Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service  /  American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print

American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print traveling exhibition and supporting graphic materials present a hundred and thirty years of artful work by one of America’s longest continually operating letterpress printers.

  • An exhibition of letterpress posters, wood blocks and related materials, and a press designed and co-curated by Studio A.
  • Two sequences of posters are a nostalgic return to 1980s imagery and poster treatments. One on white and the other on yellow.
  • Quotes in the exhibition are treated with a variety of wood type fonts, echoing the aesthetic of the posters.
  • A massive woodblock “A” is surrounded by posters from the 1990s that feature type as their primary image.
  • Three early-20th century blocks hang next to a contemporary print.
  • A poster also serves as a wrapper for the exhibition prospectus.
  • Cover of the exhibition prospectus.
  • A spread from the exhibition prospectus shows old and new Hatch prints, wood type headlines, and text about the show.
  • Exhibition partners are presented on a spread featuring Hatch’s famous “Three Johnnys” print.
  • The accordion-fold brochure includes a page showing the letterpress printing process and a back panel showing print examples.
  • Type suggesting letterpress handbills and imagery adapted from a Hatch poster, evoke the art and spirit of the exhibition.
  • The graphic standards manual shows a poster design for use by exhibition venues. On this page, an ad for the show.

Other projects completed for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service include:

I Want the Wide American Earth print materials show migrant workers in a field.

I Want the Wide American Earth

Exhibition design, identity, and print materials

Corridos Sin Fronteras print materials show women and men performing with guitars to showcase “A New World Ballad Tradition.”

Corridos Sin Fronteras

Print materials

Exhibition photo for Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise shows pottery with a hanging banner.

Women, Art, and Social Change

Exhibition design

Cover of the Americanos exhibition brochure shows a woman selling colored brooms at a fence.

Americanos

Print materials

Cover of the Sitelines exhibition brochure has a detail of Studio Still Life with Head of Woman by Robert de Niro, Sr.

Siteline

Print materials

Suited for Space exhibition design shows a spacesuit, helmet, and gloves.

Suited for Space

Exhibition design, identity, and print materials

381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott exhibition design shows a photograph of a black family with a bus in the background.

381 Days

Exhibition design and print materials

An example of the Update brochure for SITES with a magnified photograph of an insect.

Update

Print material

Our Journeys Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievement materials for SITES.

Our Journey/Our Stories

Print material

Cover for the invitation for 100 Faces of War features six portraits of soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

100 Faces of War

Exhibition design, identity, and print materials

Exhibition photo of Destination Moon for SITES showing panels in the background and two object cases in the foreground.

Destination Moon

Exhibition design

Cover of the prospectus cover for A New Moon Rises shows different views of the moon.

A New Moon Rises

Prospectus booklet

Journey Stories poster with women working construction and another woman supervising her during WWII and a migrant worker.

Journey Stories

Print materials

Cover of Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. exhibition brochure features Jewish folk art.

In the Spirit of Martin

Print materials