From 2011 to 2016 I worked at a print shop in Nashville, Tennessee called Hatch Show Print.

Hatch Show Print is a letterpress print shop that opened in 1879 and hasn’t ever closed. It is currently owned and operated by The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, and it has been since the 1992. Hatch has left an enormous footprint on American graphic design, and more specifically concert poster design. I had just graduated college in May of 2010, and after a brief stint working at a lovely deli in Starkville, Mississippi and an even more brief stint working for The Starkville Daily News, it’s safe to say that Hatch was an absolute dream job for me. During college, I became highly interested in analog printing processes and American folk music/old-time music, so the notion of working in a shop where so much history regarding both subjects existed was extremely formative for my visual sensibilities, as well as my work ethic and general attitude about design and creativity.

I’m still very proud of the work I did at Hatch, and it was a highly challenging environment to exist in. It taught me that efficient work processes, simple/classic/timeless design skills, and a friendly face are the foundation of professional creativity.

I worked at Hatch for just barely over five years, in which we moved the shop from it’s previous location on Broadway to its current (and allegedly final) location inside of the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. In the second half of my tenure there, I was in charge of interviewing, hiring, and training our interns. Hatch has an intense internship program in which we would host five different sessions throughout the year, each one consisting of four interns from all over the world and of all ages and backgrounds. Everybody from professors to mechanics to photographers to designers and damn near everything in between. I learned more than I could ever have dreamed I would learn about how to work with all sorts of people.

Here is some of the work I did while I was there: