All about printing and designing with Dovecote:

Dovecote is a 2-person collaboration between a painter and a poet. We specialize in custom design and bespoke Risograph printing services for invitations, stationery, posters, flyers, booklets, and more, all while keeping production costs low through clever use of technology (like our penplotter machine). From top to bottom, every project we work on is handcrafted by us.

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If you're interested in working with us, send us an email with what you're imagining.

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‍Risograph Printing

Risograph printing is akin to digital screen printing. The machine reads in the file and creates a stencil which it wraps around the ink drum. As the paper passes through the machine, the drum rotates at a high speed and leaves an impression on the paper. Imperfection is part of the charm of Risograph printing: smudging, mis-registration, and tire marks can show up in the finished product.

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Ink

Currently, we print only with black ink. Because our machine is on the older side, it is often difficult to source working ink drums. We take black ink printing as a creative challenge, and we add colorful touches to our prints through a variety of finishing techniques.

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Paper

The Risograph printer works best on uncoated paper. We mainly print using French Paper Co. paper, which is a family-owned paper mill located in Michigan, US.

Our machine can print on paper with weights from 20lbs to 100lbs cover. For limited runs that require heavier weights (such as stationery or invitations), we can achieve this in a process known as duplexing.

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Finishing

Spot Calligraphy and Painting

For smaller print runs, we offer spot calligraphy and painting either by hand or using our pen plotter, the Axidraw V3/A3. We use a wide variety of pens and brushes, covering virtually every ink color.

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Duplexing

Duplexing refers to adhering two sheets of paper together. At Dovecote, we duplex by hand-applying a thin layer of archival glue between two sheets of paper and drying them flat under a heavy weight. It's great for small runs of prints that need to be extra thick (like invitations) or where different colors on the front and back add visual appeal (like business cards).

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Binding

Currently, we offer staple saddle stitch binding. This is good for zines, small brochures, booklets, etc. We can also bind stationery into tear-off notepads or memo pads.