Matthew and Nana Pfahlert relocated to Asheville for its well-documented creative and professional community. They quickly became part of it.
Call it Pfahlert Creative Labs or simply The Silent P, which is how clients and friends of Matthew and Nana Pfahlert refer to it—the downtown Asheville full-service graphic and web design company has quietly been amassing the kind of industry acclaim that a lot of businesses would positively kill for. Skeptical? Just check out some of the testimonials that appear on their website.
“Matt has quickly picked up on our company’s vibe and been able to expand the creative possibilities for us [and] brought the right mix of creativity, enthusiasm, and patience to each of the projects we have worked on.”—Billy Maupin (general manager, Yep Roc Music Group)
“I can’t put into words how satisfied and relieved I feel, leaning on their expertise.”—Alyn Mearns (singer-songwriter for the band Yes The Raven)
“Pfahlert gets design. [He puts] image to the undefined.”—Ben Levin (Tony Margherita Management, which manages the band Wilco)
And a quick scan of some of The Silent P’s creations more than confirms the testimonials—an impressionistic poster for the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s recent Asheville concert, for example, or posters, teeshirts, and album covers for Wilco, Ben Harper, Phish’s Mike Gordon, the Black Keys, Farewell Milwaukee, Empire Circus, and Band of Horses. The designs are eye-catching, as they are intended to be, of course; yet they also convey a sense of their subjects’ actual sensibilities and style. Musical acts’ logos can at times seem a dime-a-dozen, just a mashup of disparate fonts in pretty colors. But The Silent P’s genius seems to reside in how the names blend with imagery—the quivering guitar strings and tactile stage carpet design of the Tedeschi Trucks poster is instructive—to result in something that isn’t fleeting. This is genuine art destined to become collectible (and potentially valuable) well beyond its initial commercial advertising purpose.
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