Print Design in Sheffield: Letterpress, Risograph and Beyond
Ink and Intention
Sheffield has a print design scene that punches well above the city’s size. Letterpress studios, screen printing workshops, risograph publishers and print fairs have established the city as a serious centre for printed matter in the north of England. The common thread is a commitment to the physical qualities of print — the texture of ink on paper, the precision of registration, the particular satisfaction of something well produced.
The Studios
Bench Creative, based at Persistence Works, runs one of Sheffield’s most active letterpress workshops. Their combination of vintage type, traditional presses and contemporary design sensibility produces work that is sought after by clients across the country. They also run regular workshops for beginners — an important part of keeping letterpress knowledge alive.
Several screen printing studios operate across the city, producing limited-edition prints, posters and artist books. The medium’s directness appeals to Sheffield’s maker culture: you prepare a screen, you pull a print, and the result is immediate and physical. The 5-Day Print Challenge during Sheffield Design Week turned this process into a public event.
Risograph printing — a Japanese duplicating technology that produces characteristically grainy, colourful prints — has found a dedicated following in Sheffield. Several small publishers use the medium for zines, artist books and posters, contributing to a wider national risograph scene.
Print Fairs and Events
Sheffield Print Fair, held several times a year, brings together printmakers from across the city and region. The events are reliably busy, suggesting genuine public appetite for printed work. The atmosphere is informal and the prices accessible — you can buy an original hand-pulled print for the cost of a framed poster from a chain store.
The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, while not exclusively focused on print, regularly features Sheffield printmakers alongside practitioners from across the north. It provides a useful comparison point — Sheffield’s print work holds its own against the best the region produces.
Print and Education
Sheffield Hallam University’s design programmes include significant print provision, and the influence of graduating students on the city’s print scene is visible. Several of Sheffield’s active printmakers studied at the university and chose to stay in the city after graduating — drawn by affordable studio space and a supportive creative community.
The city’s print workshops also offer public classes, making printmaking accessible to people without formal training. This educational function matters: it ensures that print skills are transmitted and that new audiences for printed work continue to develop.
Why Print Persists
In a digital age, the survival and growth of print in Sheffield might seem counterintuitive. But print’s physicality is precisely its value. A letterpress poster has a presence that a screen image cannot replicate. A hand-pulled screen print carries evidence of the maker’s hand. In a city that has always valued making, this tangibility is not nostalgic — it is essential.
The Print Community
What sustains Sheffield’s print scene is not individual studios working in isolation but a community of practitioners who share knowledge, equipment and exhibition opportunities. Printmakers in Sheffield know each other. They attend each other’s openings, share tips about paper suppliers, and occasionally collaborate on projects that would be impossible alone.
This community aspect is visible at the print fairs, where the atmosphere is collaborative rather than competitive. Printmakers display alongside each other with apparent comfort, recommending each other’s work to visitors and discussing techniques openly. The tradition of craft guilds and cooperative workshops that shaped Sheffield’s industrial culture finds a natural contemporary expression in its print community.
The range of printed work produced in Sheffield is broader than many visitors expect. Alongside the expected posters and art prints, Sheffield’s printmakers produce artist books, zines, wallpapers, textiles, packaging and stationery. Several practitioners work with commercial clients — producing printed materials for restaurants, retailers and cultural organisations — alongside their personal creative work. This versatility keeps the practice economically viable while maintaining creative ambition.
For those interested in trying printmaking, Sheffield offers more accessible entry points than most cities. Workshop courses at Persistence Works and other studios run throughout the year, catering to complete beginners as well as experienced practitioners wanting to learn new techniques. The investment required is minimal — a few hours and a modest course fee will give you a hand-pulled print to take home and, perhaps, a new understanding of why the medium continues to matter.
