"Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms."

January 27, 2010 7:45 AM

"Hatch Show Print: We Print and Sell Posters." And the Nashville landmark, just down the street from the Ryman Auditorium, has been doing exactly that, with wood type and a gigantic Vandercook press, since 1879. Take a video and photo tour through the press, and read about how they do their work (with videos of the printmaking process). Manager Jim Sherraden's motto is “preservation through production”: all the equipment, all the wood type, everything, is still used regularly, even if it’s for a run as small as one print.

Hatch Show Print's official website.

More videos:

• "Hatch Show Print, 1991"
• "Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms"

(via The Ministry of Type and a big dose of my own nostalgia: Hatch posters—including my favorite, an invitation to my aunt and uncle's wedding party that declares "They're Hitched!"—have inhabited various little corners of my life since I was ten years old.)

posted by ocherdraco (14 comments total)

Someone I know got her wedding paperstuff done at Hatch. It was easily the coolest save-the-date/invite/placecard set i've ever ever seen. Hatch rules. Thanks for this.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 7:48 AM on January 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

God, I love their work. I'm so glad someone is out there still doing it.
posted by mathowie at 7:50 AM on January 27, 2010

Their stuff is absolutely stunning and the quality of their work is amazingly consistent. I've seen a lot of designers/print makers do similar work, but it seems to always be missing that something special that apparently is second nature at Hatch Show Print.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:04 AM on January 27, 2010

I have several of their posters on my office wall -- love their stuff!
posted by spilon at 8:04 AM on January 27, 2010

Love it.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 8:24 AM on January 27, 2010

There is a long corridor at Nashville Airport (BNA) that has a bunch of their work on display and it's 10 kinds of awesome.
posted by jquinby at 9:11 AM on January 27, 2010

Something about this, and I'm not sure what, makes my eyes well up.

I want to go back to Nashville and spend a week in there with my camera and a writer and make a book.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:18 AM on January 27, 2010

I want to go back to Nashville and spend a week in there with my camera and a writer and make a book.

We'd love to have ya.
posted by jquinby at 9:22 AM on January 27, 2010

Must work. Must. Stop. Clicking...

Can't.

Argh.
posted by EvaDestruction at 9:34 AM on January 27, 2010

Discovering Hatch Show Print through their book inspired me to get my own letterpress equipment. But I didn't actually visit until last July.

If you haven't been, you really, really need to go. Their shop is an awe-inspiring environment. It's dirty, gritty, stacked to the ceiling with woodcuts, with posters on the wall a hundred feet back. Alas, they would not let me move in.
posted by pantsonfire at 10:05 AM on January 27, 2010

Great stuff. I started appreciating some of this kind of art via a similar outfit based out of Knoxville, Yee-Haw Industries.
posted by pappy at 2:28 PM on January 27, 2010

I'm going to be in Nashville this summer! Now I have a place to visit!
posted by acrasis at 4:03 PM on January 27, 2010

I have 3 concert posters from Hatch. Prized posessions, all.
posted by buzzkillington at 5:13 PM on January 27, 2010

I had several custom pieces done by Hatch for a project I did in my job in 2008. I've saved one of each and several of the proofs. They're really special to me for lots of reasons. Also got to spend some time behind the country while we were working on it, and it was a great experience. Jim is a great guy to work with and his staff is amazing. We started out just wanting to do Hatch style and then someone had the bright idea...Hey, why don't we just call them?
posted by Noon Under the Trees at 11:05 PM on January 27, 2010