Hatch Today
It's a wonderful amalgam of working letterpress print shop, tourist attraction, museum and historical archive. We take pride in carrying on the Hatch family's dedication to excellence and accessibility to the public. Now located in a historic building at 316 Broadway in the heart of downtown Nashville, we're a mere 60 feet away from our old haunt beside the Ryman.
It only looks crowded in here because it is. Painstaking efforts to preserve the Hatch print shop look and atmosphere when we moved succeeded handsomely. Our shelves and cabinets are filled with as many as 10,000 basswood and maple wood blocks, thousands of photo plates, and countless drawers of wood and metal type. How do we know where everything is? All type is grouped by style, size and width - every change in "font" occupies a different section of the shop, every change in size a different drawer or shelf.
Although we have as many as 14 historic printing presses in Hatch, most of our work is generated on four Van der Cook proof presses of various sizes (used for most of our standard production runs) and on a big 1946 Miehle 29 press (used to prepare larger-sized custom jobs and special productions). Remember, these presses are used for letterpress printmaking (i.e., to press wood and metal images against paper), every machine is hand-operated, and every poster is handmade.
Here, in an image, is the secret to what we do. Starting with a customer's copy (or text), we design a look that not only captures the sound, feel and/or look of a band, magazine or product, but do so within the dimensions of the selected poster size and through the lens of Hatch history. Next, we turn to the three, five or ten different drawers and shelves containing the letters and hand-carved images needed to complete the design. Then, we carry the entire design form (gingerly!) over to an available press, lock in, choose a color and start cranking. Did we say color? If more than one is required, we have to decide which portion of the layout to print in which color. One hundred posters in three colors? That's three times through the press per poster or 300 runs altogether.
When we say working letterpress print shop, we mean it! During the course of any given year - between enough telephone rings to rival a telethon and visitor inquiries and purchases (we guesstimate 20,000 folks per annum!) - we manage to turn over nearly 600 jobs representing a mind-boggling variety of interests. When it comes to bands, country music is still a primary focus. Recent jobs have been designed for Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood, Ricky Skaggs, The Mavericks and BR5-49. But you'll also find work for everyone from Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to B.B. King and the Beastie Boys. We've designed and printed work for advertisers such as Nike, Taylor Guitars and Jack Daniels; covers for magazines ranging from Ampersand to Ray Gun; and covers for CDs and books.