Day 21

I won't give it away, but I  saw this door covered in handprints this morning and wondered how all these people were being tricked...

WHAT I DID

• Started folding all 2340987 of my Christmas cards
• Called/faxed my Colorado client about Mzungu poster– approved!
• Finally got approval for Music City Roots poster– the race is on to finish printing all 300
• I got got! See above. 

WHAT I LEARNED

• A piece of lead is 2 points thick (at least most of them here are). That means there are 3 in a 1/2 pica.
• In lieu of a bone folder, a plastic screw-on bottle cap works just fine to fold things.

Day 20

Mr. Marty Robbins

WHAT I DID

• Helped set type for a Marty Robbins restrike
• Locked in my Christmas card design into the front press
• Printed 500 of my Christmas cards
• Posed for pictures while printing on the front press (there was a journalist conference in town)

This part is so satisfying to me– ink spreading over the roller

WHAT I LEARNED

• Fridays on Broadway are busy! I never realized it as much until working on the front press– you interact with a lot of the customers up there.
• How to cycle through colors on the press– because I was printing so many cards, each time I inked the press, I jumped to the next color in the rainbow so that they would gradually transition

Some of my Christmas cards

Day 19

Cool ligature from a font called Sumo

WHAT I DID

• Proofed the new and corrected version of the Music City Roots poster
• Finished typesetting my Christmas card
• Mixed gobs and gobs of ink
• Ate at Jacks Barbecue (conveniently just a block away)

WHAT I LEARNED

• When you're checking a proof, be sure not to miss little things like parts of characters printing incorrectly– it can really affect the legibility of your poster

Hatch is old timey right down to the refrigerator

Day 18

Carving a block

Rubbing the ink onto tracing paper with a wooden spoon

Part of my proofed block

WHAT I DID

• Made some sponsor corrections to Music City Roots poster, had to reset a few lines
• Fleshed out my Christmas card– mine's called "Tennessee Tinsel Time"
• Carved a block for my Christmas card out of linoleum
• Glued my linoleum cut to a wooden block so that it will be type high
• Met Barry McGee! Brad magic brought Barry to the shop (he is in town for his Vanderbilt lecture tonight) He used to be a letterpress printer himself, and showed a lot of genuine interest in the shop.

WHAT I LEARNED

• How to deal with changing out information in posters
• A change in length of words can be tricky to deal with– you really have to pay attention to how the letters take up space and how to manipulate the new information to fit
• Barry McGee Rules!

Barry McGee doing what he loves most

Day 17

Inside the Christmas drawer

WHAT I DID

• Finished setting Mzungu poster, pulled a proof for the client
• Started working on a Christmas card design
• Found some very cool blocks while searching mystery drawers for Christmas images

Can't stop thinking about how cool this will look printed

WHAT I LEARNED

• Be thorough in proofing– not only do you have to check that the information is correct and spelled correctly, but you have to make sure each character is correct (not italic, the wrong size, swapped with another character, etc.)
• "1"s and lowercase "l"s are easily confused

Day 16

Found some rose petals in a type case today

WHAT I DID

• Put trim marks on the Carrie Underwood poster and bagged them for pickup
• Received a new job for Mzungu, a social justice documentary set in Africa
• Called Mzungu client to discuss design ideas
• Set about 80% of the Mzungu design
• Met with the Music City Roots client to show proof of poster design

WHAT I LEARNED

• How to handle a finished job
• Working on communicating with clients
• Incorporating existing identities into poster designs
• Upside-down 'U's making fun-looking 'N's

WHAT I DIDN'T LEARN

• How to pronounce Mzungu

A really good lookin 'g'

Day 15

The Meile– this is a monster-sized press used for large runs of posters

WHAT I DID

• Printed my Carrie Underwood posters
• Put up type

WHAT I LEARNED

• Learning how to gauge how much ink it takes to print certain things
• Neat typesetting is important– the tiniest misalignment of reglet/lead can cause type to print incorrectly
• Always check your lockup before shoving more lead in
• Too tight of a lockup can cause type to buckle/work up

Day 14

Checking registration before print run– a little off in this proof.

TODAY'S HAPPENINGS

• Printed Grand Ole Opry restrikes
• I've got Vandercook blisters on my fingers!
• Bryce from Isle of Printing stopped in to show some recent work. It was very interesting to see how he integrates new media (digital artwork via mag and polymer plates) with classic letterpress.  (Also very cool to see what a good relationship Hatch keeps with other printers in town.)

WHAT I LEARNED

• The press rollers should always be in motion– this prevents them from getting any flat spots.
• To check registration, you can fold your poster in half and align it with the previous color for reference.
• It pays to set a few multiple smaller pieces of furniture rather than only large ones– this makes it easier to shuffle them around when your registration is a pica or two off.

SOME VOCABULARY

• A workup is when a piece of furniture 'works' its way up to type high and begins to print.
• Impression is the emboss type makes when it is pressed with a lot of force into your paper. It's what many people crave in letterpress printmaking, but it's classically (and for the sake of your type) not desirable.

