We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Heather Moulder. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heather below.

Heather, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

My very first experience in graphic design and show posters was making flyers for my dad’s rock bands. I was in high school using Microsoft Word to design ads for venues I wouldn’t even be able to get into until years in the future. I loved creating something with a purpose, and getting to see lots of copies get printed and put up around town was instantly gratifying. I don’t know if pegged graphic design as a career at the time, but it was definitely the first time I got to see something I made at work, and I loved feeling like I had a purpose making something.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a designer, letterpress printer, and musician from Woodbury, TN. I went to college at Middle Tennessee State University studying graphic design and interned at Hatch Show Print during my final semester. Hatch is a 144-year-old (and counting!) letterpress print shop that creates posters by inking up wood and metal letters and carved imagery and printing everything by hand– one color at a time, one poster at a time. I was totally seduced by this process that was the exact opposite of the computer-based design I’d been learning in class. I ended up going back to school and taking all the printmaking courses available, and I’ve been with Hatch a dozen years since then.

While I was a student, I bought lordymercy.com as a way of showcasing my design work– at the time, I was attending a lot of student design conferences and portfolio reviews where I felt no one really remembered or cared about your name or what your work looked like. Lordymercy was a fun Southernism that said a little bit about my style, and has become my studio name and umbrella title for my personal and freelance projects. While creating letterpress posters during the day at Hatch, in my off hours I continued to create album art, flyers, and my own illustrated posters and branding projects– both digital and hand carved.

Working with Hatch Show Print has given me so many great opportunities– creating show posters for folks like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Aretha Franklin, or restriking posters for Elvis and Flatt & Scruggs are things that high-school-flyer-making me only dreamed of. Outside of poster making itself, the Hatch staff sets great examples for how to connect with your clients and treat them well, but also how to stand up for your brand when it comes to delivering the best posters possible.

Knowing what it feels like to stand up for myself when speaking for a 144-year-old company in turn has made it easier to stand up for myself in my own freelance projects. The client experience I’ve gained from working with everyone from toilet manufacturers to Grand Ole Opry stars has really helped me to identify the kinds of projects I’d like to work on, and whether or not I’ll be a good fit in the first place– saying ‘NO’ to jobs is a powerful skill I continue to work on to this day.

Since I was a teenager, I’ve played with my dad’s rock band, then musical theater, then local and touring acts in the Nashville area playing piano and singing. As a musician, I really love helping bands develop meaningful imagery that feels like it connects to their work. I also love making posters for folks doing great things in my community– getting to be part of that visual history through poster ephemera is pretty exciting to me. Playing music around Nashville has been a great way to meet design clients whose work I care about, and while it is sometimes challenging scheduling between the worlds of performance and design, I think it’s a pretty natural and symbiotic relationship.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Considering I’ve all but given up on getting rich from making art, I would say I’m always striving to collaborate on meaningful projects that I feel proud of making.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When you make a real connection with your audience, whether it’s nailing the design your client has been dreaming of, or singing a song for a crowd that actually sits down and listens, that is the most rewarding thing. When I’ve taught poster design I often tell an anecdote about my friend Mike Casey, who’s a touring magician. The last time I watched one of his shows, I couldn’t get over the mentalism part of his act– the idea that you could read people that you’ve never met before and draw out all this unbelievable information based on what? Body language alone? Tone of voice? Sheer intuition? Whatever it is, I try to summon that when making those initial client interactions; the more I can be on the same page as my client, the better chance I have of creating the same imagery that’s in their head. The reaction you get when you DO actually get a match IS kind of magical.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lordymercy.com
• Instagram: @lordymercy

Image Credits
“Kraftwerk” and “Loretta Lynn” images used courtesy of Hatch Show Print.