Weekend Update: Memorial Day

Weekends always start out better with the prospect of an extra day, and us lucky interns got Memorial Day off! Friday has seemed to become 'Hatch shirt' day, and John wore his too.

Lovely People

From left to right: Annie (intern), Brad (Intern Sensai), Laura (intern-on press)

The best part about working at Hatch thus far (aside from the amazing historical significance and all of the awesome old stuff) is the awesome people. Everyone is super friendly and fun to be around, and I've had a blast working with them every day.

Two weeks in, four weeks out

There's nothing that makes you homesick for Oakland quite like seeing a suburban on blocks in the parking lot on Monday morning. Who knew people loved rims in Nashville as much as they did in Oakland?

In other news, we've started to design our own posters! It's really awesome that we get to create things so soon, and I'm loving working in the shop. Brad is a great design mentor, and I'm learning a lot about design on top of learning a lot about letterpress.

I've been revolving around these colors for the jobs I'm working on (I'll post them when they're totally finished so you can see the process from beginning to end). Pastel primaries and browns, maybe it's spring fever?

Every Tuesday night this restaurant/bar in East Nashville called the Family Wash has Pint and Pie night for $10! We got delicious Shepard's Pies, covered in melted cheddar cheese. YUM!

Also, I can't believe its almost the end of my second week! These next few weeks will fly by, I'm sure. I need to find something to do in the evenings other than spend money. So far John and I have been watching too much TV, and browsing the internet tubes. I think I need some kind of art project to keep me busy, something that I can do with very limited supplies. Any suggestions?

Weekend Update: Fairs and Fleas

This weekend was pretty awesome, as weekends go. Our intern leader (Brad) invited everyone to his house on Friday night for a Taco party, and we got to drool over his amazing studio setup and adorably decorated house. This is his tiny treadle press, JEALOUS!

Recap: Week One

I can't believe my first week at Hatch is already over! I thought six weeks would be a long time, but now that there's only five left it feels like it's going to fly by.

Brad took us up to the 'archives' this week, which is actually just a bunch of boxes stacked on the floor. Someone needs to buy these people some shelves!

Process: Painted Coffee

This week we got to work on our first print! It's amazing that we're able to print already, and we started with a pretty easy and fun project. Most of the stuff in the shop is from the late 1800's/early 1900's, including these two 'coffee' linocuts. They may have been used to advertise some specific brand in the past, but now Hatch prints them as artwork to be sold in the shop.

Process: Imogen Heap

This week, Brad has been working on printing a poster for Imogen Heap, a musician who will be performing at the Ryman in June. It was nice to see how he designs and prints a poster from beginning to end, something we will all be doing shortly!

This is Brad's "Proof" which he sent to the Ryman for approval. Instead of printing a proof on the press, they brayer the type with ink and print it on tracing paper (by rubbing the back of the paper with their hands), so they can photocopy it at kinko's and shrink it down to 8.5x11 to fax to the client. To keep the ink dry, they cover it with cornstarch after printing it.

All that Nashville has to offer

Though we've only been here a week, I'm starting to find that Nashville is a lot different than what I expected. You can't always judge a book by its cover, right? Here are some of the cool things I've discovered about Nashville:

This is the AT&T building downtown, which Carter (0ne of the other
Hatch interns) told me everyone calls the 'Batman building.' Get it?!

Also, Nashville has a Parthenon replica. Like, actually. It's huge.

On Thursday we got a super fast 'insiders tour' of the Country Music Hall of Fame, which I am definitely going to visit again. This wall is covered in replicas of Hatch Show Prints!

The museum is arranged chronologically, and this rub-on was on the opposite side of a sewing table with an antique sewing machine on it. Risque!

One of my favorite things about the museum was the informational design. This map (above) and this exhibition signage (below) was designed by the in-house design team, many of whom were previous Hatch interns! (You can definitely see the typographic influence)

Krogers is the South-Eastern 'Safeway,' and we went in today looking for disposable Pie plates. But what we found....

TERRIFYING

Of course, if none of that is satisfying enough, there's always the Free Smells.

Gettin' our typeset down since 1879!

This is a view of the shop at Hatch from the back, and the wall on the right side is filled with over-sized wood type (anything bigger than 25 line, which won't fit in a case). The front of the shop is a store, where people can come in and buy posters and ephemera printed at the shop. It seems like tour groups come by the shop at least twice a day, since Hatch is considered a museum of sorts for Nashville Music. One of the tour guides (who coincidentally came in today), will point towards this giant wall of type and say "See? That's where they've been gettin' their typeset down since 1879!" (for those of you who aren't familiar with letterpress, 'typesetting' is the act of putting letters together to form words, and 'type' is the stuff we actually get down off those walls. Hilarious.)

So as a reference to this awesome tour guide, Brad printed these banners to wrap around posters people buy at the shop. Love it!

In other news, we seem to be winding down on the type striking, which is a tiny-relief for my eyes. These boards all had full set posters on them when we arrived on Monday, and Jim said he's never seen this many boards down at one time! (I think the five of us struck 35 posters in two days, kind of amazing for people who didn't know the shop at all when we started!)

I keep noticing things as I walk around the shop. This is towards the back, a kind of 'no mans land' of dead C&P's that don't work or aren't in use. If only I could take one home with me!

This is Huey, one of the Hatch Cats. This angle flatters him, but don't be fooled. He weighs about 18 pounds. He's also quite aloof. The other cat is all orange, and his name is Maow. He's super shy, I've only really seen him twice.

