These mouldings pair perfectly with the artwork of Paul Thomas, one of Chelsea Frames’ feature artists. Thomas’ abstract paintings are inspired by harmonious, light-infused color. His vivid paintings are on display in public and private collections in the US, Canada, France, Italy, Spain and South America. Beautifully framed paintings by Paul Thomas will be available for purchase at the Larson-Juhl booth and Thomas will be on hand to discuss his process and inspiration.
“Paul Thomas is a favorite of ours,” shares Jaclyn Acker, co-owner of Chelsea Frames. “We worked with him last year on several pieces for an Architectural Digest feature and were blown away with the final results. We knew his works would pair beautifully with Larson-Juhl’s selection of modern, authentic frames.”
“We are so inspired by the artist community and we welcome the occasion to collaborate with artists, framers, publishers and designers as well as to educate and share information to strengthen our industry,” shares Jennifer Harlan. Artexpo New York guests can learn more about the impact of beautiful custom framing on Saturday. Larson-Juhl Design Director, Jennifer Townsend, will be presenting a new seminar, Elements of Design, and Jennifer Harlan will be joining one of the panel discussions. Stay tuned for the full Artexpo New York Topics & Trends Education Series schedule to be posted closer to the show.
Stop by the Larson-Juhl booth to meet artist Paul Thomas and the teams from Chelsea Frames and Larson-Juhl. To preview Paul Thomas’ works, visit his website at paulthomasartist.com. Chelsea Frames is located at 197 Ninth Avenue, New York, and offers custom residential and commercial framing, in-home consultations, and original works of art. For more information and hours of operation, visit chelseaframes.com.
Larson-Juhl, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is a global business based near Atlanta, GA, with 20 distribution centers across North America. In addition to custom picture frame moulding and supplies, Larson-Juhl offers custom printing and mounting services. Visit larsonjuhl.com for design inspiration and to view their selection of over 2,000 picture frame mouldings.

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The post Larson-Juhl Partners with Chelsea Frames for Artexpo New York 2017 appeared first on Art Business News.

FrameWorks was launched in 1989, when Christine Sweeny moved to Miami and opened a frame shop in the heart of Coconut Grove called Kennedy Studios. In1995, Sweeny rebranded the business as FrameWorks, moving her retail location to its current corner on Commodore Plaza. Claire Lardner became an equal partner and owner in the business in 1996, bringing her successful career as an attorney to the partnership. Over the years, Sweeny and Lardner have continued to invest in FrameWorks’s evolution with cutting-edge technology and equipment, constantly working towards upward growth and expansion.

When FrameWorks began, Sweeny operated the business solo. Today, the company employs 22 people, many of whom have been with the company for over 15 years and live in the local community, and has two locations. FrameWorks installs artwork worldwide, from Spain and Italy to Turks and Caicos, Hawaii, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean islands.

FrameWorks is committed to providing superior customer service, offering competitive industry pricing, and staying on top of business trends. This pursuit and consistent delivery of excellence has resulted in the retention of clients over many years. Both Sweeny and Lardner have achieved the prestigious industry designation of Certified Picture Framer, awarded by the Professional Picture Framing Association. Less than five percent of all picture framers in the country hold this designation. Their commitment to continued personal development in their chosen trade has allowed them to have consistent growth over the past two decades.

FrameWorks serves two sectors: residential and hospitality. The residential clientele is made up of local residents from around South Florida who come to the retail store for picture framing and art services. FrameWorks is proud of its reputation in the South Florida community for not only the exemplary art and framing services it provides, but also for its constant and continued support of local charities, community events, and school art programs.

The hospitality sector requires working with developers, business owners, interior designers, and architects who are in need of art and framing services. Clients from this sector include cruise lines, hotels, timeshares, and office buildings.

The industry standards for artwork in the hospitality industry in 1996 were prints and posters from catalogs. FrameWorks saw an opportunity to provide custom imagery at a fraction of the price. Sweeny and Lardner purchased their first wide-format printer in 1999 and began providing alternatives to the industry standards. This offered an additional revenue stream for FrameWorks and continued to distinguish the company as a leader in the industry. Today, FrameWorks offers wide-format printing services with four printers, cutting-edge software, and alternative, innovative substrates for printing and framing.

