Find inspiration in our blog

Flyers We’ve done the odd flyer over the years, Here’s a selection of just a few. We’re available for hire don’t you know. Give us a shout.  

Dreamism Live Performance and Remixes Live instrumentation, samplers and Ableton Live combine to form a piece, which attempts to contrast a range of recording techniques and fidelities. Tuned percussion inspired by the improvised nature of the free jazz movement and reminiscent of Indonesian gamelan provides accompaniment. Each member of the group also contributed their own… →

WIN a three week tour of India with Mihandra Homestays photography contest If you are a keen photographer with an eye for a great photo then don’t miss out on the opportunity to win a three week photographic commission tour around India with our travel photography contest on Facebook. Perhaps no other country is as… →

Recent Adventures in Black and White   It’s been some years since I have developed any B+W 35mm, I’ve always enjoyed shooting film over digital but developing my own film at home was like rediscovering it all together. I was engrossed to the point where I spent 2 and a half hours in a cupboard knelt… →

  Logo design for new record label; THE GEOGRAPHY TRIP by Jim Bestall The exotic beside the mundane; tin foil glinting in the magpie’s mouth. Old telephone boxes, the jackets of second hand paperbacks, ordnance survey maps and old postcards found in a charity shop. The South Manchester mobile-library sound. We specialise in tapes and vinyl… →

Controllerist I recently purchased Traktor scratch pro, a digital vinyl system which basically allows me to play digital music files using a time coded vinyl. I’m hoping to expand on this set up with a loop controller or drum machine. Whilst looking for inspiration for which controller to purchase I have stumbled upon various videos that show the… →

Flyer and Matchboxes for Toronto based reggae night IREMEMBER by Jim Bestall              

Custom Guitar Design by Dan Birkbeck. More work by Dan can be found at: http://be.net/danbirkbeck/frame

Coming soon to the onefiveeight shop – handmade bird mobiles. Each one is handcrafted from found material and can be made to suit any space. We’re hoping to launch the onefiveeight shop soon featuring more items like this – if you have anything you’ve created that you’d like to feature on the site just let… →

Erik Johansson I’m not usually one for this type of thing but the image of the road being dragged is off the charts!

More studio wall scrawling, I’m using this as a foundation for a mixed media piece I started yesterday night. I went this evening to continue with it, but found I had been locked out of the studio once again. Watch this space. Joe.

Bad Man Ting VS Herbal Sessions Flyer for an upcoming Jungle spectacular brought to you by two of Manchester’s best underground nights.

Flyer for clubnight; Home Grown – part of Canadian Music Week 20012 Design by Jim Bestall

Photographic series capturing misty days in Alexandra Park, Manchester Photographic series capturing misty days in Alexandra Park, Manchester

Screen Printed Poster Give Away     I have a handful of screen printed posters to give away, word us up with your address and I’ll post one to you. It had been a while since I had done any screen printing I got pretty ambitious with the amount of detail in the artwork and… →

Amon Tobin will be bringing his ISAM (Live) Audio/Visual Show to Manchester Academy as part of this years Future Everything Festival. We are delighted to announce its also been confirmed that Herbal Sessions resident producer Raikes Parade and Mind on Fire’s Paper Tiger will be in support on the night, Bringing you Live sets of… →

Issac Shnewton – Death Series 2012 The housebound hermit, hospital chaired bandit strikes again with a fresh series of photomanipulated darkness for you to have a little dribble over.

Prometheus just another Alien film or something completely different? I’m looking forward to Ridley Scott’s new sci-fi epic ‘Prometheus’, but is it going to be any good? Let’s face it, after the brilliance of Scott’s 1979 ‘Alien’ nothing has come close to being a classic in the Alien franchise. You can credit James Cameron’s 1986… →

The Gorillaz are due to release a new track featuring James Murphy and Andre 300 This video shows the team working on another beautifully executed music video based around Jamie Hewlett’s amazing illustrated characters. The song ” DoYaThing” is due to be released on February 23, as part of the Converse series “Three Artists, One Song”.

Giddygoat studio – Hand drawn, screen printed, T-Shirts Giddygoat Studio produce hand drawn designs which are individually screen printed on to t-shirts, tops and hoodies in their own print studio. They have created a range of designs drawing inspiration from vinyl heros, spooky folklore and their very own giddygoat. They also work with bands and businesses designing and printing unique… →

Picked up this new Vei EP for free at the Baptists & Bootleggers record label launch party last week at Islington Mill – not put it down since It was a highly inspirational night giving away packs including a 12″ hand stamped white vinyl, screen printed A5 art works and poster by Jess Higgins and… →

From Gothenburg, Sweden but with roots in Korpolombolo. Many rumours have circled around this band. Some say they are illigal immigrants making music while hiding from the police. Others talk about ancient voodoo tradition in northern Sweden

Icelandic contemporary composer Ólafur Arnalds created and released a new song, one per day for a whole week during the month of October 2011. The songs were recorded and filmed live in the living room of his Reykjavik apartment and released instantly for free as streamed videos and mp3 downloads. Living Room Songs has now… →

This is the latest design project I just finished yesterday. I was approached by the dj ‘Grid Reflux’ and asked to produce a logo for him. I was given almost complete freedom to create the images.  All he asked was that I use the colours black and green and approached it in my own Infected By… →

Beatherder 2011 from Lea Gratch on Vimeo. Beatherder 2011 video Check out this video of Beatherder 2011. This is definitely getting us excited and ready for another year of festival madness in the lovely Lancashire hills. Beatherder is without doubt the OneFiveEight collectives favorite summer festival and if you make it this year be sure… →

Geotypografika is a site used by Erik Brandt  a graphic design tutor at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and his students both past and present to display their work and ideas. There is some incredible typography work throughout this site. It’s definitely worth spending some time sifting through the many entries.

Used in the film The Rum Diary starring Johnny Depp, Giovanni Ribisi, Aaron Eckhart and Amber Heard – watched it lastnight and couldn’t get this track out of my head

zZz – Running with the beast No cocks were harmed in the making of this incredible video. Directed by Roel Wouters  

In the Studio. By Joe Smith. I have used Indian ink on several 8’x4’s to decorate the walls of my studio with this intricate line. The blocks are a by-product of a cover design I did for OneFiveEight magazine. I used them to elevate my armchair, it were proper wobbly. You end up doing slightly… →

Raikes Parade – Live in Session 2011 (Live Promo Mix) Raikes Parade hits the decks for the first time to bring you 45 minutes of Original music, blended with live interludes on an MPC 1000 and the usual plethora of sirens and effects! Track-list; 1. Raikes Parade – Intro 2. Raikes Parade – Take Less,… →

We are very excited about Paper Tiger’s Illuminated EP, hitting shops on 27th February. Following the success of their debut ‘Worldwide Takeover’ EP and ‘Send Me’ single on Jus Like Music in 2011, Paper Tiger join forces with Mind on Fire Records for their first full vinyl release. The Illuminated EP features three superb Paper… →