With McAlpine’s evocative cinematic work in mind we created a website that is elegant and timeless, simple yet highly visual, and very easy to update for the client via built-in content management.

Our goal was to make a website that does not feel like a website, to create a beautiful, professional online presence that provides a moment of respite from the visual clutter of the internet.

Link: alisonmcalpine.com
Client: Second Sight Pictures
Art Director: Manfred Naescher
Year: 2011

The illustration of Marvin Gaye for Wire Magazine #327 (May 2011) accompanied a piece about sweet soul music by David Toop, "Burning Fuse". This was an attempt to represent the text's wide range of abstract notions - memory, authenticity, fluidity, desire and softness - through a sense of drift and blur, and with a ghostly presence, in the form of a portrait.

Client: The Wire Magazine
Art Director: Ben Weaver
Illustrator: Manfred Naescher
Year: 2011

We created a modular logo for OSE (a high school in Liechtenstein) that represents the guiding principles of the school in the form of letter shapes. The logo was developed on the basis of three adjectives (A) and one sentence (B) that were delivered to us as a summary of the guiding principles of the OSE. A: innovative, encouraging, optimistic. B: Our school offers an individualized education and nurtures development within a clearly defined set of values.

Excerpt from the Concept:

The new logo of the Oberschule Eschen is an expression of the individual within a unified framework. The basic outer shapes of the letters of the OSE logo are identical, while the inner elements of the typeface are distinct from each other. The inner elements (here in the shape of thin framed lines) make up the individual element, they make each letter, or, to take it further, they make what it can be, as the possibilities contained herein are manifold (an optimistic view: the framed lines could be placed in a variety of ways, and new letters would emerge).

Also, the letter forms of the logo suggest building blocks, shapes that can be attached to each other: A symbol for a modular system, in which single, individual parts build a larger whole, together.

Client: Oberschule Eschen
Art Director: Manfred Naescher
Year: 2011

Phantom & Son, Intl. is a design studio in Berlin, Germany, founded in 2011 by Manfred Naescher.

What do we do? We art direct, design and illustrate, in all styles, and in all media. We make publications and websites. We make sound design. We collaborate. We find solutions: Unique solutions tailored to your needs.

Why Phantom and Son? Because we can disappear. We make your project visible while we stay invisible. Every project has its own requirements and context, and we understand that. From this understanding comes an individual approach that yields an individual solution. That's why we have not one style, but many ideas. Because we adapt to every new project. And stay invisible.

We currently serve as freelance Art Directors for the independent music label Wist Records and the film production company Second Sight Pictures. For both companies we oversee and design a cohesive visual appearance throughout a wide range of products, both in print and online.

We have designed complete visual identity sets, stand-alone logos, business cards, stationary, publications and packaging for clients ranging from individual entrepreneurs to schools and construction firms, from fashion and record labels to film production companies. We love to find visual solutions for clients large and small.

We have created illustrations in a wide variety of styles and approaches for music and fashion magazines, institutions, record covers, and postcards.

We are experienced illustrators and designers and we love to share our methods and techniques. Please get in touch if you're interested in hosting workshops or if you have teaching opportunities. Any ideas you have, feel free to share them with us, maybe we can help.

Our work has been shown internationally in galleries and institutions. Selected exhibitions include:
2011: Booklet, Utility Canvas, Tokyo, Japan
2011: Print Cloud, Tryk Tryk Tryk, Copenhagen, Denmark
2010: The Reading Room, Berlin, Germany
2010: This is My Education, Art in General Gallery, New York City
2010: Salon fuer Kunstbuch, Museum of Contemporary Art, Leipzig, Germany
2009: Blatt, Showroom for Contemporary Magazines, Art Lawyer Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

A number of magazines, newspapers and blogs have mentioned or featured our work, among them the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany's leading graphic design magazine Page Magazine, and Beautiful/Decay.

Arte TV, Wire Magazine, Simyo, Second Sight Pictures, Wist Records, Dandyhorse Magazine, Only Magazine, Oberschule Eschen, Bellwoods Construction, Hatters and Dressmakers, Mainstream, Swift Note Records, Zunior Label, frequent private commissions.

We listen to you. We ask questions. We will create a timeline, and, together with you, we will determine a deadline for the first sketches and structure of the project which we will then present to you. Going on, we will either enter further phases of development or realize the finished concept directly, depending on the scale and time constraints of the project at hand. It goes without saying that we always complete our work on deadline, and that we deliver a unique solution perfectly catered to your needs and tastes.

We should add that, on occasion, we love to put the computer aside and make things with our hands. We love to play with paper, paint, scissors, and photography, just as much as we love to make sleek and clean digital work. We believe that both the analog and the digital can inform each other in rewarding ways. We learn something new from every project. We have experience and skills, but we approach our work with an open mind and build things from scratch - not from templates, habits or patterns. Every project is a new challenge, which is part of the fun and keeps things fresh. With everything we do, it is our goal to make something special. Something special that works.