Re-photographing Hatch Show Print Posters

I'm beginning to get my portfolio together for job applications, which can be a stressful process when photographing work is involved.

Happy Trails!

I cannot believe that it's already been six weeks!
My internship at Hatch has really flown by.

I printed some awesome posters:

Ate some amazing southern food:

And met some fantastic people:

Though, I think I may miss the cats the most :)

My Appologies

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that people other than my personal friends were reading my Blog. I really shouldn't have posted the Adam Lambert poster, and I have deleted the post about it. Maybe I can put it up again later, after the show is over and done with. This has caused a lot of trouble with Hatch and with the Ryman, because the posters are solely meant to be sold at the show and there is a limited number. I didn't mean for my post to seem as if I were advertising the poster, and I am really sorry for the trouble I have caused. I probably won't be posting any more finished work on here until the release of the work to the general public is long past.

Again, I appologize for my naivete.

Process: Silhouette Cards!

I found these amazing copper plates (Hatchdoesn't get these made anymore, but they're from the shop's earlier days) while I was searching for things to use on a recent job, and though they weren't appropriate for a poster I thought they went together so well that Brad said I could print a card!

Process: BlobFest

I finished another poster this week! It's amazing how much work we've been able to get done at Hatch, and immensely satisfying! This one is for 'BlobFest,' a movie festival that happens in Pennsylvania every year, in the town that the movie The Blob was actually filmed in. They even host it in the actual theater one part of the movie takes place in, and do a re-enactment of the scene.

Process: Jenny & Ty

Though Hatch is trying to weed out wedding invites (they're now limited to one a month), Brad let a few of us design some since we said it was something we were interested in. The one I was assigned was pretty open to anything, and their one suggestion was ampersands! Perfect.

Process: Santana!

I never thought that interning at Hatch I would be able to do posters for famous musicians, but here we are! Brad let me work on a poster for a Santana concert, which I was really excited about! After researching some of the imagery associated with Santana, I realized that the majority of it is a hybrid of Mexican Mural Art and 1960's Psychedelic posters. Not wanting to go either of those routes, I wanted to make something more contemporary (and more simple), but keep with the same 'Santana' feeling.

Famous People

Though you would think living in California I would see a lot of famous people, I really have never been than close to anyone famous (well, except for that time I ate dinner next to E-40). Nashville being dubbed "Music City" seems to cause people to want to visit, and this week being CMA Fest amps up the famous factor. On Tuesday John and I biked to Grimey's Music to see the in-store performance of Reverend Payton's Big Damn Band, whom I met when I toured with Vermillion Lies, and who are famous in certain circles. Famous People Count: 1!

Process: Joe Nichols

This is the first project I designed at Hatch, we started it a few weeks ago and I just finished printing the type this week! Annie and I designed this poster for the Joe Nichols' fan club show, which is taking place this week as part of CMA Fest.

Three Weeks Already?

I can't believe my internship is halfway over, I'm beginning to feel at home in the Hatch shop! It's so fun to be around so much creativity all day long. Earlier this week, we were visited by Kevin (from Graphiti Associates, whom I interviewed with when we visited in March) and Aaron from Seattle, who were in Tennessee to go to the AIGA Leadership Conference in Chattanooga. I gave them a tour of the shop, and it was great to see a semi-familiar face!

At Hatch, we get ready to print a job by using Make-readies, which are posters that get stored by the press, to be printed on over and over again (either for registration or impression checking purposes). After a while, there are some pretty amazing (and gorgeous) image and color combinations, and we pull the 'cool' ones out to cut down into postcards. My job on Thursday was to design and print the back side of the postcards.

Process: Andrew Combs

I finally finished my first poster at Hatch! I was given a 'Local Band Special,' (for an artist named Andrew Combs) something Hatch does to keep posters affordable for local bands. They don't have to pay as much because they basically have no say in the design of the poster, though we do still talk to them about what they want, and I was allowed to call the band's manager and describe the poster to him before I printed it, just to make sure I wasn't completely off the mark.

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.

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.

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.