FrameWorks has seen continual growth over the years. Sweeny and Lardner acquired additional manufacturing and storage space in 2000 to accommodate large-volume production and meet all of the company’s crating, shipping, and export needs. In 2009, they opened a second retail location in the heart of the Bird Road Art District that provides retail art and framing services and houses large-format printers for servicing wholesale clientele.

Given FrameWorks’s continued growth and its proven stability of core sales, Sweeny and Lardner have cemented their retail presence by purchasing their original retail headquarters property on Commodore Plaza. The co-owners see the acquisition as a crowning achievement that will convert rental payments into on-going investments of commercial property, offer FrameWorks control over its physical plant and streetscape appearance, give Sweeny and Lardner a solid earnings stream, and act as a valuable asset to rely on for value accumulation and leveragability. Sweeny and Lardner are excited about the growth and potential of FrameWorks in the years to come.

Services include:

• Art consulting
• Printing services on multiple materials
• Banners
• Artwork
• Signage
• Picture and mirror framing installation

Client list includes:

• Hospitality Purveyors (Sandals and Beaches)
• Coconut Grove Arts Festival
• Atlantic Purchasing, Hotel Properties in North America
• Interspace Design, Coconut Grove
• Gansevoort, Turks & Caicos
• International Design Concepts, Jumby Bay, Antigua Summer Bay, Orlando
• The James Hotel, Miami Beach
• The Benjamin Hotel, NYC
• 1 Hotel, Miami Beach
• Carnival Cruise Lines
• Norwegian Cruise Lines
• Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
• Pullmantur Cruises

Website: www.frameworksmiami.com

The post Gallery Spotlight on FrameWorks Miami appeared first on Art Business News.

In the past decade, the art and framing industry has faced a number of significant challenges. It has experienced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the crash of the housing market, and the proliferation of big-box craft stores.

All of these factors have affected the sales and profitability of small independent frame shops and galleries. Yet, through ingenuity and perseverance, they’ve managed to survive, and art and framing sales are now experiencing a resurgence in sales. This situation is especially true for independent framers, who are starting to gain market share as more and more consumers recognize that 70 percent off a grossly inflated price is not such a great deal for a frame design showing a lack of professional design skills.

Just as handing someone a paint set doesn’t make them an artist, giving someone a title and showing them how to use a cash register doesn’t suddenly endow them with the skills they need to be a professional frame designer. It’s taken years, but consumers have finally begun to recognize that the real value of custom framing is in the enduring beauty of the results, not in the inexpensive frames they see in newspaper ads. The industry today is smarter, bolder, and more profitable than it has been at any other time in the past decade. However, despite this increase in prosperity, framers have yet to overcome one obstacle: the widespread, misguided, and illogical placement of flat-screen televisions on walls, instead of in entertainment centers or on furniture. This trend in consumer behavior has caused the framing market to shrink, robbed it of millions of sales opportunities, and generated a tremendous amount of human pain and suffering.

Despite its widespread and devastating consequences to art and framing merchants and to consumers, the problem has gone mostly unnoticed and almost completely ignored, and it has grown to pandemic proportions. And it’s got me hoppin’ mad.

Flat screens have taken over valuable vertical real estate that was once the domain of artists, photographers, and framers. Paintings, prints, photographs, needlework, and lots of frames—your frames and my frames—belong on walls. What does not belong on walls are rectangular black holes of nothingness.

And it’s all the Jetsons’ fault—George, Jane, Judy, and even little Elroy. They started it. They were the first perpetrators of this mess. They’re the ones who made us yearn for the advent of wall-mounted TVs. And now we’ve got ’em. But the Jetsons were wrong.

TVs do not belong on walls. They surely don’t belong in the corner near a ceiling. And they have absolutely no business being mounted above a fireplace. Just because your customers can mount their Samsungs and Vizios on their walls doesn’t mean they should. In fact, mounting a TV on a wall isn’t just a bad idea from the perspective of a custom framer, it’s also a bad idea for your health.

Historically, as you may recall, people placed TVs at eye level. Because most people watch television from a seated position, TVs were once much closer to the floor. This placement provided a viewing experience similar to what one enjoys when sitting in the center of a movie theater.

Earlier generations of TVs were in their own cabinets or consoles; placed on stands; or tucked into entertainment centers, which have doors to hide the rectangular black hole when it is not in use. Today’s TVs are much lighter and flatter than those of yesteryear. They rarely exceed a thickness of more than 5 to 6 inches, making wall mounting possible.

