Hatch Show Print

Hatch Show Print is jam-packed with gorgeous, old hand-carved wood blocks.

Hatch Show Print is one of the oldest print shops in America. For a hundred years Hatch was a simply a highly functioning job shop, printing posters for the theatre and music industries in Nashville. In the last thirty years, with the renewed popularity of letterpress printing within art and design, Hatch has developed a cult following of excited fans and print connoisseurs.

This summer, I had the great fortune of spending an afternoon at Hatch, in the company of the shop’s collection of old wood type and young, energetic printers. A sense of history is palpable in the long, narrow shop in Nashville’s touristy downtown; the walls are lined with shelves of ancient woodcuts and plastered with a collection of posters from the shop’s enormous archive. I was led through the maze of machinery by a number of knowledgeable and passionate people whose excitement about letterpress was apparent and inspiring.

It’s hard to ignore that Hatch is old. Very old. 131 years old, to be precise. So, how does a letterpress print shop survive in the age of emerging technolgies, inkjet printers and e-mail newsletters? Through dedication to authenticity and practice. Hatch’s mantra is “preservation through production.” The shop is dedicated to preserving their massive archive of wood type and woodcuts, but not by keeping things in temperature-controlled glass cases.

“This shop has always been set up to print and design, and we are simply fulfilling its function,” said Jim Sherradan, Hatch’s longtime manager.

Brad Vetter has been printing at Hatch for more than five years, hired after an internship in 2005. “I am one of the luckiest people out there,” said Vetter, about his position designing and printing posters. The shop produces posters daily, for a diverse customer base that includes touring bands, clothing companies, politicians and news channels.

Jim Sherradan took the time to answer a handful of questions I had been dying to ask. Read below for a Q&A with the longtime Hatch manager and print master.

Hatch's archive lines the walls.

Hatch Show Print has long been an inspiration to the international print community as an organization dedicated to the preservation of the artifacts and history of print. Tell me about your mission.

We operate with the mantra of “preservation through production.” This shop has always been set up to print and design and we are simply fulfilling its function as Hatch Show Print continues to thrive in its third century of operation. As a division of the Country Music Foundation, we share the same mission of documenting and archiving the history of Southern Culture and Americana, and more specifically in our case, as seen through the knothole in the fence of poster design.

Sturdy woodblocks stand the test of time.

I really appreciate your attitude that the best way to preserve Hatch’s historical wood type library is to use it. I often wonder, though: does this approach have the alternate effect of wearing down the materials each time you use them?

We are so careful with the archive, and honestly, the type is not brittle by any stretch of the imagination. It’s rock maple, cross cut. As for the larger hand-cut woodblocks, absolutely, we take care of each piece, and if we deem it unprintable then she goes back on the shelf to sleep through the rest of the century.

The work coming out of Hatch today is a union of historic and contemporary aesthetics. How does the shop maintain an aesthetic that respects the time-honored look of its roots while still producing visual work that stands up against the plethora of contemporary styles?

The shop itself serves as our greatest source of inspiration. We supply the imagination. My co-workers are, for the most part, highly educated and thirsty, and they’re coming into the job with a sense of design they learned in school. Also, we don’t introduce new typefaces into the shop so we bend over backwards trying to reinvent the “gothic” wheel every day.

What are some ways Hatch has evolved daily operations, equipment or materials to keep up with the changing economic and social demands placed on a creative business?

[Our] printing equipment and materials will always be the same today as fifty years ago. However, since retail is now a formidable aspect of our business, we do have a computer cash register that does a great job telling us when we’re out of something. In terms of “keeping up with the economic and social demands” we are very fortunate in that Hatch did not experience any downturn in work coming through the front door during this recent economic collapse.

Posters dry between colors.

Though Hatch’s early history includes poster-making for vaudeville, circus and motion picture shows, your continued intimate relationship with the recording industry in and out of Nashville has been an integral part of your success. In fact, Hatch is owned by the Country Music Hall of Fame. Can you talk a little bit about this relationship you have with the American music industry? How does it shape your approach to be so integrated with a specific industry?

