• CHARCOAL GRAY
  • RIVERA ROSE
  • CHINO
  • DUSK BLUE

We Love Letterpress: Hatch Show Print & Hamilton Wood Type

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An inspiring, one-of-a-kind event known simply as The Jim Jam, was held at the Fossil corporate offices in Dallas on Wednesday, June 13th. The event featured nostalgic letterpress prints for sale, and presentations by two legendary letterpress printers and historians: Jim Sherraden from Hatch Show Print, and Jim Moran from Hamilton Wood Type Museum located in Two Rivers, WI. Jim Moran began the first half of the presentation. He guided us through the history of carved type, letterpress printing and the background behind his museum which boasts the world’s largest collection of wood type. Moran is a true believer in “preservation through production” by which he insists the museum is only successful if the type is still producing prints, instead of collecting dust. This way, knowledge of the craft is passed on to others who visit the museum and make their own prints.

Presenting next was Jim Sherraden of Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest working letterpress shops in America, located in Nashville. Hatch has deep letterpress roots that sprouted with their turn-of-the-century vaudevillian and circus show posters. Today, they’re most famous for their concert posters. Not surprisingly, due to their three largest customers: B.B. King, Willie Nelson and Ryman Auditorium. Sherraden explained how a seemingly dying art could profit in today’s digital age. He said it playfully, “At Hatch, we love computers. They made way for our sought after little niche. We are the antithesis of the computer, and proud of it.” To put it plainly, letterpress is that little piece of history you can still make your own, a timeless craft suited for that perfect piece of paper.

Domtar's Paper Hotspot @SXSW

Domtar Paper, makers of Cougar and the PaperBecause campaign, made a scene at this year's SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas. The SXSW interactive, film and music festival celebrates all things digital and is one of the largest interactive conferences in the world. In the middle of this, Domtar Paper made a statement, much to the joy of the attendees. They created a "Paper Hotspot" with rugs, couches, sketchbooks, and reading material. Paig Goff, Domtar's VP of sustainable business and brand management had this to say about the hotspot:

"We wanted to be at South by Southwest because that’s where you always see some of the most creative ideas from some of the sharpest minds, and it was interesting to see how people responded to the Paper Hotspot. No matter what people were working on, and no matter how fast they were working, this reinforced the studies that show whether you’re an executive or a millennial, people prefer to read on paper, and it’s faster to read on paper. We thought the Paper Hotspot would be a fun, new way to highlight a key message. Even after 2,000 years, paper has a place, even more so in a digital age—it remains a purposeful, personal and environmentally responsible communication medium."

Take a look. It stole the show.

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