But almost every wall-mounted TV is positioned much higher on the wall than is optimal for comfortable viewing from a sofa or an easy chair. These viewing angles can produce stiff necks, sore shoulders, and aching backs. If you don’t believe it, ask a chiropractor. Most will tell you that wallmounted TVs are great for their business.

Any adult who has ever had the unfortunate experience of sitting in the first few rows of a movie theater should know better than to mount a TV so high up on a wall. Sure, it was cool to sit in the front row of the theater when you were 10 years old, but no adult ever willingly sits that close to the screen. Long before the movie is over, your neck is certain to feel like a PEZ dispenser locked in the tilted-back position.

Wall-mounted TVs rob custom framers of potential sales, and they need to do something about it. They need to take back what belongs to them.

Unfortunately, this trend is not likely to go away anytime soon, and there’s little framers can do about it. However, you might consider educating your customers by providing literature about the potential health problems—and letting them know why they don’t want to emulate the Jetsons.

The post Why I Hate George Jetson | The Guerrilla Framer appeared first on Art Business News.

Marketing framing services through daily-deal companies is not for every business, but for those that are thinking about giving it a try, here are a few suggestions. Over the last several years, my shops have used daily-deal marketing to great advantage, and the following list contains some of my company’s success strategies.

Daily-deal websites include Groupon, Amazon Local, and Living Social. These companies promote special discount deals; sell vouchers to their customers; and pay them for the sales, minus commissions and fees. New customers then bring these vouchers to your company. The daily-deal websites collect no money from you upfront. They get paid only if the offer to your customers is successful; if they don’t sell a deal, you pay nothing.

Here are five more things to keep in mind when you first try out a daily deal.

1. BE AWARE OF THE TYPES OF CUSTOMER A DAILY DEAL ATTRACTS
You will attract a few people who want something for nothing. One of the great advantages of these programs is that if customers are unsatisfied with your offer, they can easily return their voucher for a refund. This approach keeps you from getting negative online reviews. Most customers, however, understand what they are buying and are just looking for an incentive to spend money in your shop.

2. KNOW YOUR PRICING
Get a good idea of how much your average customer spends per order. Make sure that the total value of the deal you are making is well below that average. This tactic ensures that the 50-percent-off deal that the daily-deal site presents costs you only about 20 to 25 percent on average. Potential customers don’t see this approach as a trick.
They generally understand that framing is far more expensive than the amount that the deal offers. If they do not
understand this concept and feel that you are overcharging them, suggest that they return the voucher for a refund.
This approach will generally defuse a potentially tense situation and prevent any bad online reviews.

3. CAREFULLY WORD YOUR DEAL
Do not in any way imply that the amount offered will cover an entire framing order unless you are offering a package deal. Offers generally set certain limits, such as “$50 for $100 toward custom framing.” Also be sure to include important specifications, such as “limit: one voucher per frame,” “limit: three vouchers per customer,” and “voucher must be used in its entirety; there will be no refund or credit issued for unused amounts.”

4. GET AS MUCH INFORMATION FROM YOUR NEW CUSTOMER AS POSSIBLE
When customers redeem their vouchers, make sure to get their contact information, especially their email addresses.
Email is a preferred and effective method for these customers to receive future offers from you. Second, most of the
daily-deal sites do not make a repeat offer to the same customer from the same merchant, so it is up to you to bring
that customer back into the shop. Finally, email is the easiest and cheapest way to keep in contact with your customer base.

5. KNOW WHETHER DAILY DEALS ARE NOT FOR YOU
Daily deals may not be the type of marketing that will work with your business model. If your shop cuts margins close so that you can offer your customers the best possible price, you have no room for an advertising budget.
Therefore, this approach is not for you. However, when you use them properly,daily-deal sites can help bring new
customers into your shop. So, if you’re looking for a new marketing strategy, come up with a plan that makes sense for your business and give it a try.

With three Framing Palace locations in Maryland, Ed Gowda has specialized in custom framing for over 25 years. One of his passions is to share information and ideas within the industry. framingpalace.com

The post 5 Tips for Marketing Through Daily-Deal Websites appeared first on Art Business News.

In many renovations, framed art is often at the bottom of the design budget. A designer asks that a client purchase the key elements first: flooring, furniture, rugs, window dressing, and decorative mouldings for the walls. These big-ticket items anchor the design aspects of the room and constitute the basis for all future metamorphoses of the room.

