The Process

Design of this publication was just as much about improving my own design practice as it ws about sharing knowledge with others; you have to practice what you preach right?

The process began with defining my own goals for the publication, researching into sustainable print practices (don’t even get me started on the amount of green-washing out there!), defining target audiences, conducting user interviews & creating personas to represent them, learning more about risograph printing and the impact it would have on output, examining other printed materials, ideating, prototyping & testing concepts before sending them off for print. Once back from print, the publication was hand finished with trimming scoring & folding.

A massive shout-out must go to Scotty & Nora of Fremantle based risograph studio, Neighbourhood Press for their passion, knowledge, expertise & craftsmanship; this piece would not have come to life without them!

Understanding the young, sustainably minded, forward thinking designers I was producing this publication for meant that knowledge could be shared in a way that didn’t fall on deaf ears.

Despite being a passion project that I was desperate to share with the world, producing a publication exactly to my tastes would not give me the best chance to inspire sustainable practice amongst those I hoped would become readers. The key lay in using a human-centred approach to design. Definition of my target audience, carrying out targeted interviews and creating personas based on my findings provided a solid foundation on which to base future design decisions.

Examination of other printed material sparked ideas about how to reduce the resources required to produce the guide and develop systems for arranging information.

Looking into folded publications that would negate the need for binding services was the first stepping stone in deciding on a series of booklets rather than a larger bound format. This spurred on investigation into how grid systems could be scaled across varying spreads to produce a cohesive layout and maintain legibility. 

Working within the boundaries of risograph governed a number of design decisions

Understanding the process of risograph printing was crucial before any major decisions could be made. As the soy based risograph inks are unique to the process it is impossible to match with digital swatches. Inks had to be chosen using physical swatches and by examining other risograph works. In order to keep cost of the publication down, each booklet was designed to be monotone to reduce the need for production of multiples masters. 

Physically prototyping to resolve construction issues meant I was prepared for print!

Physically constructing mockups of the booklets allowed me to select paper which was durable enough to score but heavy enough to hang nicely as a poster. Whilst impossible to replicate the end effect, digital mockups and laser test prints allowed me to finalise designs.

The Points of Learning

This project not only expanded my knowledge through the research I undertook to write the content but also through the physical acts of making and printing with risograph that equipped me with new production skills and insights into materials.

Knowledge is power; the power to change the world for good

This project really opened up my eyes as a designer to the ethical responsibility we have to leave the world a little better than we found it. The knowledge I now have in areas of sustainable print practice mean that going forward, I have the responsibility to guide future projects down more sustainable paths & question what has previously been done to ensure that the impact we have on the world is inherently for the better.

You can’t know until you know (and you can only know by trying & making mistakes)

Adding the remarkable process of risograph printing to my toolkit is an obvious plus to this project. What I didn’t realise I would also gain is profound insight into the limitations, considerations and outcomes of the process as a whole. In addition to learning about the difference in preparing files for print, I also gained an understanding of how contrast plays out differently in the risograph world (the greater the better!) and just how transferable the dried inks really are (in hindsight, hanging these posters unframed on a white wall was not the smartest idea!). I gained greater insight into the suitability of papers for different purposes and the importance of physically prototyping in order to ensure outputs act in the desired way. I now know that while Envirocare 100% Recycled 150gsm stock is beautiful for flat-laying posters, it definitely requires scoring in folded contexts!