QUESTIONS TO ASK DURING PRINTING


Taming down all of variables I worry about while printing:

• Is everything registered properly?
• Is the color correct?
• Are there workups?
• Is the type inked evenly?
• Do I have too much ink?
• Do any of my characters/blocks need to be raised so they print better?
• Are any of my characters/blocks causing too much impression?
• Is dirt/dry ink/foreign matter getting onto (or crushing into!) my type?

This nonsense is above the handwashing sink (and spawned this show flyer today)

Day 13

All our fun typesetting the past few days is adding up...and up and up...

WHAT I DID

• Music City Roots poster– complete!
• Met with my client for the Carrie Underwood poster, got my first job approval (this means printing will ensue)
• Mixed the colors for the Underwood poster
• Got lots of reglet splinters– boo!

WHAT I LEARNED

• Before you print your job on the press, we hand-brayer the set type and pull a proof (rub tracing paper onto the inked letters with your hand and/or a wooden spoon)
• Coat proofs twice with corn starch, then brush it off to help keep ink from smudging
• Ink proofs diagonally, and pull the tracing paper off diagonally– it keeps the type from sticking and lifting up

Found this guy and had to photograph, as it coincides a bit with my personal work.

Day 12

650 AM, WSM (just sing the jingle in your head)

WHAT I DID

• Almost finished setting Music City Roots poster
• Petted Huey (photo coming later, everyone loves cat pictures, right?)

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• How to deal with large amounts of type
• What to do when not all of your type will fit in a line (pretty tricky when you're trying to justify type, or get it to line up flush from left to right perfectly)

1. Try a different and/or smaller font
2. Try using lowercase instead of uppercase
3. Utilize catchwords (fancy "and"s and "the"s styled into one block)
4. Try to shrink articles like of, for, at, etc., or set them in a different font
5. Switch "and" with "&"
6. Switch "at" with "@"

According to the Nashville tour guide lady that comes in every day, this poster has sold more than Elvis and Johnny Cash posters

Day 11

A rake block!

WHAT I DID

• Started setting my design for the fall Music City Roots poster.
• Called my client to check out the Carrie Underwood proof.
• Got a customer looking for a John Cage Poster– slightly out of the ordinary

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• To test out how large type needs to be for your poster, bring your composing stick to a type case and use a line of average-width letters to gauge how big words will be.
• Because proofs are a single, arbitrary color, indicate what the actual colors/separations/background blocks will be on the proof.

Our table saw for cutting down blocks.

Day 10

Collected intern sketches for Carrie Underwood poster (plus coffee.)

WHAT I DID

• Got our first design job (not to be confused with restriking old posters!)
• Sketched ideas for Carrie Underwood poster
• Set type for Carrie Underwood poster

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• Don't design something that will be extremely hard to restrike.
• Be aware of color separations and how they will affect the printing process.
• Reference your artist's website/latest merch/album covers, etc. so you can design appropriately.
• Keep in mind that your poster design should represent your artist and Hatch
• After creating a small sketch, recreate your sketch as actual size to reference when pulling type.

"They're getting a poster, not a root canal!" - Brad on client reception.

Johanna (with Adrianne) cutting linoleum for the 'O's in "Underwood"

Each intern gets an inbox– ours are now filled with jobs

Day 9

The controls for the Vandercook Universal III back press.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• Intro to the back press– it's semi-automatic and a bit intimidating; while the front and mid press have only a couple switches, this one's got several.
• Mix your color correctly before you start your edition!
• Signs you might have too much ink:
  a) ink prints shinier (especially on a matte paper)
  b) ink has a bubbly texture
  c) finer areas fill in/bleed
  d) rollers "sizzle" too loudly
• Don't use lead furniture to fill in the press bed; it has no give and is hard on the roller
• How to clean the press rollers properly (take 2)

WHAT I DID

• Printed Grand Ole Opry restrikes
• Printed on the back press's tympan paper (cranked the wrong lever, too many options!)

Day 8

Jennifer requested a "spicy mustard" kind of yellow for this job...

WHAT I DID

• Mixed lots of ink.
• Helped print Libby Koch posters.
• Typeset some poster restrikes.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• When typesetting, choose the simplest way of doing things (and one that is easy to modify on the press). Creating a puzzle out of type/furniture makes changing spacing hard.
• Still feeling out how much ink is ideal for the press roller. I've always thought that the sound of "bacon sizzle" was a pretty relative term, although that's often what we're told to listen for.
• Hatch is currently at its 7th location, all of them being in the downtown Nashville area.

Typeset jobs are stored on wooden boards and labelled with tape. We've accumulated lots of labels from past jobs, this is just a teeny section of them.

Day 7

At Hatch, the mid press is signed by all the celebrities that drift through the shop. Kelsey helped me find Shel Silverstein's signature (Martha Stewart just happened to get in the shot too.)

