I Need Help Fixing a Vandercook.

Yesterday I went on a little bike ride to the University of Louisville with a side bag full of my work at Hatch Show Print to show my professor. We were all talking about the work, and letterpress printing and then he took me into a small storage room off the side of the Graphic Design rooms and under ceiling tiles and light bulbs was a Vandercook!

Another professor came down and looked at my work and the two of them began making plans to bring out the press, or at least uncover it, get it working, and make that little storage room a room for letterpress. They want my help in revitalizing the press, but I don't know where to even begin to look for resources. I checked out Briar Press a little bit, but couldn't find too much about DIY repairs of presses.

SO I thought that since 5 people at least are reading this, maybe one of you might know of locations on the web or otherwise, that would offer info about printing press repair. I did find a PDF of the manual that comes with a Universal I and a Universal III, but I think I might be working with a Universal II. It is just really hard to tell with it being buried under all that other stuff.

One Page Artist Book.

Our friends at Firecracker Press (or at least our facebook friends, since I've actually never met them.) have just uploaded pics of their new posters for the Billiken Club. I don't know what that is or anything, but the new posters look pretty rockin, and turn into one page artists books! How cool is that? In Chicago during the Southern Graphics Council Conference a few years back they had a demonstration on how to make what they called "One page artist books". These books were made from one sheet of paper without requiring staples or glue, but made more pages than you would get with traditional folding, and didn't do that whole blank sided double folded pages thing you would get with traditional folds.

So when I went to see the demonstration, the room was packed and we were in the back. I couldn't see a damn thing!! So I didn't get to see the demonstration in full effect, but I bought one in the Shop Columbia gift shop. Anyway, here is a cool link that shows how you fold a piece of paper to get a book, and also shows off one of Firecracker press's new posters. Click the link if you canDIG IT!

New Shepard Fairey Print

Shepard Fairey is releasing a new print on the 13th of someone very special to us Louisville folks. Muhammad Ali! Very cool image. It looks like Shepard is heading back towards a more rough style with his prints. It seemed like everything done around the time of the Obama poster was very clean and looked very digitally put together. This print has a mixture of both, the dripping background but still has the look of digitally separated cleanness. If I had $70 I would totally buy this print!

I feel like I kind of owe anybody out there who reads this thing an apology. I've kind of been out of it for the past few weeks in regards to keeping up with this blog. There hasn't been too much to report in my personal art life, and I haven't kept up with the art blogs much.

I pretty much moved back to Louisville from Nashville and went right back into working retail full time, and trying to recover financially from the 2 months of free work at the internship. I sold some comic books, my drums, cashed in some savings bonds, and worked about 40 hours a week since I've gotten back and I am still barely staying afloat with my bills. Student loans man, Student loans.

But in art news, I did go to the grand opening of Louisville's own local letterpress shop Hound Dog Press. Very new looking materials and they had a show of contemporary letterpress work which was very cool. They have a couple of small presses in the shop and I don't think they do too much other than invite sized work, but it is still exciting to think that the move to the new location could bring them the business they need to upgrade to a Vandercook proofing press.

Tonight! Live! On Stage!

I recently designed a poster for a client called Music City Roots. It is a weekly live radio show/concert from the Loveless Cafe in Nashville TN (which is a pretty famous spot). The show features lots of musicians, and is broadcast on WSM-AM 650 every Wednesday.

The poster I created was to be used for the opening of their spring season. It's a pretty cool thing to be a part of. Today I went to the Loveless Cafe for breakfast and they had one of my posters hanging behind the counter. Also they sell the Music City Roots posters that Hatch Show Print has designed. It is interesting to see something that I have designed and printed being for sale right next to the preserves, biscuit mixes, t-shirts, and key rings.

Something else cool about my poster is that it was right up on stage with all the musicians. If you click the link HERE you will see a gallery of that first spring season show. My print is orange and green and is right on the wall with the other Hatch Show Print designed posters. On stage in front of a live studio audience.

You Can't Always Get What You Want.

When designing this print(which I believe was my third) I wanted to do something that was visually stunning. This was my chance to do the "Ryman Style" poster. So I decided to incorporate one of the traditional Hatch images that I love, and wanted to do something that also embodied the spirituality, mysticism, and sexuality of the "Hendrix Experience".

I decided to base the poster around the image of the Gravy Girl with a lightning bolt over top of her. It didn't work out that way. The lightning bolt just didn't fit right. SO I changed it. Instead I used the icons of love, religion, superstition, etc. Keep the girl, but lose the bolt.Here is the image all ready to be proofed.
This is the proof. I sent it to them and they said that they already had a poster with the gravy girl on it, so they wanted a guitar instead. I was trying to be careful to stay away from images like the guitar, because it seemed like the obvious choice for a Jimi Hendrix poster to have a guitar, but the client makes the rules. So I changed it.

The end result is an amazing poster that came out very clean, and very well put together from concept to color scheme. I may be a little biased though.

Old Pictures of Hatch Show Print

You've seen all of my pics of Hatch Show Print at its current location, but here is something you may not know. Hatch Show Print has had other locations before its move to 316 Broadway.

First there was the location at 22 North Cherry Street which is now called Fourth Avenue South, then they moved to 116 Fourth Avenue North. Here are a few pictures of Hatch Show Print at that location which is right around the corner from its current location at 316 Broadway.

