LONDON | HATO PRESS
When I visited London with my school, I had just finished a project about infographics together with Sille Dalsgaard, Sidsel Søgård and Camilla van Norde. We found that we had produced enough material for a book and started looking for printing opportunities. After checking up on some expensive and boring digital solutions, I stumbled upon the risograph technique. Whom else to then contact but Hato Press.
Hato Press is established and runned by three graphic designers educated from Central St. Martins; Jackson Lam, Ken Kirton and Louise Naunton Morgan. They just moved from Camden to a new location in Shoreditch, where they use Hato Press as a studio, printing and publishing house. They work on their own stuff but are also doing collabs with other artist, schools and so on. It’s an amazing place, with lots of recycled and organic paper, printing tests and bright colors from used risograph masters. Ken showed us around, told us how the risograph works and presented some of their work.
The Risograph
The techniques of the risograph aren’t really complicated, yet a little hard to describe. If you are interested you can read some more about the process here. The machine is made in Japan and was first meant for artists as a new and faster way to do screen printing. Ricoh (the company behind the risograph) exported their wonderful machines to Germany, England, Holland and some other european countries, but it was soon adapted by schools, offices and organisations because of its low price and fast printing. In the photo below you can see a paperclips holder, which was added to the design because of the interest from offices.
There’s a couple of indie publishing houses who took up the technique again and some of them are even using the risograph as their trademark, but Hato Press is, in my opinion, one of the best. - Matias.
Rikke Luna Filipsen (f. 1988) og Matias B. Albæk (f. 1988) er kunstformidlere. De stiftede idoart.dk i 2011, og udover at bidrage med artikler, interviews og essays, fungerer de som mediets redaktører. De driver desuden formidlingsbureauet I DO ART Agency samt forlaget I DO ART Books.
