11 Dec 2016 — A recent (and the first) experiment
from Nuphap Aunyanuphap to Silviã Lãnfrãnchi
Dear Silvia,
Big greetings from white/rocky Matera!
Also, sorry for being away for quite some time. ;-)
I’ve recently been running some tests/experiments regarding the printing technique that we’ve decided upon, together with research on several production-related matter (eg. binding). Alot of new and interesting knowledge, people, and experience met along the way, and it could be great to share them with you.
So…let’s start!
Regarding suggestion from your previous posts
About the references
Thanks alot for sharing all the references. I can now understand better the potential of risograph prints and self-publishing world.
We can develop further the ideas based on these refs once we meet.
ps. I also got back Lahar — a magazine that you suggested form the previosu post — from the first visit to Print Club Torino. It’s super interesting (especially the fact that they don’t require binding, just folding)
The book you recently shared, La collina dei ciliegi by Simona Di Meo, reminds me of a book we’ve found together in Barcelona.
It’s a fanzine that probably uses a photocopy technique to reproduce. The special part about this one is how they came with different surprise within the book. From small minibook as a gift at the end of the zine to papers that you can open to see another illustration below, this and your reference I think we can definitely use as a reference for our future developments
About the distribution
Thanks for sharing about the crowdfunding research. I would agree with you if the research suggests crowdfunding didn’t serve well the world of publishing. Here, let’s see what are the better possible ways that we can distribute our books. I believe you can definitely find a great way because you have alot of references in hand. Also, I’ll also share some to you if I find nice ones. ;-)
The first printing experiment — with the help of Print Club Torino
25th of November, 2016 — After a suggestion from our advisor, Stefano Mirti, to have a look at Print Club Torino, I went there to visit the space and see the possibilities of what could be achieved there.
The first visit …. was astonishing!
The print club sits within Toolbox co-working, where there is also Casa Jasmina and FabLab Torino right just next door.
In there, it is a real heaven for print lovers.
There are every possible tools we can imagine related to print and book making: from screen-printing (serigrafia) table to book binding machine.
People who worked there are also super welcoming and very eager to share their knowledge on design and prints. They also moderated alot of workshops, one of which I later joined in BASE Milano on serigrafia and collages.
They also have countless selection of papers from Favini, where you can physically see/feel/choose/make your prints on them.
On the first day, they also introduced me to the risograph machine they’ve got, the RZ 970E, and how it works.
Before leaving, I then make test prints from the preliminary-prepared files (big thanks also to Illaria and Joe at the Print Club for staying overtime to guide the process!! :-D )
The file prepared for test print, as we have talked together before, is also to understand the graphics that are going to be produced and also make them a postcard
The papers I choose varies from 120gms, 180gms, 250gms (which is the maximum thickness that the machine can holds) and also different colors.
The results, as we can imagine, makes us see alot of great potential (and also, limitations) of this technique.
After printing only just one side, I then have to leave because I have to catch the train back to Milan. However, seeing the potential of the technique, the trip back home was filled with anticipation and eagerness to see our first prints got made.
2nd December, 2016 — I return there again to finish the printing process.
Now, the people at print club also encourage me to try operating the machine myself (which is a bit scary for me at first).
Here, I submit the artwork to make the matrice through computer (you can also submit the files through scanning also, making it more like a x-rox machine).
Doing this hands on, I also noticed that the settings of how the machine treats the image for matrice making is also another important thing to take into consideration. (this we can talk about later when we decide things for the final prints, because I think we have to understand this better).
After the first roll, we have to leave the printed works to dry around 15–20 minutes.
Then, after the drying process, I then changed the ink to print the second color (to overlay). This process goes on until we finally got our final first test.
After the first test was successfully printed, dried, and cut, the people at print club suggests us now to try further with:
- Mixing available risograph colors to produce a new combination
- Try with the binding process
No doubt these are super great suggestion. In the next test, I think we should take these into great considerations. ;-)
A knowledge gained from the meeting with Atto
29th of November , 2016 — The meeting was also another great experience, especially with real professionals working with risograph. The studio works alot with printed materials (as we can see from the event that we went together, Sprint Milano, the work they’ve done are awesome!).
After spending some times to talk with them on the technique and prices, there are alot of things that we can capture from the meeting. However, here are the main ones that I think could be useful.
- Risograph are preliminary for medium to large volume printing.
Therefore, their printing service only reserved for people printing more than some amount of copies.
2. To print a book using this technique, we can also think also about how to design the printing process.
In this sense, it means that since printing with risograph is more or less self-published, we can also design our way on how to produce a book. For example, not every page have to be printed using just riso printing technique. Some can take advantage of photocopying and/or other printing technique. One reason is for the price, and another is how we can customize the design to make the book even more interesting.
Big thanks to Atto again for sharing with us the technique and method (also about the printing service). For sure, we will keep in touch again real soon regarding the prints.
Samples from Favini
As before we’ve sent requests to several paper producers. On the 5th of December we’ve just received the paper samples from one of the company — Favini.
Super excited because it’s our first sample we got! Let’s hope more are sent to us! :-)
And now … some updates on our previous meeting (and the next step)
Here, I’d also like to put down several things we’ve recently discussed during the previous meeting regarding the next steps.
- We soon will start defining a name of our publishing house, which should be done sometime within 19th of December. The reason is because we want to get it done before Christmas vacation, so that we can start managing things (eg. website domain and other social media channels).
- We will also soon send e-mails to people notifying our progress and our active social channels to start spreading the news. Here, we also think that it would be a great idea to set up mailchimp account to start collecting contacts. And also, since we’re working on project that have to deal with physical prints and communication, we think it would also be a great idea to collect address of people who are interested so that in the future we can send them things that we produce (and also things we tests so that they keep track of our progress and development physically).
- We are now going to be active on social media, at which Silvia is going to (mainly) be in charge of managing social channels.
4. On our next meeting, we are going to make further decisions regarding the Distribution methods, and also discuss (or even finalize) the topic of our publishing house.
I’ve also saw the document you shared about contacts, and I agree with you very much that we should keep track of all interesting contacts regarding necessary matter of our project. So, I’ll update them as soon as I get back to Milan .
And from my side, I’ll try to develop more the artwork so that we can make more tests when I again will visit the print club on 15th or 16th of December (or even start designing/producing the first version of the book).
I also think that after this test and after we’ve defined the name, topics, and distribution method, we can also think about the visual identity of this project.
On and all, I think we’ve come very far from where we’ve started, and I’m very excited that this project is making great progress and taking a good shape (and in a very exciting way)!
So, let’s keep in touch soon for our next meeting.
Until then, let’s keep the engine running! ;-)
Talk to you soon,
N.
