We don’t like making predictions, but it would seem just plain wrong that after all the work we’ve put in during 2011 and now finally releasing an all new website for your viewing pleasure, that the world would now end JUST when we were spreading the love, as it were.

In case we’re WAY off and things go south quickly, you’d be wise to head on over to www.thesilentp.com and spend what time is left checking out the creative work we’ve produced recently.

Read the full Press Release here (PDF document): PCL Website Press Release

The album cover has been included in their year end article  ”Album Covers of the Year 2011″. The article includes some nuggets from us as well as KW herself. Honored to be among some album covers we loved from last year too: Gillian Welch (make sure to check her article out!), Iron & Wine, Cut/Copy, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and Real Estate!

You can see more images of the cover design and the interior design here.

REDEFINE is a Seattle and Portland based magazine that aims to create substantial, boundry-blurring music, arts and film. Multi-disciplinary music and art review.

1. Small and large boats
2. Small and large cars
3. Go Carts
4. Foreheads (large and small)
5. Your sibling
6. Bridges and overpasses (you have to pay the fine though)
7. On top of other less impressive stickers
8. Drum sets
9. Pets
10. Guitar and guitar cases

…Any somewhat smooth surface found on PLANET EARTH.

Once placed on any of the above surfaces (or a creative one of your own!), please send us the photo at info@pfahlertcreativelabs.com and we’ll give you a special gift just for sharing your love for The Silent P!

PURCHASE FROM THE SHOP HERE! (Free shipping)

The original photo that started it all.

Jon’s original photo above, which had the following beautiful quote: “”The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.” -George Graham Vest

The original move poster for JAWS.

The instant classic "JOWLS" poster by Mark Pfahlert.

Pfahlert Creative Labs has a lab mascot who is a…Lab. Ten years old going on five, Satchmo will sniff out a tennis ball regardless of where it’s at, in this case the middle of an ocean.
Find Pfahlert Creative Labs (The Silent P) on Facebook. Find Jon Eckard Photography on Facebook.
THANKS MARK!

© Mark Pfahlert 2011 / Dog photo © Jon Eckard Photography 2011

We have a slew of design projects we’ve been working on the past month or so that haven’t made it to this blog, since we want the NEW blog (The Silent P) to host all the recent work, such as (click links for more info):

1. Poster design for Jeff tweedy’s solo performance in Hawaii.
2. EP design and print for Guster‘s new “On The Ocean” music. DIE CUT COVER!
3. Merch design for Phish (two tee shirts).
4. Admat design for Phish’s 2 night show in Colorado.
5. Farewell Milwaukee tee shirt design.
6. New Dave Douglas Album design.
7. 24 page annual report for local college.
8. Admat design for Jack’s Mannequin.
9. Oya Music Festival poster show.
10. Planning solo show in Raleigh, NC.

Whew.

The Silent P. It’s been here all along, we just couldn’t hear it…STAY TUNED FOR MORE.

We were thrilled to be working with Farewell Milwaukee on their latest album release “When It Sinks In.” This is a band you should get to know if you have not already. They are from Minneapolis, MN, (don’t let the name fool you). We hope for big things from these great guys!

While designing and conceptualizing images that evoke the emotions coming from this well crafted and warm toned group of songs, we got to listen to pre mastered tracks of this great album. The band’s website has some really sharp performance videos as well here: Farewell Milwaukee videos. As is the case with most our work, the pen and ink and brushes came out for this one. If you can create something truly original and unique (instead of a font that everyone else has access to getting), a graphic ARTIST should do that as often as possible.  As is true with several of the album designs we’ve produced, we got the privilege of working with great band photography by Darin Back, check his work out here: www.darinbackphoto.com/

Make sure to check out the variety of photographs of this design below in the gallery, artfully shot by Jon Eckard (www.joneckard.com/)
Go buy this one now. It’s good for you. PURCHASE HARD WORKING BAND’S WORK OF ART HERE.

