By Tara Crichton

I love when people stop to look in my store’s front window. The longer they stay, the happier I am. Even better is when they come into the store because they just had to see what else was inside. It means my window is doing its job.

Put Your Personality Up Front
My front window is the face of my business that customers see from the street. Once a customer comes inside, I am the face of my business. I’m lucky that people consider picture framing artsy, so I can be quirky in my personal appearance; it only adds to my credibility. In an art business such as picture framing, people will judge you by all the artistic choices they observe in your business decor, advertising, promotion and personal presentation.

This revelation shouldn’t surprise you. Hairdressers must have good hair; if they charge top dollar, they had better have great hair. Everything that customers sense when they enter your space paints a picture in their minds of who you are and what they can expect of your product. What does the art on display in your store have to say about you? Does it look as though you have only one or two frame mouldings to sell? Does it look as though you haven’t framed anything new since the ’90s? Does your space have a bad smell? Is your store dirty or messy? If a customer notices any or all of these things, your business won’t grow and be successful.

Good picture framing is by its nature expensive, and the environment for selling expensive things needs to be inspiring. The exact method of inspiration differs for everyone.

Create Intrigue with Eclectic Accents
My store is eclectic. I’ve branched out into various modes of artistic expression through sculptures, interesting home decor, vintage frames and salvage. For me, anything that’s beautiful and unique is fair game. Oddly enough, there is a strange continuity in the store’s decor, which was completely unintentional. It works for my location and for the customers I want to attract.

One of the most successful picture-framing businesses I know has achieved its success by cultivating its own unique clientele. The business has two small locations in affluent areas of Toronto. When I say small, I mean SMALL. One has dimensions of approximately 10 by 10 feet with basement space for assembly. The other location is twice that size and has a front gallery space. Both locations dedicate 90 percent of their wall space to frame samples. But you won’t find the same frame samples you see at every other frame shop. The business derives its success from being a maverick of the framing world. The owners frame big and spectacular. Its personal presentation and the framing that the business produces have a rock-star vibe, which would-be imitators cannot copy. Customers go to these shops when they have money to spend and they want a piece of that magic for themselves.

Look at your location and decide what kind of customers you want. You can’t have everyone. Give up on that idea right away. If you cheapen your materials and workmanship to appeal to bargain hunters, then bargain hunters will become your clientele. This business strategy works only if the quantity of resulting work is so great that you can still make a profit.

Curate Your Collection
An ambitious picture framer is a curator. You should carefully choose everything that goes into your framing to reflect your artistic sensibility and the quality end product you will produce. Do you really need 100 frames with a black finish? Do you have frames from various companies that are indistinguishable from each other? Choose which ones you actually want to sell and the profiles that will give you the greatest range of finished products.

I am the worst person to advise against frame-sample hording. When I was working as a showroom manager for a national frame importer, I had more than 900 frame samples to work with. Yet, I still missed some of my favorite mouldings from the competition. This mentality does me no favors. It just ends up muddying the waters for my customers and cutting into my bottom line. I have now streamlined my business model with the mouldings I’ve chosen to be my mainstays and the unique, exciting lines that spice up the presentation.

I’ve been disappointed with most of the new moulding lines that have come out lately. They are so depressingly “safe”—that is, boring. I can’t get excited about brown frames. Instead, frames that look like iron fencing, complete with nail heads; frames that have traditional distressed silver beads and wood that looks like tortoiseshell; and frames of stained woods in Japanese red and ebony get my creative juices flowing.

Mats are the exception to the minimalist rule. I find that I really do need every sample out there. The mat companies have stepped up their game by producing new lines that fully optimize and expand the borders of picture framing—pun intended. Some customers would choose heavy jute overlay on gold leaf, pebbles or genuine gold and silver leaf as mat options. Apparently, the sky is the limit. I won’t use these mats every day, but as a person who has mounted gift paper onto matboard sheets to get just the right look, I applaud the innovative vision that led to their creation.

Use Your Creativity
I promote the frames and the framing techniques that comprise my vision through the framed art I display on my walls. Whenever possible, I frame original art that I acquire from local artists, university and college art sales and auctions. I carefully select decorative prints, as well. I creatively frame these gems in the best, most creative way according to their medium. I have so many options: floater frames; shadowbox frames; and mats with spacers, fillets, antireflective glass and linen mats. I do not randomly assemble these pieces as examples of framing technique. Instead, I frame each piece for the art, but I can refer to it as an example if a customer asks. The goal is to educate through inspiration. Customers first see how compelling the framed art is, and then they ask how you accomplished it.

The business you currently run is the business you have chosen. Every choice you have made about location, decor and frame suppliers has come together to create the face of your business. Ask yourself whether the face of your business is the one you want to show the world. It is completely under your control. If you build a business that shows the best that the industry offers, you will attract the customers who appreciate that quality. The universe rewards enterprises that you execute with passion and with a drive for excellence.

