one69A: A Manchester Screen Print Studio at Islington Mill

The Studio

one69A started in 2009 in the basement of Folk, the cafe and bar Justin ran in West Didsbury. The name came from flat 169A, where Sally Gilford and I lived with Justin. In 2010 it moved into Islington Mill in Salford, and stayed there.

Everything was screen-printed by hand: t-shirts, banners, record sleeves, bags, anything. A small studio built on the slow, physical business of pulling ink through a screen one colour at a time.

Records and Print

The first paid job was a set of record sleeves for Balearic Mike, printed for his Fascinating Rhythms label. The record was his remix of Reckoner by Radiohead, signed off by the band. Sleeves stayed a thread all the way through, from Balearic Mike to Ruf Dug’s Island and its green lizard.

The promo cloth listed everything the studio did, and at one point ended up in the hands of Peter Saville.

Large Format

Alongside the screens, one69A ran two large-format giclée printers for high-end art prints, with quick turnaround for designers and artists. Printed samples went out to studios around Manchester to show what the machines could do.

Screen printing is slow and physical. Giclée is quiet and exact. Running both meant almost any print job could be taken on.

Printing Manchester

A series of screen-printed posters of Manchester landmarks, the Hacienda, Oxford Road and more, illustrated by Stan Chow with Studio DB and printed by one69A for Forever Manchester. Dozens of designs, pulled by hand, edition after edition.

Seeing the whole city rendered in flat colour and stacked up in the studio is one of the best memories of the place.

The Open Studio

Now and then the doors opened. The presses ran, people watched prints get pulled and had a go themselves, and the studio filled up. For a print shop that spent most of its life head-down on other people’s jobs, a night of showing the work and the room it was made in.

Direct to Garment

In 2020 one69A added a direct-to-garment side, DTG MCR: an Epson printer that prints full colour straight onto fabric, rather than screen printing one colour per screen at a time. Good for short runs and full-colour work that screens struggle with.

By then the studio had grown into a print and distribution business, with a wrapped van to match.

Closing the Door

In 2021 we recreated the 2010 rooftop portrait, Sally Gilford and me back in the arched window at the top of Islington Mill, almost ten years on, as we decided to close one69A.

Twelve years, from a basement in West Didsbury to a print and distribution business, and then a decision to stop. It printed nearly everything else on this site. A good place to have started.