Why we started “Hot Off the Press”
The origin story of Hot Off the Press began in a place we’re all very familiar: instagram. For quite some time Moriah and I were following each other, and like most creatives within our generation, we were really eager to help each other out whenever needed. Silent lurking slowly turned into casual conversations about what inks we use, the weird sounds our presses sometimes made, and a shared screen shot of something ridiculous we saw said in the letterpress Facebook groups.
Even though printing had become second nature to us both, in the fall of 2021, I was still struggling with one main thing: pricing. I hopped into Moriah’s DMs and asked if she’d be open to a call. It was probably one of the most nerve wracking few minutes as I waited for a reply, because if there is one thing most people (even generous people) love to gate keep, it’s money. Lucky for me, Moriah was 100% down and we set up a zoom happy hour.
We weren’t more than 10 minutes into that fateful call before the words “we should start a podcast” were exclaimed amidst roars of laughter. There’s just so much we were covering in a matter of a few minutes, and the shared feeling of not being alone on our experiences, our fears, and our triumphs was so freaking liberating. We latched onto the idea of creating a community around letterpress knowledge pretty quickly, and while it took a few months to get it all sorted, we knew it would happen.
Our first goal was to establish what we hoped Hot Off the Press would be for you, the listener, our fellow printer. We knew it had to be a safe space to ask any question, share any story, and just be a new/inexperienced printer in general. Because even as we hone in our crafts, we’ll never forget what those first few years were like. Heck, to this day I still don’t post in some Letterpress FB groups! It just begs for trouble. So pillar #1 was: swing open the doors for all those aspiring printers. Share the knowledge, and don’t judge.
Our next goal was to make sure we could bring you the content you’d need and love. We made list after list of all the things we struggled with when first started printing, as well as all the things we wish we knew (or still needed to learn!). After combining all those lists together, there was no denying it… the podcast must be made! There is a LOT to talk about regarding letterpress, and there were so many people we wanted to interview so we could share their stories.
Ultimately: our “why” for this podcast was because, as printers, it’s something we wish existed for us. And while we don’t know everything, we’re insanely eager to learn, share and grow alongside you.
We hope that you’ve been enjoying Hot Off the Press, and that you’ll continue to tune in! Connect with us over on instagram, or via email (hello@hotoffthepresspodcast.com). We love to hear your success stories, we add your questions to our Q&A list, and we take episode suggestions very seriously! If you have an idea, let us hear it!!