All of these photos are from Hatch Manager Jim Sherraden's collection, I am just helping put together a Powerpoint presentation for a lecture he will be giving later this month. In other words, these photos are not mine, I just scanned them. I have permission from him to use them here.The front of the shop used to face the Ryman Auditorium. The AT&T skyscraper now resides where Hatch Show Print once was.
inside
inside

The reason the interior looks so clean and organized in these photos is because it was not the thriving print shop/working museum that it is today. When Opryland bought Hatch Show Print they were doing mainly restrikes, and postcards. Jim was brought in originally as an archivist for Hatch Show Print. This article is from the Tennessean January 8th, 1986
Hatch Show Print after being torn down.
Invitation to the grand re-opening of Hatch Show Print at its current location.

Letterpress is Everywhere.

Sherlock Knows what's up.

This is a scene from the new movie Sherlock Holmes. When I first saw the title screen for the movie in the previews I noticed the text. Do you know what that is? Those letters look like letterpress type to me! COOL!!!!

I love noticing stuff like this. It is like printmaking isn't just for art school students, and concert promoters anymore! Another example of this is Target stores new promotion "The Great Save", which features large signage all over the department with text that copies the look of a letterpress printed poster. It even mimics the imperfections often associated with a real-life-honest-to-god-hand-pulled print. I couldn't find an image of it online except for one image on the Target website. Check it out if you like.

Print Collection 2

This print from Hatch Show Print has an interesting story for my personal history despite the fact that it was not acquired by me personally, but instead was a gift from my mom when she went on a business trip to Nashville about two years ago. When I found out that she was going I told her about Hatch and where it was and what kind of stuff it was that they did, because I thought it would be great if she could bring back a souvenir that was Hatch Show Print related. At this point I was well on my way to graduation, and had been involved with various forms of printmaking for a few years, but had yet to return to Hatch Show print with my new knowledge and respect for letterpress printmaking. I also asked her (mostly joking) to see if they were hiring.

The result of this trip was the print you see above, some post cards (posted in another Hatch related blog post somewhere around here), and the information that Hatch Show Print was not hiring, but had intern positions. I don't know if I have ever been so excited in my life! That was all I could think about, all the time! I mean I guess that, and my BFA show. I visited Hatch that summer, I sent off my resume and cover letter, and now almost 2 years later I am prepping myself for the move to Nashville and an internship at Hatch Show Print.

One of my favorite things about Letterpress prints, is that when you turn them over, they are dirty and imprinted. This print is no different. The yellow and red ink seems to have bled through to the back side of the poster because of the pressure involved in the printing process. I don't know if that actually IS why this happened, but it reminds me of printing reliefs with oriental papers and the image almost shows up on the back of the paper from rubbing. I guess I will find out in a couple of months.

The red ink used for the word "Hatch" seems to have a marbled effect that resembles what the ink probably looked like laying on the roller. Red with blackish drips smudged in it. Those mystery globs of dark paint or ink that you can't always seem to get rid of no matter how clean you are, but don't always ruin the work.

The yellow in used as the background for the window has a similar feel to it. In addition to the smudges here and there, the yellow background contains imprints of a skull pattern that I assume is not an intentional part of the original image. The skull design makes me think of a chapter in the Hatch Show book that talks about how old wood blocks were reused not only on other images, but sometimes the old blocks were dismantled to make shelving in the shop. This yellow block of windows could have at some point been a block from a Halloween print, or rock n' roll concert poster.

The yellow bleeds through the black ink layer in some spots from inconsistent inking and seem to reveal a wood grain pattern. All of these unique traits, in my mind at least, make me think about the different layers, the process, and the history of the process, associated with letterpress more than I would with your average computer designed and printed poster. That's the way I like it.

Letterpress Coasters.

Here is a video that will show you what the letterpress process is like. This is the kind of stuff I will be doing in Nashville. You know...only with posters.

Letterpress Coasters from Quarter Productions on Vimeo.

Print Collection 1

My Morning Jacket Plays the Tennessee Fire
Triangle Poster CO.
Pittsburgh, PA
Screenprint and/or Letterpress

When I was younger my friends and I would load up the car and head down to Bardstown Rd. where we would wander around and check out the stores, hang out and have a good time. During these days there were no social networking sites so if you expected someone to come see your show, you had to make real life flyers, and stick them to real life telephone poles. If I would see a really well designed flyer while walking around, I would sometimes take them from the poles.

This is where I got this print. I dare say it is the first print in my collection, even though I took less than great care with it. It has pin holes in it, and drawing on the back, but when this poster was printed I highly doubt it was created to be "high art" and the whole gig poster/printmaking fad hadn't yet arrived.

The band is one I had never heard of when I acquired the print, but recently had appeared on TV's American Dad, and I believe they also had a live concert on television for New Year's Eve 2008/2009. The popularity of the band as well as the trendiness of printmaking and gig posters makes me wonder how long a poster like this would have survived stuck to a pole these days. This same poster I took from the streets is actually for sale(or was at one time) at Ear X-tacy.

When I found this print I had no knowledge about printmaking. I didn't know who Andy Warhol was, I had never been to Hatch Show Print, and I had probably never even had any experience in my high school art classes, but this was a cool poster. The paper was thick, the colors were bright, but it had a certain hand made quality that normal posters did not. I could see the impressions in the lettering, I could see slight imperfections, and the ink seemed to sit on top of the paper more than normal posters.

Based on my printmaking knowledge I would say this poster is a combination of screenprinting and letterpress. The image at the bottom seems to be a generic screenprinted design that is available for everyone and the text at the top seems to be a letterpressed custom design. If you visit the Triangle poster company website they have pictures of pre-printed images that you ca use for your event, and this is one of them. This particular elephant image is "style #531" according to the bottom of the poster.