Most prevalent design strategies propose that these investment pieces be of good quality and as design-neutral as possible. The items that comprise the trendy and fashionable aspect of the design plan are usually cheaper and deliberately interchangeable for seasonal variety.

This situation puts custom framing in an awkward middle position, as it is neither cheap nor interchangeable. Properly custom-framed art is expensive and aligns more closely with furniture than with pillows, throws, and other accessories. Framed art that is cheap, interchangeable, and ready-made, on the other hand, requires frequent replacement due to its poor construction and general absence of real artistic value. Yet the framer still must often handle the tail end of dwindling resources for customers who show them paint chips and carpet swatches and expect things to match.

When you face this situation, all you can do is take a deep breath and dive in.
As with most other situations, preparation is key. After bellying up to your counter, what the customer sees first are your frame samples. I like to arrange mine according to finish and size. My customers don’t know or care what company supplied them, so arranging them by supplier would be unnecessarily confusing. By keeping all my similarly colored frame samples together, I ensure that my customers can see at a glance what kind of selection I offer.

I cannot overstate how necessary it is to have the right samples on display. You must have samples that reflect current styles and trends—not because you want to create trendy and fashionable framed art, but because you want to represent yourself as knowledgeable of current design trends and as a credible source of design advice.

People’s tastes change. Recently, there has been a noticeable movement toward a simpler design aesthetic. Empty-nesters are getting rid of all their heavy wood “investment” furniture and decorating with an eye for clean lines and simple shapes. Furniture retailers will tell you that white is the most common color choice for leather furniture. You will not sell anything to this customer if all the samples they see when they walk in your store are mahogany or barn-board blue.

Your frame supplier is the best resource for keeping your frame samples current. Your sales rep shows you carefully considered frame samples that coordinate with what your customers have seen in interior-design magazines. Keep an open mind when viewing samples from a frame supplier—don’t assume that your customer won’t like what you don’t like. When I was a sales rep and first went out to galleries showing them a new line of brightly colored lacquer frames, most framers were visibly repulsed. Those sweet little frames brought up all kinds of unpleasant memories of bad lacquers gone by. The framers brave enough to put those samples out were thoroughly surprised to find that their customers did not share their feelings. Clients were more than ready for some color and shine in their framing projects. Sales were so good that some colors ended up on backorder due to the unexpectedly rapid depletion of stock.

Pay attention to what your customers are asking for. Customers were asking me for wenge frames long before I carried anything with a wenge veneer. They were asking for white gallery frames long before I had the right matte white and tall stem shape that such frames required. They were asking for floater frames before I even knew what a floater frame was. We framers get caught up in the day-to-day operation of our businesses and our busy lives, and we can lose track of the dynamic nature of our customers’ desires. But this changing nature is the lifeblood of our business, so you must change along with it.

Properly implemented custom framing is a craft. It has all the attributes of fine furniture, and, like fine furniture, it is expensive. Education is the only approach to customers’ resistance to your price point. Be knowledgeable about your product and be willing to share that information. People pay more when they understand what they are purchasing. Fine Italian wood veneers look different from foils. Real metallic leafing looks different from a metallic spray finish. Acid-free mats won’t fade and discolor as paper mats will. I don’t offer paper mats, and I don’t use any materials in my gallery that are substandard, because I know that the product my gallery produces is my representation in the world. It is the best advertising I will ever do, and it has to show the quality and design expertise that my clients have every right to expect.

Do not hesitate to charge properly for your work. If you are proud of your work, you should be paid accordingly. There will always be someone willing to do it for less, but do not let that fact affect you. Good customer service and a superior product always win in the end. Great design is priceless.

People are obsessed with trends and all things trending in popular culture. The trends are unavoidable and, if you keep them in mind as reference points, rather than the full objective, they are useful tools.

For example, I have recently noticed the re-emergence of gold in interior-design compilations. It is the brassy, true-to-life gold that hasn’t been in the hardware palette in a long time. For as long as I can remember, silver has been the metallic finish of choice. The trend started with bright silver leaf, which slowly shifted into nickel and then into darker silvers with patinated finishes. Gold was the color of “Grandma’s framing,” and designers and their clients avoided it like the plague. The new gold is modern, sharply angular, narrow, and delicately textured. It will be a slow process, but be warned: Gold is coming back.

