OUGD502 - Studio Brief 1 - Guest Speakers - Footprint

James and Claire from the Footprint Co - op 

Footprint is a cooperative printers that create mainly books and zines for designers, illustrators and bands. The Coop is run by all the people who work there, meaning everyone is a co- director and printer and no one is the boss, also everyone has equal pay. This gives them the opportunity to choose their own terms which makes the job flexible and allows them to make time for other things such as responding to a clients needs or their own needs e.g. taking time off. There is more responsibility than working for someone else but less responsibility than working freelance. Profits that are earned are invested back into the business and 50p of every hour goes into charitable donations. They are part of a network of co-ops and follow the co-operative principles, one of which is cooperation between co - operatives.

They started in 2000 and originally started with an inherited offset litho press. The press was useful up to a point however wasn't very environmentally friendly so they swapped to Risoprinting. Risographs were originally designed for office use. Risoprinting has a grainy quality that does mid tones and a mostly limited colour palette, however can do CMYK. The technique is a lo - fi process and registration is not always perfect. It is a quick printing process but the general process is similar to that of screenprinting. Risoprinting uses soya based inks which are better for the environment when compared with digital printing and they also use recycled papers. It is more cost effective to print more than one and they can only print up to A3. The co-op don't ship to people abroad instead they tell people somewhere closer that they can get the same job done. 

Footprint often go to print fairs and do print workshops where people can get involved in the print process. 

The difference between a coop an collective is that there is a more environmental aspect to co - ops and there is potentially less risk as everyone is an employee and director.

Everyone at Footprint has their own personal projects on the side.

Points of interest from Footprint:

- Footprint as a co-operative shows that being environmentally friendly can be financially sustainable as a business and is actually desired by creative practitioners.

- The risograph print process has a simialar textured aesthetic / quality to that of photocoping in colour which is a technique I have enjoyed using in the past so risoprinting could be interesting to work with in later projects.

- The cooperative framework gives them the freedom as to how the business is run and allows them to have flexibility between work and their own time. This element of choice and freedom is something which appeals to me as a creative. 

- It is interesting to hear how the social aspect of the cooperative and the ideals that they have at Footprint can work in todays market.