Globe Printing Company

When most people think of a print shop being deeply intertwined with a local music scene, they think Hatch Show Print. For years the Nashville-based shop helped promote the Grand Ole Opry brand of country music.

A little closer to Duckpin's home, the Globe Printing Company has been a mainstay in the DC go-go scene for years. From early pioneers like Junk Yard Band and Experience Unlimited, Globe has been there to spread the word about DC's homegrown music. For much of the 80s and 90s, a trip along DC/Maryland commuter routes offered a cluttered, visual panopoly of Globe posters. Fluorescent-splashed signs tacked to traffic poles greeted you at every stoplight. How many times a week can Rare Essence possibly play? I remember often thinking.

Various "beautification" ordinances and a declining number of clubs have conspired to eliminate most of the signage. Globe has since diversified into more mundane "Houses from the mid-$400s"-type advertisements. These new signs (bland, plastic and text-only) are no match for the heyday signage of Globe.

Baltimore City Paper ran a great article on the long history of Globe, from it's start as a letterpress shop through the present day. The article is accompanied by beautiful -- and often haunting -- photography of the shop's composition equipment, type cabinets, and some now-quiet presses. To us, they look eager to be pressed back into service. Just as Hatch has experienced a revival, perhaps the time is ripe for Globe.

Shop photos by Frank Hamilton, Baltimore City Paper