Designer Gabriella Marcella has transformed an industrial unit in Glasgow into colourful and practical headquarters for her risograph printing business.
Marchella is the founder of Risotto Studio, which creates brightly coloured stationery and products using the risograph printing process.
Gabriella Marcella has transformed an industrial unit in Glasgow into a print studio
Having been based at the Glue Factory creative hub since she graduated 14 years ago, Marcella had the opportunity to take over a 100-square-metre space that was previously used as a screen-printing workshop.
“It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally been able to create an open, flexible, colourful workspace that is really a dream to work in,” Marcella told Dezeen. “This project really embodies the studio’s ambition and creative approach, while allowing me to translate my two-dimensional patterns into three-dimensional forms, which is something I want to do a lot more of.”
A key element of the project is The Green Room
A key element of the project is The Green Room – a stepped volume at the centre of the space that houses paper storage and the printers, with the outer surfaces used for displaying sculptural works.
Marcella used SketchUp software to model the structure, which resembles the tetromino blocks from the Tetris computer game. Designer and fabricator Alexander Garthwaite then built the unit to her specifications.
Marcella used SketchUp to model the stepped green volume. Photo by Alix McIntosh
The Green Room is the only fixed element in the workshop, which can be easily reconfigured by moving storage units and tables around to suit different activities.
“I wanted everything to be flexible so the space can adapt to the work we’re doing, whether it’s hosting workshops, commissions or making stationery,” said Marcella.
“Almost everything is on wheels so we can manoeuvre things around, even if there are only one or two of us in the space.”
Colour features throughout the studio
The area surrounding the central printing room was left open, with storage units, desks and worktops providing practical areas for project work around the perimeter.
Flap curtains that separate the studio from The Green Room allow light to enter the printing space while providing an acoustic barrier and introducing a playful utilitarian element.
The majority of storage throughout the studio was sourced from British brand Bisley
“I love the aesthetic of old factories and workshops,” Marcella explained. “The visual vocabulary of these industrial spaces definitely informed the use of details like the flaps and the ladders.”
The majority of storage throughout the studio was sourced from British brand Bisley, with whom Marcella collaborated on a capsule collection in return for providing the products she requested.
Marcella was informed by the “aesthetic of old factories and workshops”
“I really wanted a good-looking, modular storage solution based around the standard A-paper sizes that we use in the studio,” the designer explained.
“I already had some of their filing cabinets and obviously the colour range is amazing, so they were a perfect partner for this project.”
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Alongside the Bisley units, Marcella incorporated vintage finds and off-the-shelf products in standard hues, such as the bright-red ladder used for accessing items at the top of the lofty shelving units.
One side of the space features an epoxy floor that, along with the white-painted walls, provides a neutral backdrop for the colourful furniture. Elsewhere, salvaged terrazzo tiles introduce tactility and an aged aesthetic to the material palette.
Salvaged terrazzo tiles introduce tactility in the studio
The opening of the Risotto workshop coincided with an exhibition at the adjacent Glue Factory Galleries of postcard designs, printed as part of the monthly Riso Club subscription project.
Founded in 2017, Riso Club is a non-profit postcard subscription project that enables independent artists to send their colourful prints to a worldwide membership.
The opening of the Risotto workshop coincided with an exhibition at the adjacent Glue Factory Galleries. Photo by Alix McIntosh
The Riso Club 100 exhibition featured 400 postcard designs created over the course of the project’s duration, providing visitors with an insight into the global community of artists and their different approaches to risograph printing.
“Riso Club has created a fast and accessible way to present alternative styles of risograph artwork like photography or painting that is different to the graphic images people associate with this printing method,” Marcella said.
She has previously collaborated with brands such as Apple, Pinterest, Instagram and Mini, and produced a series of balancing artworks for a 2018 exhibition highlighting the best of Scottish design.
Elsewhere in Glasgow, architect Lee Ivett, designer Simon Harlow and developer Duncan Blackmore previously transformed a 25-square-metre apartment into a brightly coloured space that doesn’t contain any freestanding furniture.
The photography is by Richard Gaston unless stated otherwise.