WHAT I LEARNED

• Let freshly printed posters dry for a day before stacking them.
• When posters are printed, dried, and stacked, you then bag the posters, label the brown paper bag with job name and quantity, then call the client for pickup.
• To count out large orders quickly, count a pile of 50 posters, then make more piles of the same thickness (you can feel them to see that they're level)
• Uneven inking can cause your poster to print incorrectly– it's not always uneven type.
• The press is usually equipped with a quoin key, tape, scrap paper (for leveling type), scissors, and tweezers– don't put any other junk in!

WHAT I DID

• Printed Historic Ryman Auditorium posters.

VOCABULARY FOR TODAY

• A common sense trim typically leaves 3 picas of margin around a trimmed poster.

Day 6

Brad using the massive Hatch paper cutter

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• How to print on the mid-press (Vandercook Universal-I)
• When mixing ink, be clean! Keep the lips of the jars wiped down and put your palette knife on a clean surface.
• Don't gouge the ink when scooping it out.
• The first time you print a poster, roll the cylinder slowly to see if any type causes pressure.
• When type needs to be raised, cut paper to the shape of the type and tape it to the back.
• Before adding lead to loose type on the press bed, check for sloppy typesetting first– it may be that something it just out of place.
• When figuring out what pressure to print at, start low and gradually raise the press bed.
• During early prints/the registration process, get rid of mis-registered prints! That way, you won't register later colors incorrectly.

Setting type/images on a diagonal = a hot mess!

Love this block!

Day 5

Inking up the front press

WHAT I LEARNED

• How to print a poster on the front press (Vandercook SP15)
• Watch for leads on the press bed– they match!
• In reference to the order of tightening the lockup bar and tightening quoins..."Shut the door (lockup bar) before you lock it (quoins)."
• Stack printed posters vertically so ink won't offset.
• and the kicker...Dorris Macon was Uncle Dave's son, not his daughter! I've heard of Dorris a few times, but I never realized this was a male name.

VOCABULARY FOR TODAY

• Tympan paper is the cushy wax coated paper that goes around the cylinder
• The frame user to hold all the type together is called the chase
• Type locked into the chase is called the form
• The lockup bar goes at the bottom of the form and secures it into the press
• A quoin is a mechanism, tightened by a quoin key, used to secure type from the side.
• The dead line is a line marked on the press bed after which nothing type high can be set (or it will be damaged by the cylinder.)
• Type high is literally the term for the universal height of letterpress type– .918", that is.

NEW TYPEFACES

• Airport (reminiscent of Futura)
• News Gothic

Quoins, quoin key, lockup bar, etc. on the front press

Day 4

Poster project No.1

Typeset my first poster today! Johanna and I were assigned a restrike, meaning we had to replicate an old job based on a poster we had on file already. Remaking posters and getting the type to lock up correctly is a lot like putting together a puzzle, and I like it.

WHAT I LEARNED

• Furniture is 4 picas tall exactly– don't sit it on its side by accident.
• Use tape to secure small, tricky units of type (e.g. a bar of 12pt stars)
• How to die cut on the Vandercook
• New wood blocks are presented to the client as a sketch in the proof– only after they're approved do they actually get cut (same goes for photo plates!)

NEW TYPE FRIENDS

• Empire
• Balderdash

Made with a real 45!

Day 3

Proofing a restrike of a Grand Ole Opry poster

WHAT I LEARNED

• How to pull a proof before running type through the press
• Spend more time pulling/setting type so that you will spend less time on the press.
• Visited upstairs photo plate archive/learned how it's organized.
• Hand carved pieces of type on cheaper wood soaks up more ink than factory endgrain pieces.
• Ink up type diagonally so that the ink doesn't pull up type.
• What a die looks like/how to die cut on the press.
• Type is traditionally set upside down and backwards, but for the large type in our posters, we set backwards and not upside down, so we can pay more attention to the aesthetics of the design.
• The moveable part of the composing stick is called the knee.

NEW TYPE FRIENDS

• Farmer Gothic (not to be mistaken for Franklin Gothic condensed)
• Tower
• Bank Gothic
• Mandy (real good lookin wood type!)

Mandy

Day 2

Today I spent a lot of time putting away type and furniture (of the letterpress variety.) It's interesting how quickly working with tangible pieces of type improves your understanding of the letterforms.

THINGS I LEARNED

• Don't mistake rules (which are type high) for reglets
• Don't mistake type (specifically, 'I', '1', and 'l') as reglets
• Avoid these mistakes (sometimes) by looking for the shinier face of the type/rule where it has been printed
• Differentiate varying sizes of lead type by lining up the notches on the back
• Tuesday is fish taco day @ Chile Burrito (also tried horchata for the first time!)

NEW TYPEFACE FRIENDS

• Stymie
• Latin Wide
• John Hancock
• Cheltenham Bold (which unfortunately, in the case of putting away type, looks quite like John Hancock)