Nanotype
The Soulful Letterpress
About Nanotype
Nanotype,
the letterpress studio of Nan Flynn is a place where time slows down, hands get dirty, communities get built one letter at a time, and genuine craftsmanship thrives. At Nanotype, in so many inventive ways, old is new again.
A North Carolina native and longtime Nashville resident, Nan Flynn first became aware of letterpress printing through the renowned work of Hatch Show Print, whose ubiquitous concert posters inspired her to find out what letterpress was all about. A lifelong learner and self-confessed digital luddite, Nan was immediately attracted to the measured pace and refreshingly analog nature of the letterpress process, as well as its deep and fascinating history.
The letterpress story goes back to the year 1450, when German inventor Johan Gutenberg created the first printing press, incorporating a mold for casting movable type out of a lead alloy.
This invention ushered in the age of letterpress and started a print revolution that created the modern world as we know it. In the ink-stained hands of Nan Flynn, letterpress comes brilliantly to life in the present. Working at her 1908 vintage Pearl press, she can spend hours adjusting rollers, hand-mixing inks to produce the perfect color, and rifling through her ever-growing collection of vintage wood and metal typefaces to invigorate and artfully communicate the message at hand.
Does letterpress have its constraints? Absolutely. But it also provides moments of inspiration and improvisation. Whether it’s an unplanned-and-unusual texture, an exclamation point flipped upside down to replace a missing lower-case “I,” or a single letter repositioned to accentuate its elegant curves and angles, at Nanotype boundaries are celebrated as opportunities. In her studio, surrounded by her hand-stitched books and curated vintage stamp collections, she’s free to experiment with textures, shapes, and anything printable to successfully push the creative envelope.
Nan Flynn is never happier than when she sees her Nanotype work facilitating new connections in the community, whether it’s an elegant letterpress business card or a personal letter handwritten on Nanotype stationery. She also welcomes the community into her studio for workshops and regularly scheduled “gratitude parties,” with clients and friends gathering to write and send off elegant, hand-crafted thank you notes.
At Nanotype, Nan Flynn is set free to create a traditional wedding invitation one day and a stunning series of limited edition prints the next. Her deft touch, her quirky creative sensibility, her instinctive feel for paper and color, and her passion for the process all come together to offer a unique take on letterpress and create some timeless takeaways for a growing Nanotype clientele.
Get In Touch
Love letterpress? Let’s connect and discuss your perfectly imperfect printed needs.
Address
125 Kenner Avenue
Nashville, TN 37205