The espresso wood trend is sticking around due to its total domination of the furniture world. Because people have invested so much money in espresso-finished flooring, furniture, and cabinetry, I don’t expect the trend to disappear for a long time. There has been a lot more conversation about color forecasting and Pantone’s Color of the Year in the media this year than I remember from years past. I find that, for me, this forecast is of personal interest but of limited use in my framing projects. A change from Radiant Orchid to Marsala in the color schemes of mass-market production will never influence the directions I give my customers concerning frames and mats.

When customers come in for the final finishing touches on their newly renovated space, be confident and ready. With preparation and design savvy, you will have exactly the right tools to ensure that those last pieces of their design puzzle will be exactly what they need to finish the project off with style.

The post Finishing with Style appeared first on Art Business News.

During recent trips to my favorite art gallery and an amazing museum exhibition, I was reminded of how important an artwork’s display is to the overall effect of the art. As I viewed the sculpture collections at this gallery and museum, I noticed how the pedestals on which the artwork rested enhanced my experience of each piece.

If you’ve had a similar experience and wondered how you can achieve the same display and appreciation for your treasured sculpture pieces, look no further than Pease Pedestals. Celebrating 20 years of creating beautiful acrylic fabrication, Pease Pedestals has established itself as a premier U.S. manufacturer of high-end acrylic furniture, fixtures, and accessories.

Founder Patrick Pease and new owner Scott Gordon reveal how the company started, what drives its development, where it is headed today with Gordon at the helm, and—perhaps most important—what Pease Pedestals can do to inspire success in your business.

DECOR Magazine: How was Pease Pedestals founded?
Pease Pedestals: Patrick Pease began working with acrylic in 1979 as co-owner of Carmichael Designs in Palm Springs, California. Carmichael specialized in acrylic furniture design and fabrication. Patrick sold that business in 1995 and returned to his hometown in the Chicago area to raise his family. There, he opened Pease Plastics, again focusing on acrylic fabrication and creating a variety of furniture, display fixtures, accessories, and artwork.
In 1997, Patrick exhibited his spectacular colored acrylic sculptures at Artexpo New York, and he realized that his pedestals were generating as much interest as his artwork. As a result, he created a full line of pedestals, and Pease Pedestals was born.

DM: How did you develop your careers and come into this business?
PP: With a background in art, Patrick was drawn to the techniques and creative possibilities of acrylic fabrication. His first and most celebrated pieces were layers of laminated colored acrylic forming magical prismatic sculptures. Needing a way to display the sculptures he created, Patrick made coordinating display pedestals. Galleries began ordering the display pedestals for their artwork, and Patrick soon realized that he could expand beyond the sculptures. The addition of high-end furniture—dining tables, side tables, chairs, barstools, benches, and more—gave the company a full range of products to enhance any decor.
After 35 years of running a successful business, Patrick decided to scale back his involvement and find someone to buy into his business who would continue—and, he hoped, expand on—the legacy that he had built.
Scott has always had a passion for working with his hands. By the age of 10, he had discovered Guillow’s wooden airplane kits—basically a set of plans with a couple of flat sheets of balsa wood from which he could build a fairly complex 3-D airplane that could actually fly. Over time, he expanded and refined his skills, building furniture and remodeling his home. A passion for art led him to open two art galleries in the 1990s, but, with a successful career in film and television, all of these remained merely hobbies—that is, until 2013, when Scott decided to start a second career and do what he loved. He looked for a successful business to buy into that would allow him to be creative and make things with his own hands. Luckily, he found Pease Pedestals just as Patrick was looking to make a move in his career.
Today, Scott and Patrick work side by side, with Scott running all aspects of the business and Patrick advising when needed and occasionally working on a sculpture commission.

DM: What is your vision for the company and the motivation and inspiration behind your product lines?
PP: Our vision is to make Pease Pedestals and its sister company, Pease Plastics, the premier U.S. manufacturers of high-end acrylic furniture, fixtures, and accessories. Pease has developed a solid reputation over the years, focusing on innovative design, quality, and service for the most discerning customers. The company wants that legacy to continue. The challenge is to keep all of those attributes at the highest level while scaling up to meet the demand. Deploying the latest technology—laser cutters, engravers, and computer-numerical-control (CNC) routers—certainly helps, but it is our exceptional craftsmen who ultimately maintain our high quality and make innovation happen.
The pedestals are intended to be functional and beautiful yet not overpowering. Because they were originally developed to showcase Patrick’s acrylic art, many of them incorporated lighting, along with motors and turntables. The original designs have evolved over the years to our current line. We also create custom designs, and popular custom features often migrate to our standard line. We are continuing to develop new designs, inspired by the latest trends in art and architecture.

