Footprint is a small workers co-operative based in Leeds, owned by its employees and has no bosses or managers. It specialises in short-run self-published work for artists, bands, campaigns and zinesters, primarily using Risograph. They eschew endless growth because higher volume printing tends to be for customers and jobs that are a lot more boring. Despite the cumbersome nature of their machinery, they often cart a vanload of it to events in Britain’s burgeoning zine fair calendar and do a ‘zine in a day’, taking a page each off punters at an event to compile and print a zine right there and then.
The Footprinters pride themselves on working to high ethical and environmental standards, only using recylced paper, giving discounts to projects whose politics the like, and giving away chunks of their profits to worthy causes. This humane, inefficient business model works well and the company has been trading for twelve years, currently employing five people.
marcroy@peopleofprint.com
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