Every year Hatch makes a limited-edition t-shirt, and I bought this one for myself today (the 2010 version). So stoked on it!

In other news, I got an email today from Kristine at Cognition Studio in Seattle, one of the places I met with when I went up there over Spring Break looking for a job. She wants to offer me a three month paid internship! They were my number-one choice in Seattle, and though I thought I was going to stay in the Bay Area (mostly because I don't have the money to move up there yet), it would be amazing to be able to go! I'm still waiting to hear about the Chronicle Books Design Fellowship, but if I don't make it through to the finals I'm glad I have another job opportunity awaiting. Horay!

Three Strikes You're Out

For the past two days we have been striking all of the type from posters that have been printed in the past but hadn't been put away yet. It's a great way to learn what's in the shop, and where it goes! Though it'll probably take a long time to remember it all, I feel better about it now than I did when I first walked in.

The best part about working at Hatch is being around some amazing design work. Literally all of the walls are covered in show posters (well, excluding the walls that aren't covered in type). This poster for John Prine I was particularly drawn to, designed by Brad:


I think one of my favorite things about letterpress is the ability to layer colors and textures, and I think this poster in particular utilizes it stunningly. I also love that it's a simple black and white color pallet. Proves you don't have to use color to make something visually arresting!

Also, I got to walk past this stunning postcard all day. What could be better?

First Day Jitters

Today was my first official day as an Intern at Hatch Show Print! I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised! Everyone is amazingly nice, and I still can't get over how awesome it is to work in such a great historical place (they like to refer to it as a "working museum," too true!)

Though I seem to be the one with the most letterpress experience, I learned a lot today. The above photo is five different widths of the same 12-line wood type 'A,' from 12-line Gothic 1 to 12-line Gothic 5.

These are three different sizes and types of image plates they have, from linoleum to wood to magnesium. The girl pictured is Hatch's signature 'Gravy Girl.'

Also, somehow Hatch has an illustration of John as a fighter pilot. How weird!

Brad (one of the employees at Hatch) printed these awesome iPhone covers for flood relief. They're being sold paired with a letterpressed poster for $50 at Cool People Care, and all proceeds benefit flood relief.

After work a bunch of us met up at this bar called the Flying Saucer, which has about a million different types of beer. If you drink 200 different kinds of beers, they put your name on a plate on the wall. If you drink all 200 ten times, they send you to Denver to get drunk at a beer conference. Epic.

Art in all the right places

While looking around on the web trying to find interesting things going on in Nashville, I happened to come across an article about a really interesting show happening at the Frist Center. It was just our luck that the show's last day was today!

The artist's name is U-Ram Choe and he hails from South Korea. I was drawn to the title of the exhibit, New Urban Species, and the subject matter: kinetic portrayals of futuristic forms of life.

Una Lumino Portentum, 2008

I was particularly enamored with this piece, which was displayed front-and-center as you entered the gallery. The flowers slowly open and close, accompanied with soft-white LED lights (see video below).

However, I think my favorite piece overall was the Cakra, a globe of sharp elegant steel angles that revolved and closed in on each other, powered by brass gears. John and I postulated that if we had millions of dollars, we would totes buy one of these (it's an edition of 6 apparently!)

Cakra 2552-a, 2008

We were lucky enough to be at the museum while the Chihuly exhibit was there as well, and we felt the two exhibitions were excellent pairings. Both artists use very feminine forms that seem to be a direct reference to nature. Wouldn't it be great to see these two collaborate on a kinetic glass sculpture!

Macchia Forest, Chihuly

Images and video courtesy of the Frist Center and U-Ram Choe

Down by the river

Today we ventured downtown to check out Hatch and see the flood damage. It's kind of unbelievable to think that the river rose as high as it did. From where the water is at now (see photo above - still covering what used to be a boardwalk), it was up to where we were sitting when I took that photo (at least ten feet).

There is a lot of debris and clean-up still happening around the clock, and most of the businesses on first street are closed (except, of course, the Coyote Ugly Bar. Go figure).


This pile of stuff was stacked on the side of the river front walk, caked in mud.

This barrel with this awesome Jack Daniel's sign on it was overturned in the junk pile. If only we had a car...


One of the coolest things about the rest of the country (outside of California, that is) is the amazing amount of old brick buildings. I love the texture and color of these bricks off the side of a building on second street.

The weather is still confusing the hell out of us. It was HOT and sunny and humid when we left for downtown, and then it started thunderstorming. John got soaked because we only had my flimsy umbrella to share, but once the sun came out again he was dry in ten minutes flat.

Mostly, John was perturbed by this box of "diet cookies." ("They look like MEAT patties!") Apparently, they give you a box of cookies, that you eat for a week straight, and then you're no longer fat! For only $59.99!

To donate to Nashville Flood Relief Funds, check out Hands On Nashville.

We landed in a thunderstorm

Today I officially woke up in a different state, on an unfamiliar (and quite tiny) bed. So far, Nashville has not been at all what either of us expected. Well, except for the humidity. But that's still shocking.


After we landed, we lucked out (they had all of our luggage), and took a shuttle to the hostel accompanied by Tattoo the Midget ('Ze plane boss, ze plane!').

Our apartment is REALLY nice. Like, woah. Except, no towels.

For now, my hair is a frizz fest (photos once I get over it).

{<3!}

The first day of the rest of your life

Hello! This is my blog. I plan to document my post-graduation life, projects I work on, and things that inspire me.

Well, it's official. I have a marble pen holder with my name engraved on it.



I guess that means I'm an adult, right?