DM: What materials and components do you use in your products? What innovations and product features differentiate you from competitors?
PP: At Pease, we use a variety of methods in our construction. Many are common knowledge and similar to woodworking techniques, but we do have a few proprietary methods that set us apart from other acrylic fabricators. In particular, we are known for making beautiful, strong, crystal-clear joints in thick acrylic. Industry professionals constantly compliment us on our joinery, and we have even acted as subcontractors for other acrylic manufacturers to provide them with our high-quality joints. We’ve also developed unique ways of using our laser to build jigs for cutting and shaping, allowing us to make items most acrylic fabricators would only tackle with a CNC.

DM: What are your customers like? Do you have any great customer stories?
PP: Our customers vary quite a bit. Most are galleries or furniture retailers who are in turn dealing with their retail customers. We provide them with all of our resources so that they can offer custom, high-end pedestals as if they were the manufacturers themselves. We work very closely with galleries; they are actually our primary sales force. We also supply a variety of designers and decorators, as well as a few of our own retail customers. We cater to a high-end, discerning clientele, but we also provide a full range of pedestals, including simple boxes and display cases.
One of our favorite stories involves a designer who was so pleased with the acrylic furniture and decorative items that we had made for her that she sent us a very generous gift. In most companies it works the other way around! Somehow, we’ve managed to attract the most amazing, appreciative, and loyal clientele. Who could ask for more?

DM: How many people do you employ?
PP: We have 27 employees, and every one of them counts. We believe in taking very good care of our staff; they are our most important asset. Each is an expert at what he or she does, and is valued by everyone within the company. We’re very proud to provide them with good wages, paid vacation and sick time, a health plan, life insurance, and a 401(k) plan with matching funds.
In addition, we support the community where we all live and work. Many of our regular customers are local, so their causes often become our causes. We donate money, goods, and services to local charities. We’re also members of the local chamber of commerce and some neighboring towns’ chambers of commerce. We think this completes a circle of taking care and giving back, and we have been rewarded with loyal employees and loyal customers.

DM: What can you tell us about product development? What’s on the drawing board?
PP: Our customer base includes many leading designers and decorators, so we’re always participating in the latest trends. The development of new products at Pease Pedestals is constant and ongoing. Some designs begin as modifications to existing pedestals, and others are completely new creations. Inspiration comes from a variety of sources—perhaps an amazing work of art or a bold example of architecture.
Inspiration can also come from new technology. For example, although we have no specific plans to introduce any new models in the coming year, it’s quite possible that our ongoing migration from halogen- and fluorescent-light sources to LEDs could result in new designs. Our growing use of lasers and CNC routers also opens up new possibilities beyond what we could do with traditional tools. We’re not only able to manufacture in a better way, we’re also often able to add new aspects to the design.

DM: Do you have anything else to tell our readers?
PP: Even after all these years, it’s great to see the business growing and thriving. We do it through building partnerships internally and externally: with our staff, our customers, our community, our industry, every point of contact.
We’re excited about what we have. What we see in our customers is love for what we do and how we do it. How can you beat that?
For more about Pease Pedestals, visit peasepedestals.com.

The post Pease Pedestals: Displaying Success appeared first on Art Business News.

DECOR: Redwood Media Group has a storied history with iconic art shows, such as Artexpo New York and [SOLO], along with exciting new shows, such as SPECTRUM Miami and Art San Diego. What made you decide to get into the framing expo business?

Eric Smith: Opportunity and history. Art and framing have always gone hand in hand, and it’s a natural fit for our business. I’m also very familiar with the framing market: From 2000 to 2008, I was vice president of Summit Business Media, and I ran DECOR Expo until we sold it in 2008. At that point, it went to another company, and I didn’t really hear much about it. But in its heyday, DECOR was huge! It was a mainstay in the framing industry, and everyone, including me, had really fond memories of the show.