Tara Crichton has worked in the framing industry for more than 24 years and is a graduate of University of Guelph with a double major in fine arts. She has worked in every aspect of the framing industry, including retail, wholesale distribution, OEM and art direction. She now owns and operates a gallery just north of Toronto.

The post The Art of Framing: Put Your Best Face Forward with Your Storefront appeared first on Art Business News.

By Tara Crichton Picture framing at its simplest is a craft, and, if you reduce it even further, it is a business. I’m not fond of the business side of framing. The business chores I must perform every couple of months have become the bane of my existence, and I can’t wait until the bottom line of my business allows me the luxury of delegating them to someone else. There is good reason that I didn’t become an accountant.

You would think that, after years of repetition, the possibly monotonous labor of cutting frames, glass, mats and backing would cease to thrill. And, although they don’t make my heart beat faster in avid anticipation, they provide a feeling that is less like a new love and more like a good marriage. There is a more solid, steady feeling of satisfaction with every step that brings me closer to a job’s completion.

My craft demands sterile perfectionism—perfect joins, clean glass and smooth surfaces—and I base my art on that perfectionism. It is like the canvas that a painter uses when realizing a masterpiece. It provides those details that the customer sees and those they don’t, and it thus makes or breaks the artwork.

At the very least, mats should have the smallest possible overcuts, glass should be free of dirt or fingerprints, and frame corners should be tight and touched up so that the seam is virtually invisible. The superior materials and methods that preserve and conserve are also crucial. All my work is for nothing if shoddy workmanship undermines the superficial appearance. For example, paper mats can fade and discolor, cardboard backing acids can denature the art, and masking tape can dry into powder. Some performance art uses materials that rot and decay as a statement; picture framing is not that kind of art.

It takes time and skill to achieve the invisible perfection that showcases the customer’s art and makes no effort to take center stage. The frames, mats and glass are the paints of my art. They are the means of building depth, scale, intensity and volume.

The sum of these skills becomes gloriously greater than the parts. The frame and mat you choose create the art’s focus. The matting and frame width can give the art more visual weight and significance. Dark colors reinforce this effect, attracting light and more vividly contrasting the artwork with its surroundings. The matting color you use reacts with the colors in the art, causing them to either recede or advance. White or creamy mats, on the other hand, are the exceptions to this rule. They provide the best way to create a visually open area around the art that stays neutral as long as you find the right level of white.

Using colors that are the opposite of a main color in the art has an interesting push-pull effect. Such opposites include red and green, yellow and purple, and blue and orange. Use that optical effect with caution, though. It’s a bit like putting a juggling act in your show; make sure the main attraction can hold its own. You can mute the effect by using grayed-down versions of the colors.

There is sometimes no reason why something works or doesn’t work. Listen to what your trained senses tell you. If what you are laying down doesn’t seem like the perfect combination, keep pulling and keep putting options down. Pull some frames that you are sure won’t work. On the other hand, a “wrong” frame can suddenly and mysteriously look incredible, and finding one is among my secret joys.

Inspiration is the main motivator that elevates my craft beyond drudgery. Artists become inspired and fall in love with their subjects. My love affair with texture, which I’ve written about before, is still going strong. Although that type of love doesn’t die easily, I know that I have to love my client’s art more. I can’t put together all my favorite things, regardless of how it works on a watercolor, intaglio print, family photo or golf shirt. It’s difficult to frame all the disparate objects your clients bring to you. You can get caught up in the technical details and lose the spark that makes the entire project shine. This inspiration doesn’t live in a vacuum; it is something you have to work to maintain.

We are so lucky to live in a time during which the internet lets us keep in touch with what is happening around the world. I’m a bit backward in the social-media world. Although I love Pinterest, Instagram and Flickr, Facebook doesn’t interest me at all. I want to know what strangers are doing and what inspires them.

Inspiration is contagious. I get inspired watching fashion shows on vogue.com or documentaries on Netflix. I also love flipping through home-decor magazines while waiting in line at the grocery store. Trade shows are an invaluable opportunity for framers to pick the brains of other industry professionals. You don’t have to steal their ideas; they will give them to you. The well-thought-out displays of framed art with new mouldings and products are bound to get your artistic juices flowing.

For me, picture framing is everything that bookkeeping is not. It is passion and craft, paint and sculpture, creativity and practical application—all wrapped up together. There is an art to great picture framing that is fulfilling and rewarding to produce, and the rewards come from customer loyalty. There is magic in becoming inspired by art and creating the best possible artistic method of framing to preserve and enhance it. Tara Crighton has worked in the framing industry for more than 24 years and is a graduate of University of Guelph with a double major in fine arts. She has worked in every aspect of the framing industry including retail, wholesale distribution, OEM and art direction. She now owns and operates a gallery just north of Toronto.

