With the completion of the Be Aware segment, I haven’t had a place to post some of my letterpress snippets. I have a few little letterpress things to share, including another free alphabet, some downloads and letterpress for your derriere.

I also wanted to gather all of my Be Aware letterpress mini-posts into one unified place. Hopefully the letterpress curious will find this page a nice resource. So after the three new mini-posts, I have “republished” my 12 contributions to the Be Aware posts. I have also finally added the answer to my “Letterpress Word Scrample” from Be Aware 9. Scroll away.

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or, The Day I Took Hatch Show Print Into the Digital Age!

While putting type away for an entire week or more is the best possible education for a long term intern, I would have been a little disappointed if that is all that I was able to do. While probably being a bit over-zealous (and maybe even a bit selfish), I kept pushing for a little more responsibility. Day two I was running the Vanercook Universal 1 for Brad (one of the talented designers) and by the end of the day pushing a bit harder to get my own job. I was given a reprint to set and Suzanne (my wife) was given a chance to cut a linocut for an upcoming poster. We were both happy. I hunted down the type and I’m sure I bugged a few people in the process and then a rare thing happened that probably shouldn’t have left the walls of Hatch. I singlehandedly took Hatch into the digital age. Yes, I am very ashamed of myself. In a rare, and I’m sure never to happen again moment, Jim agreed to have Suzanne use a client supplied photograph to do a linocut from. The rule is that if you want a photoplate made, you have to send the correctly sized, high quality photo. Well, there was a photo, but the goal was to have a linocut made from the photo. Before I knew it, Suzanne and I were in Kinkos and using Photoshop to resize and bump up the contrast of this not-so-great photo. The Kinko’s girl almost fell over when I told her that I was from Hatch and I needed computer time. Meanwhile, I’m thinking . . .”I didn’t travel a day and a half to work on a PC in Kinkos on my vacation.” It was a bit surreal. We got the photo to where Suzanne needed it, and got the heck out of there. While a computer was used in the process, hell didn’t seem to freeze over and Hatch appeared to be normal when we left it.

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or, I said the “F” word at Hatch Show Print!

As a preface, a portion of the history of Hatch Show Print is documented in a book, so trying to give you a history lesson would take several posts. I am going to focus on the present. For those that haven’t read the book or heard the history, Hatch Show Print is an old fashioned letterpress shop that has been in existence since 1879. The shop has had its ups and downs over its history, and their clientele has varied a great deal, but they are most known for their show posters for entertainment acts. Their history follows Minstrel Shows, Circuses, Country and Blue Grass stars and the list goes on. If you don’t have the book, it is a great addition to any design library and a very entertaining read for just about anyone (not just designers). Hatch has changed ownership over the years but it is now owned by the Country Music Hall of Fame. The shop is now a working museum and as the man (Jim Sherraden) that has taken Hatch to where is it today says … “preservation through production”. To keep Hatch alive they are a very active letterpress shop that prints posters (among other things) for a large variety of clients.

I recently spent a week down in Nashville to help out at Hatch and to learn from, and breath the rare air of a working letterpress shop. I will share a few of the things that I learned while playing the role of intern/volunteer. I will start at the very beginning.

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I will be in Nashville all next week helping out/learning from Jim and the great folks at Hatch Show Print (expect a full review when I get back). It would be great to meet some of you designers from the Nashville area. With the help and input from the Nashville AIGA, we have set up a little get together. If you would like to hang out, eat and discuss, this is where the fun will be had …

McGuinness Pub
Tuesday May 2, 6:00 pm

For more about Hatch here are a couple old BADG posts about this historic shop. 1, 2

This is a hysterical page from a beautiful little chapbook / font specimen book called “The Scarlet Cockerel”, published by the American Amateur Press Association and showing off the collection of a private type collector in Washington state. Thought the BE A audience would appreciate it as much as I did when I saw it among the other memorabilia my wife gathered from her college letterpress class.

On a related note, if anyone in the BE A reading audience happens to know the Scotty (I’m unfortunatlely forgetting his last name at the moment and don’t have the book in front of me) who owns the collection this was printed with, I’m very interested in making contact. I’d love to possibly establish some ties and consider taking a student group or two out on a design field trip to see the collection.

In the meantime, however, enjoy this great little tale…