So naturally, when in late 2012 I received a call from a business associate who asked me if I was interested in purchasing the DECOR properties—which included Art Business News, DECOR, DECOR Expo Atlanta and DECOR Expo New York—I couldn’t resist. I really missed the show. And now that my company, Redwood Media, is in a growth phase, I see no better time. The first step was launching DECOR Expo Showcase in New York this spring, alongside Artexpo New York and [SOLO]. That was a big success. We’re looking forward to bringing the showcase back to Pier 94 next spring and then launching the all-new DECOR Expo Atlanta in the fall.

DECOR: Why do you think the original DECOR Expo Atlanta tapered off?

ES: It’s important to realize that, from 2009 to 2012, it was under entirely different ownership. I’m not actually 100 percent sure the owners even produced the show, although they owned the name. I believe that group went on to other businesses in the end. Since Redwood Media Group acquired the show, we’ve been sort of incubating ideas around it for the past year or two. We believe in the slow-but-steady approach, just like we’ve taken with all our other shows: We’ve more than doubled the size of our company in the last two years! So, what framers really need to know is that DECOR Expo Atlanta and New York are under completely new management and will give them an exemplary experience.

DECOR: Tell us about that debut of the showcase in New York. How did it go?

ES: It was great. We have a small venue that we allocated for framing exhibitors, and we had about 30 exhibitors right at the front of the hall, so they got excellent traffic. More than 22,000 people go through Artexpo New York each year, and, of those, about 4,000 are trade buyers. So, we made a really big deal about getting the trade in to see the framing products, and our exhibitors were quite happy with that.

On the last day of the show, I did an exit interview and went around shaking people’s hands. Of the 30 exhibitors, 28 said they’d return. Bear in mind: The New York event’s really more of a showcase, not an expo. The full-blown expo we’ll be doing in Atlanta is a much bigger event. We’ll have product demonstrations, extensive education, a larger floor plan, and more exhibitors. At the showcase, it’s more of an add-on to Artexpo, and we’re really just showcasing new products. That said, it could grow into a full-blown show someday. If we could double the size next year, we think that would be great.

DECOR: You launched DECOR at the showcase this spring in New York. What’s your vision for the publication?

ES: Well, as I mentioned earlier, Redwood Media Group acquired DECOR, DECOR Expo, and Art Business News all together in late 2012. Our first initiative was to get Art Business News back in the market because it fits so well with the four art shows we’re already producing: Artexpo New York, [SOLO], SPECTRUM Miami and Art San Diego. Once we got that back into publication, we added a decor/framing component to it via our DECOR section, which readers seem to be enjoying.

We have excellent resources and writers within the framing industry—our show director and publisher Michael Pacitti, “the Guerrilla Framer” Paul Cascio, Tara Crichton; the list goes on and on. And, of course, we’re always on the lookout for more writers and more intriguing content, and we encourage interested parties to contact us. To date, we’ve been pleased to feature some really exciting profiles on industry players, like Roma Moulding and Urban Ashes. It’s an industry that keeps reinventing itself, and it’s exciting to play a part in documenting that.

Over the last 90 days, we’ve attracted over 300 subscribers to the new DECOR. If that continues, we’ll have 1,400 to 1,500 brand-new subscribers to the magazine in the next year to add to our list of 4,000. This all circles back to the shows: One reason exhibitors exhibit at shows is to meet new customers and peers, so we’re going to invite all of our subscribers to the expos. We want to make it easy for framers throughout the continent to network and connect.

DECOR: What new initiatives do you have for the new DECOR Expo Atlanta?

ES: For starters, we’ve got an all-new venue. We’re not going back to the Georgia World Congress Center, where the show was usually held. We’ve decided to take a three-year growth approach, building year upon year, and hold it at the Marriott in downtown Atlanta. It creates a beehive of buying and networking. Everybody will stay in the hotel, eat in the hotel, drink at the bars and enjoy an excellent, three-day framing expo in the ballroom.

We’re also planning a really compelling front-of-the-shop educational series, which will be free for all attendees. We’re going to have cutting-edge product demonstrations on the show floor. And we are going to revive our extremely popular DECOR Expo Top 100 Art and Framing Retailer Program. We’re going to throw a big party during the show and honor these hardworking framers and also give them exposure in DECOR magazine. There will be other surprises mixed in to make things exciting, interesting and fun for participants. It’s going to be a very exciting event, and we hope framers from across North America will join us.

