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Almost a decade ago, when graphic designer Matt Pamer was a Liberty University student, you could have spotted him hanging around the art section of the Lynchburg Barnes & Noble, looking into another world. “It was eye-opening for me,” he says of those first glimpses of high-end professional design. Now, it’s a safe bet that young designers-to-be here in Charlottesville are looking at Pamer’s work, getting an eyeful of their own.
Seen any silkscreened posters for shows at the Pavilion or Starr Hill—retro and a little melancholy, like the green bird and heart for Wilco or the puzzle-piece woman for Old School Freight Train? Those were Pamer’s. So was the 2007 Best Of C-VILLE cover, with a man’s labeled skull on a grainy blue background. Pamer did the cover of this issue as well. You can see in these images, with their handmade style and freewheeling fonts, the mark of a designer with ideas to spare. But Pamer’s gig with Red Light Management, which gave him a shot at designing music posters and album covers, is only one element in a varied eight-year career. Like creative types everywhere, Pamer’s had to pay his dues.
 Show poster for Satellite Ballroom |
 Show poster for Starr Hill |
After arriving at graphic design late in his college career, Pamer got a job at a Lynchburg firm. “It wasn’t a great place,” he says. Clients included airports and deck-cleaning companies—“not very glamorous.” He looked south, to a bigger city, for more stimulating work, and began working off-site for an Atlanta design house. This was an improvement, with clients needing websites and ad campaigns. Pamer had become part of what he now identifies as a technology-driven trend: “In the past, [a designer] had to live in New York, San Francisco, L.A. Now you can live anywhere; more and more designers are living in small towns but can still get nationally known.”
 Show poster for Satellite Ballroom |
Still, not all small cities are created equal. Four years ago, Pamer left Lynchburg for Charlottesville, where he had friends. And it was here where he was able not only to design for faraway clients but to get the attention of local arts groups—first UVA’s OFFScreen film series, then Red Light Management. Pamer began working with Red Light in 2005, the same year the Pavilion opened. “Suddenly I had all this work,” he remembers; what’s more, he was a business owner as well as a designer.
 Show poster for Satellite Ballroom |
Still, Pamer partly pays his bills as an employee of a Charlottesville design firm. And that’s all right, he says; it doesn’t need to be all rock, all the time. “Designing [things like annual reports] is just another challenge,” he says. “I look at it the same way as I look at a music poster; it’s a problem needing a solution. I’ve been in that situation where I was literally getting sick of music posters.”
 Show poster for Charlottesville Pavilion |
More relevant, he says, is the fact that Charlottesville is “a great cultural arts scene, which lends itself to great design”—not only in terms of potential income for a contemporary designer like himself, but in terms of what we all see walking around, day to day. He’s a fan of the Transit Center and Downtown retail signage generally. “The aesthetic of the Downtown Mall area, the mixture of old and new, with modern spaces in a historic district—I like the juxtaposition,” he says, likening the effect to his own silkscreen work.
 Matt Pamer |
Is Pamer still trying to see beyond his present location, catch a glimpse of another world? No, he says; at least for now, he’s not bothered by the siren song that traditionally calls to small-town artists from bustling places like New York. He has plenty to listen to here in Charlottesville.
