Riso Working Group UK

Two years ago Rabbits Road Press teamed up with Esther McManus and other riso enthusiasts to start Riso Working Group UK. The aim of the group was to connect and support risograph artists/designers/printers across the UK. We invited Rachel Littlewood, the London based risographer & designer who currently runs the Riso Working Group, to write a guest blog post and tell us about how things have developed since. Rachel has been a part of the risograph printing community for over 5 years and currently works at London College of Communication in Print Finishing and as a risograph technician at Rabbits Road Press. 

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Guest post by Rachel Littlewood

Riso Working Group (RWG) is an informal network of UK based Risograph artists, designers, technicians and operators. With a collaborative approach to the organisation of the group, all the members have an equal opportunity to both share and ask for support; be it technical, creative, or anything else Riso-related. It is a safe space for everyone interested in this medium to share ideas that could drive the whole UK Risograph scene to become more sustainable, efficient, and innovative.

London Centre for Book Arts (LCBA)

The first RWG meeting was organised by Sofia Niaz (Rabbits Road Press) & Esther McManus back in March 2018, with the aim to help connect Risograph technicians & owners, and help them support each other in regards to technical issues. RWG has since expanded its definition to include those who use Risograph printing in their work, or anyone with a general interest in the printing process.

Although this first meeting was mainly attended by London based Riso enthusiasts, it was clear that the group must be accessible to as many people as possible across the UK. It was noted that there are worldwide online Risograph resources available such as the Facebook group, Stencil.Wiki & the Slack workspace, but it felt that the Risograph communities in other countries such as the US or the Netherlands were much more closely connected.

Good Press

After much trial & error through the group’s first few meetings, it seemed that a mixture of in-real-life meet-ups all over the country & a dedicated WhatsApp group for all members worked best. This allowed for everyone to ask or give advice from wherever they are, whenever they need, but also gives people the opportunity to make face-to-face interactions and visit each other’s studios. The group has also set up an online newsletter which is sent out regularly and includes information about upcoming meetings, events RWG members are organising, and Risograph machines that members are selling.

A notable meet-up from last year would be our June visit to Dizzy Ink in Nottingham. Craig & Ben, who run the Risograph printing press, first showed us around Notts Zine Library which they set up. The zine library is currently housed in Nottingham Contemporary, and features a large range of zines from across the world; many of which are Risograph printed! After perusing the zines, we headed over to their studio space, which is a part of The Carousel; a space that provides workspaces to creatives as well as a community focused workshop programmes. As a group we had lunch together, before taking a look at Dizzy Ink’s set up, and making some prints that were to be used as part of their signage for an upcoming event.

Dizzy Ink

Last summer we also visited the G F Smith factory in Hull, which was an exciting opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at where a lot of our paper comes from! We were accompanied by the lovely paper consultants Roisin and Aimee, who showed us all the areas of the factory such as; where the paper is embossed, where the envelopes are made, where our paper orders are packed up, as well as the impressive paper warehouse! It was great to be able to see the different ways paper can be used, and what happens to it before it arrives at the doors of our printing presses.

G.F Smith Factory

Over the past 2 years, Riso Working Group has held 15 meet-ups, across 5 different locations across the UK, with plans to visit several new locations in the future. With roughly 60 members in the group, RWG is looking forward to working on some larger scale events, such as a book fair and a field trip to the Colorplan paper mill. The group is run purely on the goodwill of the members, and is open to anyone who has an interest in Risograph printing.

You can follow Riso Working Group UK here on Instagram and sign up the Newsletter here.