A trip down memory lane: Swell Press 2014 - 2020
I’m often asked about the journey of Swell Press- and while I’ve recounted it on a few podcasts, I’ve never taken the time to revisit old photo memories or notes and type it out (given the length of this, you’ll see why). While the following is certainly not my best literary work, I figured there is no better time than the present to spend a few hours revisiting memories of the past 6 years. My hope is that if you’re building a creative business, you’ll find comfort in knowing most likely, I, or someone else on this path, has been right there with you. I still have a long way to go, but I’m hoping this post serves as a journal entry to also reflect on how far we’ve come.
February 1, 2014 - at a friend’s urging, I take my first letterpress lesson from Mable at LaLa Press. I have no idea what ‘letterpress’ actually is or how it works, but I’ve always been mesmerized by super thick paper with deep impression (and wondered just how the impression is obtained). I am immediately hooked and determined to continue learning this craft. I rent press time from Mable on weekends or days I’m off work, printing personal projects or a few [very trusting] friend’s wedding suites.
March 14, 2014 - After having worked there for 6 years, I leave my full-time job at a production company making television commercials for a freelance position. The more flexible schedule to allow myself to have time to explore what else might be out there- including this little letterpress hobby. (Side note: the day after I quit my job, my boyfriend Brian proposed to me).
May 31, 2014 - I attend my first Continuing Education class for letterpress at OTIS- I registered shortly after realizing the art school not far from my house has an entire Letterpress Lab, which means more immediate access to letterpress. I spend that summer, and again the following semester, annoying the teachers with my consistent use of the open letterpress lab hours, and trying to get a super deep impression (which actually is frowned upon).
June 14, 2014 - I buy a Vandercook for $9,000 on eBay from a stranger in Philadelphia (she was wonderful). It’s a terrifyingly huge amount of money for me to spend on anything, let alone something with no actual planned ROI (or, really, PLAN)- but something about it just feels right- so I follow my gut. The press sits in my garage wrapped in cellophane, untouched until November, because I’m terrified that I don’t have the skills to run it yet.
July 29, 2014 - finally get up the courage to create an Instagram account and make my first post. I decide to call this little hobby ‘Swell Press’ at the urging of Brian, who I can credit for the name. I ask friends if it’s clear that it’s named after the swell of the ocean, and not ‘gee that’s swell!’. They say yes. Six years later, I am still reminded that they lied to me. For the next few months I keep pressing at OTIS, until the semesters are up and I decide it’s time to get the garage studio up and running.
August, 2014 - Intending to one day get my garage studio up and running, I purchase a 100 year old, 700 pound manual paper cutter from a nearby printer. Over the next few months I slowly invest in ink and other pressroom supplies.
November, 2014 - I finally get the garage studio up and running. If I’m recalling correctly, one of the first things I printed in there was my own engagement party invitations.
* I spend the next few years balancing Swell Press as a side-hustle and working. Every dollar I earn goes into a separate account that I earmark for Swell Press expenses. Any day off I have from work, I work on Swell Press. I don’t have a social life for the duration of these 2 years. More on this time frame to follow.
March 2015 - Over-ambitious to a fault, I design a custom 5 piece, 3 color (each) letterpress wedding suite for a friend. It includes a ‘lasercut’ overlay that says PACK YOUR BAGS. I don’t have a laser. Instead I use my Cricut, cutting 60, which takes me roughly 12 hours. I charge her less than $500 for ‘materials’. I don’t take into account the $15,000+ I’ve spent on my press, inks, and other equipment but rather just paper and envelopes. The good news is, people like the Pack Your Bags overlay. I vow that the next time I do it, it will be done with a laser cutter, and I will charge appropriately. Thus begins my ‘if you build it they will come’ thought pattern where I decide I will make the type of work that I one day will be paid fairly to create.
June, 2015 - I get my first client that isn’t a friend, or a friend of a friend- they found me on Etsy.
July 13, 2015 - one of my first designs, a beach-inspired (go figure) dip-dye invitation suite is posted on Oh So Beautiful Paper’s blog. I’m at my desk at work when I find out and have to play cool. I am not, in fact, cool. Fun fact- this suite was a denied design for a friend, but I wanted to make it anyway, so I did, and submitted it. The invitation is Pinned and re-Pinned, and brings a few more clients (that I don’t know!) my way.
September, 2015 - I design a small collection of greeting cards and try to launch ‘line’. Everyone else in the stationery industry is doing it, so it seems like an obvious step for me. I feel somewhat uninspired, and like I’m already adding to a market that has SO MANY great options, but I force myself to print hundreds of cards anyway. One shop reaches out to carry them (forever indebted to you, Paper + Craft Pantry). I quickly lose steam on trying to sell the cards I printed, realizing that greeting cards are not for me. *In hindsight I look at that lesson as invaluable. Sure, there is a price you could put on it (probably a few thousand dollars of plates, paper, and envelopes) but overall, it taught me to stop caring about other people’s trajectories, and that we all are on different paths.
