new experience. I’ll be chronicling my process here on the blog and can’t wait to share more!
Follow us on instagram and Tiktok at @MoragaPress, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to speed on all of our studio’s happenings!