We are indeed a Division of the Country Music Hall of Fame, a nonprofit, and before that, we were property of Gaylord Entertainment, which is a for-profit NYSE held company. Both of these businesses wanted to own, nurture, and protect Hatch for one simple reason: because we were that print shop that printed posters for the Opry entertainers went they went out on the road. None of us thought we would immerse ourselves so completely again in all genres of American Music, but this isn’t the first time. Instead of Bessie Smith it’s the Beastie Boys. Instead of Johnny Cash it’s 50Cents. You get it. Hatch has always, and I mean always, printed and designed posters for the entertainment industry, regardless of the era. This of course adds yet another dimension of mystique to the posters for, say, Coldplay. A letterpress poster for Coldplay? Yep. At Hatch Show Print.

I read in Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop that at the turn of the 20th century, Nashville was known as one of the leading centers for printing and publishing in America. Does this printing and publishing scene still thrive in Nashville? Is Hatch alone in its continued success, or is there still an active local community of printers and publishers?

The printing industry is indeed still thriving in Nashville, however all the companies have moved to the suburbs or beside interstates. Hatch Show Print is the last printer on “Printers Row,” a place historically where all printing was done in the downtown area.

This shop is ALIVE!

Printmaking by nature is a very collaborative practice. I’m under the impression that much of your continued success is due to the unity of a strong team of individuals. Can you talk about the community that has grown up in and around Hatch Show Print? Certainly the constant stream of interns, employees and friends of Hatch form a strong network of likeminded supporters!

Well, there are very few assholes in letterpress. I’ve run into a few, but they don’t work at the shop. Indeed there is a sense of community in our shop, and it starts with every poster designing asking at least two other people to “proofread” their typesetting before it’s printed. This act alone constantly reminds us that “we’re in this together.”  We are friends outside the shop in addition to having to look at each other every day. Our staff is mostly female.

The Hatch interns make posters, not coffee. In fact, Brad makes the coffee to ensure it is strong enough.

What connections do you see between printed matter and culture? Why is it important to preserve print ephemera?

I think any “futurist” will tell you that  paper and ephemera will be the collectibles of tomorrow. Sketches, proofs, first-runs, etc. Everyday that we inhabit space in our screen saturated society means the archive at Hatch will quietly grow in its academic and historic value because not only does it document the history of the Southern entertainer, it also houses the final product, the poster.

Preservation through production.

Over the years, Hatch has contributed substantially to an international discourse about the relevance and history of print, typography and graphic design within our culture. In fact, I first came into direct contact with Hatch at a graphic design conference, where you were teaching computer-intimate designers the language of letterpress! Why is it important to educate the pubic on what Hatch Show Print is about?

One reason I think it’s important to continue teaching about Hatch is because this is where our work in the future will come from. Also, as a fully operating letterpress poster and design shop still operating after 131 years, we are a knothole in the fence of design history. And we’re very busy, and we’re busy for a reason…people want what we sell.

Bill Monroe, The Grand Ole Opry and wood blocks.

Did the recent Nashville floods effect the Hatch Show Print shop?

Hatch slept through the floods like a cat in the roof of the barn. Water all around it and not a drop inside. Once again it’s proven to all of us that [Hatch] is a survivor. I would like to add, however, that we have an evacuation plan in case of natural disaster and to a certain extent the first stage was initiated. We did not know where the water would cease rising so we did what we were supposed to.

A Hatch poster for the Grand Ole Opry, and an iPhone case as a collaboration with Music City Rising.

I saw that Hatch Show Print got involved with an organization to create iPhone skins to support flood recovery efforts in Nashville. This to me is a great example of how the shop has diversified and is open to new ideas about supporting community and staying relevant in our increasingly digital culture. Any plans on the horizon to open up new partnerships or projects?

We’re very comfortable working as a designer for companies known mostly for their digital products. We’re very open minded to this. The best example, and the highest profile job would have been the work we did with CNN for the 2008 Presidential coverage. We did a majority of their design, including typesettting, poster design, image creating, and ancillary artwork. How interesting is it that a 21st century imformation service (CNN) is reaching back through the tentacles of time to a 19th century information service (Hatch Show Print) for all its digital design.

As far as anything in the works, yes we’re up to something nice with a company that, when you learn about this, the collaboration will make perfect sense.

Thank you Jim!