February 27, 2016 - Pantone (yes, THE Pantone!) reposts a photo on Instagram I shared a while ago. It’s a big win for me, as not only am I obsessed with Pantone, but I get some exposure, which grows my Instagram account a bit.
August 20th, 2016 - My 2 1/2 years of effort trying to convince Brian that I much better suited for an elopement in Hobbiton New Zealand prove to be in vain as we officially get married on Catalina Island (in the same spot he proposed). I now understand the stress the wedding planning process, and the emotions it can bring up. This serves me as I work with more and more brides and grooms, trying to make sure that their stationery process is hopefully the most fun and pleasant part of wedding planning (feedback we’ve gotten a lot, I’m happy to say!).
* At this point, I am still working from my garage as a side hustle. My job in production is allowing me nice financial stability, so I continue balancing both. I’m exhausted and a lot of the time, miserable. I wonder if I should quit my mostly fun, well-paying job which has me working with people I like to pursue Swell Press full time. I don’t quit anything at the time, but I do begin to think about it more seriously, and look online occasionally for another press. If I am going to commit to Swell Press full time at some point, I should probably have an additional press just in case anything happens (in hindsight, this was somewhat dramatic of me, but I tend to be paranoid). Running Swell Press while I’m at work also means hiding the fact that it’s a side hustle from a lot of my clients. If they want to have calls, I have to step outside and have a lot of anxiety that my coworkers are wondering what I’m doing. The production industry doesn’t really lend itself to me going MIA while I take a conference call in my car for a half hour.
February, 2017 - I find another Vandercook listed on Craigslist along with a Chandler & Price and some other equipment in a town 3 hours east of LA. I want the press but I don’t have anywhere to store it- its already a tight squeeze in my garage. I drive to check it out, and my gut tells me to go for it. The nice seller named Dave let’s me pay half of the $15,000 that day as a sign of good faith that I will find a place to store the press, and pay the remainder of it when I pick it up from him. He gives me 6 months. This officially means I can’t fit in my garage anymore, and need to find a studio space.
February - April, 2017 - I apply for dozens of studio spaces in the LA area. I need a specific type of space- good lighting, ground floor entry, a door wide enough for my equipment to fit through- and this proves hard to find in the areas I want. I’m looking for a unicorn, because I also want it to be somewhat affordable. I spend months feeling like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, with most real estate agents (with the exception of one, thanks Alec) not taking me seriously because I don’t have a ‘serious’ business. A lot of them won’t return my calls or meet with me.
March, 2017 - a branding suite that I created for a client is stolen off her doorstep. It’s one of the most labor intensive suites I’ve done, with hand painted business cards, notecards, multi-color printing, and edge painting. I feel so defeated, because at this point I am stretched so thin and every hiccup seems like a personal attack on my well-being. I implement a new rule that every package will require a signature for delivery after I learn that FedEx insurance does not cover packages without a requires signature for delivery. I have to re-crate the entire suite, which takes a toll on my morale, production schedule, and bank account.
April, 2017 - Finally, I find a space on Craigslist. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great starter space and the landlord isn’t asking for my past 3 years of ‘business’ financials (something that most commercial listings require and is a real troll for budding small business owners). It’s a month-to-month lease. Woohoo! I tell Dave the great news that I’ll be picking up the equipment, and pray that this whole thing wasn’t a scam and he hasn’t run off with my $7,500. It wasn’t. Thank you, Dave.
May, 2017 - After moving my equipment into the space, I spend a few weeks overcome with nausea and a pit in my stomach wondering WHAT THE HELL I just did. I alternate between thinking I’ve made the biggest mistake of life to convincing myself it is going to be okay. Brian proves to be solid partner while consistently talking me off a ledge. I vow to myself that I am going to give Swell Press all I’ve got for 6 months- this means taking a break from my current packed freelance schedule. A 6 month experiment wont ruin my life, right? If it all goes south I can sell everything anyway, probably for a profit. Okay, good plan. I quit my freelance job, having enough money saved to last me 6 months. After 3 years of Swell Press being a side-hustle, it is officially my (mostly) full-time hustle- for 6 months at least. I still spend the next year helping on small production tasks here and there for extra money, and health insurance.
June, 2017 - On a whim I put an Instagram Story up that I am looking for an intern. I have some amazing candidates, but choose 2. I teach both to press, and they both prove to be incredibly valuable. I’m introduced to the concept of what it would be like to NOT have to do every. single. thing. myself- and I like it.
July, 2017 - I begin offering letterpress lessons to offset / justify the cost of having a studio space. I realize I LOVE to teach letterpress.
September, 2017 - My summer interns’ tenure is over. I ask one of the interns, Kate, if she’d continue working with me on a flexible basis. She says yes.