The idea for this Wilco tee shirt design came after a recent game of the classic board game played with friends. I lost, but this shirt won client approval. We went through several versions, some of which spelled different things like: “CALL WILCO WHO ROCK”, “ON NIFTY FEW”…you get the idea. Our thanks go out to one particular friend who played Scrabble® for what we assume must’ve been hours to see what variations with the letters ‘W-I-L-C-O’ he could create.

So after simplifying the message, shown is the actual printed tee that is now available at the Wilco store here. Make sure to check out the gallery of detail shots and full tee shirt design (don’t lose that empty square!).

“Where on earth am I gonna play that ‘Z’?!”

We are fortunate to come across some really cool projects to get to work on now and again. This design project for the super group The Baseball Project was a real thrill and honor to get to produce. This band is is composed of Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, R.E.M.), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, Gutterball), Peter Buck (R.E.M.), and Linda Pitmon (Miracle 3, Golden Smog). The Baseball Project were recently featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition”, you can listen to the interview here. The band’s online store has the CD and tee shirt we did available for purchase too.

R.E.M.?! R.E.M.??? As lifelong R.E.M. fans, we loved getting the chance to help create something unique for this Super Group side project. There’s also a personal story about the old archival photo used on the back of the CD package…We needed a unique image for the back, something that tied in the feel from the old felt pennants design on the front cover. We had recently come across a great old photograph of Earl Pfahlert, our grandfather. In it, he’s posing with his baseball team from Holgate, Ohio. The actual baseball uniform he’s wearing in the photo below was also discovered in a box from the garage. So, the plan now is to frame the photo and include the uniform in a large shadow box (along with a copy of The Baseball Project CD)! We think our Gramps would’ve gotten a kick out of being on this package design, we sure did when it was approved!

Here’s the back with a detail shot of our Grandfather:

Earl Pfahlert, seated, bottom right.

Enjoy the rest of the images from this fun project…

Photo by Jon Eckard Photography.

Some design projects start in one style and end up as something completely different (but better than the original idea). This T-shirt design for Mr. Nels Cline was one such project.

The original ideas didn’t quite have the punk aesthetic that Nels was after, so after getting some great direction from the man himself, we headed more towards 70s exploitation/revenge films with a Japanese flavor. Major fans of the genre may recognize the eye of Japanese actress/chanteuse Meiko Kaji. One of the goals was to keep this as a one, or at most, two color shirt, so white ink on a black garment worked great for some dramatic contrast. The Japanese characters in red read “fire”, “fur”, “snow” and “blood”. We don’t know the exact significance, but having seen Nels play live, we think those words describe (in part) what he creates with a guitar pretty well. Find out more about this very talented man at his website and Facebook page: www.nelscline.com. NPR also had a sweet little episode featuring Nels for the “Tiny Desk Concert” series.

A highlight for us was getting the payment (we always love when clients pay), but this envelope’s contents  was cooler than most: The check was wrapped inside a music sheet from Nels Cline with hand notations and song development…COOL!

Nels sheet music with notations that we have posted up - I like the section that says "Scale for improvising"...uh oh, watch out.

Please make sure to check out the gallery below for more detail shots from the whole shebang. Dig the threads.

Our new four color process print for Mike Gordon is “One small step for man, one giant leap for fans who love space related poster art.” We think that’s what Neil intended to say.

Do you like space travel? Science fiction? How about musicians that write and create great tunes? We put on our NASA nerd glasses from the 60′s and researched the perfect images for this design direction. Expertly printed by The Half & Half, this process print has a white spot hit to help highlight the text sections. Since our favorite music venue (The Orange Peel) was the tour date site for the launch of this fun concert, we knew there should be an orange “Super Moon” in there somewhere. We went through several design versions before hitting just the right balance with color, texture and humor. Make sure to check out the image gallery below, some more detail photos of the print!

We have it on good authority that Mike Gordon absolutely loved the design. Purchase limited edition signed and numbered prints in the SHOP! Only 15 available!