The post The Art and Craft of Framing appeared first on Art Business News.

By Tara Crichton

Historically, spring is my favorite time of year. I say “historically” because this seems like the spring-that-wasn’t. Fall got co-opted by winter and spring has gotten bullied into submission, too. My personal response has been to revolt against the grey by bringing as much color into my personal space as possible. I brought the essence of spring into my life with décor accents redolent with gorgeous tints of salmon pink, the blue of Caribbean water, and the green of freshly sprung bulb sprouts. None of these are colors I have ever considered being in my palette. I’ve always preferred neutrals.

This year I’ve gotten thoroughly saturated with neutrals and want to kick them back into the closet with my heavy winter coat. One of the joys of this human existence is our infinite capacity for change. We change our tastes, our preferences and our minds all the time. Don’t assume that your custom-framing customers are any different than yourself.

Custom-framing customers always come into the custom-framing shop carrying their art and a preconceived notion of “what they want.” This is not a bad thing. But this doesn’t mean that you should let them have what they think they want either. This first exchange of ideas is a necessary base on which you build your final masterpiece. It is a long-debunked myth that less is more. More is more! The consumer only thinks that they know what they want because they don’t know what all the options are. The custom framer as designer should be well versed in all the versions and permutations of the framing construct. It is all those levels of variation that create a final product greater than all its parts.

Lately I’ve been finding myself irresistibly drawn to texture. Frames, mats, it doesn’t matter. I can’t get enough of linen mats and their amazing wealth of minute detail. I think it’s the way you get such subtle variation in the way your eyes read the color of the mats. White is nubby or irregular with a ‘whiter’ white on the weft and shadow on the weave. Black has more interest when it’s textured than when it is simply the absence of color. All of a sudden it has even more depth.

The colors that are available in fabric mats are awe-inspiring. The grey silks are subtle and have a sheen so elegant it starts to mirror the colors in the art as the light changes in its environment. The red silks are so intensely saturated they achieve a vivid tone impossible to mimic in a paper application. There is a mat that looks like dark dye denim that I want to use on everything, and almost have. I’ve used it on pencil sketches, black and white photos and vividly colored art prints. It’s my equal opportunity offender and my customers couldn’t be happier. Without exception they all remarked that they never imagined choosing a mat that looked like that before I showed it to them.

Texture can take your dowdy neutrals into the world of spectacular. That said, I do tend to shy away from the more blatant color/texture combinations. There is an Astroturf mat that I’m sure has found its niche that still feels like an inside joke to me.

When it comes to frames, the ones closest to my heart right now are the ones whose profile has drama. I still love frames with fantastic wood veneers and sweet glossy lacquers, but it’s the shape of the profile that makes all the difference when dealing with your basic black, white or espresso finish.

A perennial favorite of mine is the dramatic cove profile. That sexy swoop falling down to the art in the center gets me every time. It’s a graphic statement that directs the eye with bold authority. The cube frame is saved from terminal boredom when the rabbit is deep and sculptural. The way the frame stands up, cradling the image feels like a floater frame application for glassed art. I love the extremes of big chunky frames on smaller pieces and delicate barely-there frames on large abundantly matted pieces. The vocabulary of scale is not often initiated by the average customer. Years of standard double mats with a 1- to 1½-inch frame have blinded customers to the infinite variation possible with true custom framing.

I’m also smitten with the new metal frames. The bold, tall narrowness with sharp squared edges is everything you want for a modern application. The colors are killer and completely current. Texture hasn’t been neglected in the frame design either. The frames that look like the face has been shaved down with a grinding tool make me drool with delight. The metal frames that have a gentle curve on the outside edge and a slightly angled face are appealing for completely opposite reasons. They have a soft, brushed finish and possess an oriental feel that is worlds apart from your dusty old bamboo moulding of days thankfully past.

Come to think of it, never let the dust settle in the first place. Don’t let the stagnation of the comfort zone keep you and your customers from experiencing the excitement of discovery. Play with color, texture, scale and proportion. Embrace change and let your creative juices flow. Life and framing are at their best when the unexpected opens your eyes causing you to see everything in a new way.

The post Looking for Summer: Time for a Framing Change appeared first on Art Business News.

The start of a new year always brings the opportunity for introspection and review. Beyond the regular New Year goals of extra exercise and better eating—which are rapidly abandoned due to the lack of excitement inherent in extra carrots and reps of burpees—there is real value in looking at your business and trying to see how you can keep your service relevant and attractive to your customers.