October, 2017- I start what is meant to be a gratitude journal but instead becomes a diary of my mental state during the evolution of Swell Press. It’s mostly entries where I say I am terrified of failing. [*In 2020 I can say I’m really, really glad I did this, and I encourage everyone else to track the emotions of their journey this way, too].
January 1, 2018 - Almost 4 years into Swell Press, I finally begin paying myself.
February 5, 2018 - At the urging of a business coach, I’ve made a list of tasks that I can potentially outsource to a remote employee, in an attempt to free up some time from my consistent 100 hour work weeks and gain some of my life (and joy) back. I post on Instagram that I’m hiring- over 200 applications flood in. After some amazing candidates, I offer the job to Caroline, who is willing to work on a flexible schedule to start. A few months in, we’re getting busier and I ask to increase her hours, along with my presswoman Kate’s. [*By the start of 2019 they’re eventually both full-time team members. I am so, so grateful and don’t know what I’ve done to have such incredible women work for me. I also cannot stress how important it was for me to be able to ease into the process of paying someone else on a part-time basis rather than committing to a full-time employee off the bat. You may have caught this, but I began paying Kate before I started paying myself- that’s the reality of beginning a small business without outside funding or debt incurred.]
March, 2018 - After a year in my first studio space, my needs are becoming more clear, and I want to move the studio to somewhere I feel more comfortable having clients visit. After weeks of searching and visiting dozens of spaces, I find my dream space through my realtor- it’s an industrial space but totally my own and in an up-and-coming area. I apply for it, and totally enthused, start bookmarking furniture and decor. After a few days the real estate agent calls me and tells me that the owner didn’t chose me as a tenant- they wanted someone with a more stable income source (aka, a plumbing company). I feel defeated and try to convince myself that it will all work out, whatever the next move may be.
March, 2018 - Still wanting a different studio, another unit in the same building I’m currently in becomes available. It’s bigger and I have my own entrance, so I take it. Since I have to move all of my equipment anyway (and pay thousands for a literal 50 foot move), I buy two new presses (and Kluge from Sugar Paper and a Heidelberg from the Printing Museum). They will continue to go untouched for another year because I have no idea how to use them.
November, 2018 - I see a FOR LEASE sign on the building behind my local coffee shop. I pop my head in- it’s my dream space, down to the white rafted ceilings. I know I can’t afford it, so I keep walking.
December, 2018 - I have my first pretty heartbreaking client experience. It solidifies that I should always follow my gut in making decisions, including who to work with, and when to walk away.
February, 2019 - seeing the FOR LEASE sign still up at my dream space, I call the real estate agent. Turns out the owner of space is very particular about what type of business he wants in the space. I mention I’m a printer- as fate may have it, the owner is a printer as well. We printers have an unspoken bond, and the space is mine if I want it. I spend about a week wavering on my decision to move, each different decision as steadfast as the last. The rent is over twice what I am currently paying- but it is my dream space (have I said that enough?). It’s climate controlled- aka we wouldn’t have to print in fingerless gloves in the winter because of the cold! We’d have our own bathroom! I torture myself over the decision, and ultimately decide that it is not the right time for me to take such a big leap. 'Who am I to have such a nice space after all, I’m still somewhat new at this! I begin to email the real estate agent that while it’s beautiful, it’s not a move I can make at the moment… but every time I nearly click SEND, I have a sinking feeling in my gut. I call the agent the next day- I’ll take it.
May, 2019 - now in our beautiful new studio, I host my first ever 2 Day Weekend Intensive Class. I spend 2 days teaching 6 women (well, 7 actually because I accidentally counted wrong) everything I know about letterpress. I love every second of it, nerves and all.
August 3, 2019 - Kate, Brian, and I go to Northern California for a weekend course from Amber at Flywheel Press on how to print on a Heidelberg Windmill. I own one that I’ve never touched, and they’re faster then what I’m using, so I should probably learn to use it.
August 9, 2019 - After returning from NorCal totally sold on the efficiencies of a Windmill Press, I find another Windmill for sale from a nearby printer. Turns out it’s from the same couple I bought my paper cutter from 5 years ago. Knowing I’ll be using this type of press a lot more, I buy it.
November 20, 2019 - Shortly after joking that I’ll never buy another press, I buy 2 more, plus a boatload of other equipment. It only seemed fitting. Vow that I won’t buy any more. Seriously, though.
January 11, 2020 - Still at the start of a new year, I’m excited to see where it takes us. 2019 was a year of taking giant leaps, a lot of investing in the business, learning the fun way, learning the hard way, learning the devastating way, and growing. I’m hoping 2020 is a little more calm, but I know the universe will bring me whatever I need. Looking back at the past it’s funny how those huge heartbreaking moments that seemed like they were so close to breaking me are now faded in the rearview mirror. If you’ve made it reading this far, (and hey, even if you haven’t!), thank you for following along on this journey.
xo,
Britt
