In September we went to Nashville for the Digital Book World Conference (which was great BTW).
While in Nashville we decided to check out the Hatch Show Print workshops by doing a tour. Hatch Show Print is a letterpress poster shop founded 3 generations ago and has been used to promote so many famous musical (and religious) tours over the years. They still produce fantastic posters and ads for anyone keen on the letterpress look of strong colour layers with embossed texture (as opposed to digital print).
We were inspired by not only the designs and colours of the posters themselves but also the fantastic wooden print blocks, many of which date back to the early 1900s. These amazing objects reflect the working life of the block and also the care given to them over the many years of use. We were also shown several that showed the history of the time. For example, as political leaders of rivaling parties went on tour; the successful ones used the blocks for re-printing for subsequent tours, while the printing blocks of those politicians that fell into obscurity were re-used on the reverse for someone else’s campaign or even for other more mundane purposes including shelving or storage boxes!
Now located in the famous Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum building in downtown Nashville, they still design and print between 500 and 700 jobs a year (ongoing work can be viewed all year round in workshops next to the shop) and many music tours still use Hatch Show Print to advertise their tours across the US.
