I started Held Co. because I was the customer first.
AboutWhile putting together my own cookbook of family recipes, I went looking for a service that would let me upload recipes, choose a design, and have a real cookbook printed. What I found was that it wasn’t that simple.
There were only a few options — services with not-so-attractive church-fundraiser-style designs; services that required me to do all the work; photo book printers that looked nicer but were just as DIY and often more expensive; and one full-service option that was priced for people with a photography budget.
The gap was obvious, so I figured if I was looking for it, other people were too, so that’s what Held Co. does!
You gather the recipes, however you have them, and we do everything else — the design, the layout, the printing.
You walk away with a real book, not a project you have to finish yourself!
Hi, I’m Emily!
I’m a designer and artist, which means I care about how the finished pages actually look — not just whether they’re filled in. Every cookbook we make is treated like the only one, because for your family, it is.
About our name.
/ held /
Past-tense and active — something was held, intentionally, by someone who knew it mattered.
Held Co. came out of the same instinct that started this whole thing — the feeling that some things are worth holding onto before they're gone.
Held is past tense on purpose. Not "hold" as in something you're being asked to do. But Held — as in something someone already did, quietly, without making a fuss about it. The grandmother who kept the recipe card. The aunt who remembered the proportions. The person who tucked something into a kitchen drawer and never threw it away.
That's what a family cookbook really is— Just a collection of little somethings that someone held onto because they knew it mattered.