daniel lievens 

In 2014, I produced a series of prints titled, simply, Risograph Gradients. They were a set of studies examining some of the process’ formal and technical limits. The set of prints consists of pairs of screen-printed and Risograph-printed gradients (smooth transitions from one color to another). Each image was first screen printed, using a printing technique called a split fountain, where two ink colors are partially blended together while screen printing. When done well, it can create a very smooth blend between the original colors. I then digitized and printed Risograph versions of these images.

Whereas screen printing can produce a very smooth transition between colors, Risograph printing uses a series of halftone or other dots. It often fails to reproduce very faint colors. And the registration – the position of one color relative to the page or to other colors – may change slightly from one copy to the next. Taken together, these create an imperfect reproduction of the original image.

I exhibited these gradient prints at a two-person show at Loyola’s Diboll gallery. I showed screen-printed originals and the Riso copies side by side as a way to look at the formal and aesthetic boundaries between the two, and in Risograph printing itself.

This process that produces imperfect prints provides a quick and economical method of creating large editions of art or design work. The qualities that initially seem like flaws become parameters for designing within and around. They form part of the character of the finished work, and change how practitioners approach the medium.

Screen-printed original gradient
Risograph-printed reproduced
Risograph gradient detail showing skewed registration, which often defines Risograph-printed work.