Internship: Hatch Show Print

By John Parker

As the story was told to me, in December of 1944, Hank Williams walked into Hatch Show Print in Nashville to pick up an order of posters for one of his shows. Wearing the solid white suit he would be married in later that day, he tossed the posters on the seat of his car, sat on them, and proceeded to drive the several hours to his wedding. Unknown to ole Hank, the ink on the posters was still wet, but it was too late. He had no other choice but to proceed with the wedding ceremony with a partial Hatch Show Print poster printed on his ass.

The storied history of one of the most celebrated letterpress shops goes far beyond a music legend's ruined suit. Since its birth in 1879, Hatch Show Print has also left its mark on music and design. I recently had the opportunity to spend two weeks as an intern at Hatch Show Print. Working along side Jim Sherraden and his awesome crew: Brad, Nieves, Cathy, Mary, John, Jennifer, Bethany, Dan and Huey, “The Original Hatch Fat Cat“ (thanks, guys). I was given a crash course in letterpress printing. Then, with the blessing of Huey, I was given the opportunity to design and print a poster for the Country Music Hall of Fame.

I arrived in Nashville on a Sunday, got settled on an buddy's couch, my home for the next two weeks, and the next morning I was walking in the front door of Hatch Show Print. After a quick tour, introduction to the crew, and tutorial on operating one of the presses, they let me dive right in. My first day, I was printing a series of six posters for the famous songwriter’s spot, the Bluebird Cafe.

That first week was a whirlwind lesson in the art of letterpress, my first lesson being the actual printing process with the Bluebird Café posters. Next, I was introduced to the tedious process of typesetting. I would be printing one of the classic Hatch re-strikes for the country musician Marty Robbins. The type was already established, but would require separating in order to print the multiple colors of the poster (this case, being blue and red.) The week ended with the printing of the Marty Robbins poster and the inevitable, and equally tedious, task of returning the type, rules, and blocks to their proper spots – My accelerated letterpress workshop was complete.

The second Monday, I was given a job – a poster for a series of exhibits at the Country Music Hall of Fame, celebrating historic Nashville session musicians. This one for the guitarist Ray Edenton. I was given complete design freedom – layout, design, color, paper – the whole package, including keeping in contact with and consulting the client, the communications officer at the Hall Of Fame.

Hatch Show Print is a true classic; there were no computers used in the process. You started with some initial sketches, eventually sketching the chosen design to size, then using this rough to help choose the proper size, width, and layout of your type. The archive of wood and metal type, wood-cut blocks, and metal plate images is really impressive, much of the collection dating back more than 100 years. The whole process of typesetting and placing images and blocks is a hands-on process, literally. I left every day with ink on my hands. I found my biggest challenge to be adjusting to looking at everything backwards. D’s look like p’s; p’s look like q’s. I made one proof only to find that all of my b’s and d’s were reversed. (Memders abmitteb for free.)

Hatch has a constant flow of visitors through the shop. There were regular clients, tourists, designers, photographers, other letterpress operators, and even a few soap opera stars (Several members from the cast of A Guiding Light stopped in.), all with a genuine interest and appreciation of Hatch’s work. It was amazing to see the love, admiration, support, and astonishment from people who stopped in.

With all of the constant activity, the staff still managed to keep it fun and relaxed while getting the work done. The shop produces a large volume of work for a traditional letterpress shop, with about 600 jobs a year. Just in the two weeks I was there, they worked on posters for musicians such as Bob Dylan, Korn, the Kings of Leon, and Widespread Panic. Hatch also routinely prints stationery, cards, invitations, and graphics for all types of media. (CNN has called upon Hatch for prints that will be used as onscreen graphics for the upcoming presidential election.)

My two weeks at Hatch were great. Hatch is one of those rare places where you look forward to going in to work every day. The employees enjoy a wonderfully creative, artistic, historic, fun, and laid-back atmosphere in which they are constantly creating great work for some amazing clients. I wish my short stay could have been longer.

Click here to link to some pictures I took during my time at Hatch.

Also, here's an article by Jim Sherraden for AIGA. Check it out.