A funky printer is the latest in our local craftsmanship series…

Born in Japan in the 1980s, Riso is a weird and outmoded printing technology that has found favour with independent designers and artists. Riso printers look like photocopiers and produce zingy colours that almost vibrate off the page.

Riso is analogue and imperfect, but that’s what people love. It’s a spot-colour process that won’t reproduce true-to-life tones; available colours are limited, but they combine and shine in unexpected and joyful ways. Fluoro pinks, electric blues, acid lemon yellow hues.

Maison Riso started in Paris in 2017, but moved to Thibaut’s hometown of Nice for more space… and sunshine. Space to give the machines he rescues from all around the world a new home and to put them to work again. “These are machines that we have often modified ourselves, that we maintain ourselves, and whose every detail we can control; therefore, we know that we will get a different result than any other printing company,” Thibaut says.

He works with his partner, Véronique: it’s a two-person operation, which they keep intentionally small. Low overheads. High craft. They take their time, experiment; Thibaut is involved in every single production.

To get the best from Riso requires time, love and savoir faire. Clients usually handle the design, then Maison Riso handles the alchemy. When it’s time to print, the entire workshop is rearranged, like a theatre set between acts, and sheets spend at least 24 hours drying before anything gets trimmed, folded or bound. Some jobs even involve miracle work, like replacing impossible-to-import Japanese washi paper with bible paper and running it through a Riso, when every other workshop said it couldn’t be done.

Riso machines are cheap and quick; the dyes are non-toxic and are soy- or rice-based, and the process uses far less energy and water than hot-process printers. It’s sustainable and fun. A unique artisanal atelier working to its own rhythm in a quiet corner of town, creating a creative ecosystem like no other.