There has been a radical change to the art gallery and picture framing business over the last 15-20 years. The purchasing patterns and expectations of the modern consumer make it a completely different animal. If you have been conducting business over this time frame this is not news to you. First there were entire television networks dedicated to showing the average homeowner how completely unnecessary it was to hire skilled tradespeople. Why pay all that extra money when you can do it yourself?

DIY—A Detriment to Custom Framing?
Interior decorators show people how to buy IKEA frames, pull out the glue gun and assemble their
own art for a fraction of the cost. Decorating magazines reiterate the same monotonous litany and display most of the art in their interiors without any framing at all. Canvas art gets hung raw and naked with all its edges on display. Interior design media encouraged an attitude less concerned with how beautifully art could be displayed on a wall. All that mattered was getting it up in the most economical manner possible.

I worked for years in a “do it yourself” frameshop. The owner, we’ll call him “Jim,” was a completely charming alcoholic who took great pride in the fact that he had spent most of his adult life “putting four pieces of wood together.” The fact is that the frame assembly is the least of what a picture framer does. I remember Jim with a great deal of fondness—and a lot of head-shaking! I will continue to write about Jim whenever I need an example of what not to do.

I and my fellow coworkers would often come into the shop in the morning to find posters covered in bloody fingerprints because Jim had handled art unaware that he’d cut himself on the edge of a piece of glass or given himself a paper cut on some cardboard backing. We all got really good at fixing
things with hydrogen peroxide!

Customer Education is Everything
A good picture framer, like a doctor, should have the ultimate goal of doing no harm. That makes a good picture framer into a conservator. Knowing what NOT to do is every bit as important as knowing what to do. For example, as an industry, we are fully aware of the importance of acid-free materials as a protective agent for artwork. If we are to expect our customers to pay the additional cost for these premium materials, we need to explain their value.

Acid-free protection is a necessary step in the picture-framing process. If it’s done right you will only have to do it once. Acid-free mats and backing, UV glass, museum glass, proper hinging, spacers…whether hidden or obvious to the naked eye, once conservation materials are explained, they reinforce your role as trusted advisor and caretaker.

Beware the Glue Gun!
When working with valuable artwork it is very important not to do anything that can’t be undone without destroying the art’s value. The customer needs to know why the glue gun is not their friend. The “just get it up on the wall” market has been cornered by the big box store. They are experts in turning interior design into disposable fashion. The trend that started out as a beautiful African brown/black hardwood veneer called “wenge” has been degraded and polystyrene-ed into everything under the sun and labelled “espresso finish” (aka brown, ugh).

This is the new reality in the interior design industry. It seems less important where a trend starts than how to cheapen and replicate it until whatever made it beautiful in the first place has been completely obliterated. This is the opposite of finely designed custom framing. With all the design work invested by the better picture frame importers and manufacturers to fabricate elegant profiles and utilize glorious wood veneers, why would you, the professional picture framer, produce work that’s indistinguishable from what can be purchased ready-made?

Unleash Your Inner Avant-Garde Genius
The finishes that are available now—gold or silver leaf, modernized barn board, lacquer, frosted metallic leaf, graphite—are completely overwhelming. The range of frame profile and finishes are virtually limitless. So how do you dive in? Use fine materials, but also utilize them in a way that is visibly superior. The design aspect of this process cannot be overstated. Imagination and vision are key. Stacking frames to create truly custom combinations isn’t a new concept but it’s one that seems to be oddly under-utilized.

Playing with spacers in shadowboxes and between mats to emphasize the perception of depth within the volume of the framing is also not groundbreaking but adds to the design impact of modern art. Use offsetting in your mat proportions to exaggerate the verticality or horizontal sprawl of art that otherwise would have awkward proportions in the awaiting space. Why just use a safe black cube frame when you can use a black frame with a stunning profile, lacquer finish, or super deep rabbit that transforms the safety of black frame/white mat into avant-garde genius?

Yes, it is probably easier to sell predictable, safe framing to your customers. But the extra effort expended to supply creative design options to your customers will be rewarded with a solid loyal customer base who will love to tell their admiring friends where they framed that jaw-droppingly beautiful piece hanging in their front hall.

Allowing yourself to be the expert that your customers can rely on should be your goal. This expertise will be the cornerstone of a thriving, expanding customer base. Know your materials and contribute the design flair that will have your clients leaving your store confident that their hard-earned dollars were well spent. Letting your work express the passion you feel for your craft will be good for you too. It’s a resolution that shouldn’t be too hard to keep.

Tara Crichton has worked in the framing industry for more than 24 years and is a graduate of University of Guelph with a double major in fine arts. She started out working in the framing industry to pay her way through school and never left the industry, for it was her calling. She has worked in every aspect of the industry from retail, to wholesale distribution, OEM and art direction. Tara now owns and operates a gallery just north of Toronto, Canada.

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