Colin Bennett has just launched his new site, with a large update to his already impressive folio. Colin’s senior designer over at the respected Stand design agency. See more of his folio at colinbennett.com

I introduced my Chilean friend, Francisco Saavedra to a few nice tracks recently. Being the skilled man he is, when it comes to mixing, he wrapped them up in a tidy little mixtape for WCNS and all you lovely people. I find it pretty accessible, we listened to this last friday before heading to Julio Bashmore at the GSA and it put us in the mood, but you can play it when your just chilling. Tracklist for Mixed Up Afternoon is below. Please enjoy our third release in the series of invited DJs, you can listen to previous offerings here.

XXXY – Ordinary Things
Julio Bashmore – Ask Yourself
Logo – La Vie Moderne (French Fries and Tony Senghore remix feat PiuPiu)
Julio Bashmore – Battle For Middle You
Galen & Justin Martin – Dust Devil (Original Mix)
Julio Bashmore – Around
Untold – Come Follow Me
Sepalcure – No Think

Mixed Up Afternoon by We Can Never Stop

Fed up with the rinsed market of dubstep remixes, White Elephant Guise was inspired to create these two new tracks. Good to hear a refreshing take on ambient dubstep which hasn’t sampled Florence & The Machine or the next top name in pop. Smooth, ambient and with an unusual approach of happy harcore-esque lyrics within dubstep, he’s created some pretty good work. Really love that drop at 3:07 on If You’ve Given Up.

If You’ve Given Up by White Elephant Guise

Need You by White Elephant Guise

I don’t consider myself a photographer at all. I really don’t know the first thing about aperture, film speed, exposure, depth of field and all that. Anyway, I thought I’d do a bit of an experiment, where I dunked a Tesco Value disposable camera in a bowl of water then took it on a camping trip, snapped away and looked forward to seeing what would happen. I’m quite happy with the result, it looks like there’s been condensation within the camera body making the images fuzz and glow. I particularly enjoyed the idea of not knowing how it would come out. I find, digital photography allows for so much post production but with film you are significantly limited to what you can do to edit the picture and this analogue approach is what I enjoyed.

I believe there’s so many styles now and it can be sometimes to difficult to categories something as deliberately or accidental artistic or simply crap – I really don’t know what these are, but I can appreciate the charm.

Has anyone else had success through experiments like this? Boyson and Messer did a pretty cool double exposure project a while back.

If you’d like to see more they’re on ihardlyknowher.com/spacewood

Koreless is a humble lad. At only 19 this young DJ has started to make a name for himself by sticking true to his intentions with music production by keeping it original. “To me, music is art, more of a personal thing, copying what everyone else is doing is just pointless”. His dark, muffled, refined drum beats coupled with the soothing and gaze like synths with the occasional addition of yearning wholesome female lyrics come together in such a fine way. A welcome change from the current trend of dark and gritty R&B which seems to be everywhere. Already he has received a respectful nod and play from Gilles Peterson at Radio 1 and put in the same league as other heavy hitters after he commented “Koreless, James Blake, Jamie Woon and Ramadaman – remember where you heard them first”.

Originally from North Wales, he’s studying Naval Architecture in Glasgow. I’m sure the future will hold many interesting opportunities for this young kid and if his boats don’t float, at least his beats will

Jacques Greene – The Look (Koreless Remix) by Koreless

Up Down Up Down by Koreless

Maria by Koreless

I added some Wu Lyf here back in October and it received a large number of interest. Tonight, they play their first UK gig outside of Manchester at the Arches. £8 a ticket including booking fee, get there if you know what’s good for you.

WU LYF-spitting it concrete like the golden sun god from LUCIFER YOUTH FOUNDATION on Vimeo.

Wu Lyf – Such A Sad Puppy Dog
Wu Lyf – Lung Songs
Wu Lyf – Heavy Pop

I’m doing a talk at Glasgow University on effective poster design and what rules to follow to make your poster memorable. This is part of their Media Week and I’ll be focussing on what people who are starting out in design, should remember when it comes to making their work effective, memorable and any no-no’s they must avoid. I’ll then go on to a Photoshop tutorial to show some tricks to remember (if you have a laptop with PS, feel free to bring along). No experience necessary and if you’re looking to learn new things then do join.

It’s free and it starts at 1pm 21/01 in the Williams Room, John Macintyre Building – http://goo.gl/maps/cJb0

I should also note, the above poster is fictional (for now).

Glasgow Bike Shed from Precious Productions on Vimeo.

I enjoyed this nice little flick to promote the Glasgow Bike Shed. They rejuvenate and recycle old bikes, run workshops, promotes safe cycling around town and is run by volunteers. They’re based in The Barras market, so on yer bike and go check em out glasgowbikeshed.org

I was surprised that not more people I knew had heard of Phillipe Ramette and his photography. What initially looks like another well executed Photoshop job is actually carefully created surreal photographs of balance, poise and patience.

I think, perhaps in the past 10 years or so, our minds have became accustomed to seeing things and automatically interpreting them as CGI/special effects/photo manipulation due to the prevailing abundance of the use of such tools in everyday media, advertisement and entertainment. Ramette believes nothing should be faked and it’s only upon closer inspection do we see strains in his muscles, his trademark black tux out of place or the white of his knuckles through tightened grip whilst he’s sat at 90°. His work is created so cleanly and only after reminding ourselves it’s real do we question what else can be done when our hearts and mind commits.

See more of his work at xippas.com

Julian Dicken, aka Broken Face Design, is an illustrator and graphic design based in Glasgow. I guess I can relate to his displeasure of celeb culture and I admire his blatant disregard for political correctness through the insult, firmly stamped on their goofy looking faces.

Excellent typography and character designs in his gig posters too, I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for these so I can swoop one up for my room.

See more at Broken Face Design