DECOR: What do you hope exhibitors and attendees will take away from these two new framing expos?

ES: For attendees, seeing new products, sharpening their skills … and, hopefully, they’ll take home a Top 100 Retailer Award. For the exhibitors, they’ll meet lots of attendees they don’t see at the West Coast show. There are a lot of framers in the South and Southeast—and, for that matter, the Northeast—we’ve made contacts with over the past year, and everyone has been telling us they miss DECOR Expo Atlanta.
As art-industry veterans, we try to stay on the forefront of all the latest advancements in the world of artists, galleries and frame shops, and we have a lot to offer framers in that regard. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back to DECOR Expo Atlanta next fall.

Christine Schrum is editor-in-chief of DECOR magazine. She has extensive experience in the fine-art industry, particularly in art-show marketing and production, social media, blogging and magazine writing. She is currently director of content and social media for Redwood Media Group, purveyor of fine-art shows and publications.

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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.

Business owners in the framing industry use a variety of creative methods and expend a considerable amount of time, money and attention to generate sales leads. In addition to traditional advertising media, today’s businesses introduce themselves to prospective customers through websites, email and social networking. And well they should, because creating awareness for your brand lies at the foundation of any good marketing strategy. However, it’s not enough to just reach out to prospects; you need them to reach back. You want them to reciprocate by responding to your overtures. Ideally, you want each prospect, upon introduction to your business, to jump into the car, drive to your business and make a purchase—without procrastination and without detours or delay.

Unfortunately, modern consumers rarely take the shortest path to the point of sale. Getting a prospect into your business often involves an intermediate step: a phone call. Making a telephone inquiry gives prospects an opportunity to ask questions; assess the quality of customer service, competence and professionalism; and ultimately decide whether you’re the one they want to do business with.

In my previous column, “Turn Your Website Into a Sales Engine,” I wrote that the goal of your website should be to get a prospect to call you. A phone call is easier to achieve and gives you a second bite of the apple: a personal interaction that lets you build rapport with your prospect, provide useful information about your business and distinguish your business from the others.

That phone call also halts, at least temporarily, the prospect’s online browsing and keeps them from the clutches of your competitors.

I view every phone inquiry as an opportunity. It’s a chance to have a conversation with a prospect and to start and build a relationship. A telephone inquiry lets you sell the unique benefits your business offers and to sell yourself.

Your website may aim to get a prospect directly into your store, but the odds of it happening are stacked against you, especially if the prospect also visits the website of an always-on-sale-but-not-really-on-sale craft store and sees a coupon for 70 percent off. At that point, it’s “game over” for you because you have nothing with which to trump such a compelling offer, regardless of its veracity. But if your website convinces a prospect to call you to obtain more information, answer questions or learn about your current promotion, the outcome of the game is now within your control.

Take Charge
Now, let’s look at what you can do to take advantage of the great one-on-one opportunity a telephone inquiry offers.

When you receive a phone call from a prospect, you must be ready to effectively handle the call. Your primary goal, of course, is to get customers and their frame-worthy items through the door of your business. However, to make that happen, you’ll need to reach two secondary goals: building a rapport with the prospect and taking control of the conversation.

Building a rapport will come naturally as a result of the conversation, especially if you take time to include some small talk.

However, making a new friend is just half of the battle. You must also take control of the conversation. Taking control lets you—not the prospective customer—determine the direction and length of the conversation. Fortunately, with practice, you can fairly easily take control of a conversation. You need only ask questions; then, you’ll be the one driving the bus.

In any dialogue, the person asking questions is the one in control; the one answering the questions is not. You needn’t be pushy or rude to take and retain control. Instead, develop a habit of ending your portion of the dialogue with a question that encourages your prospects to talk about themselves or the items they want to frame. Controlling the conversation also lets you steer the discussion away from price.
The best questions to ask are those that help you get your new acquaintance into your store or gallery. Preparation makes that goal easier to achieve. Develop a list of standard questions that you can rely on. Here are a few to get you started:

• Where will you be displaying the artwork?
• What is the decor in that room?
• Do you know where we’re located?
• Can you come in now?

These questions are easy to work into almost any conversation, and they help you achieve your objective.
Keep in mind that someone is going to be in control of each conversation; if you’re not in control, the prospect is in control. The one question a prospect always wants to ask is, “How much will this cost?” That question is the one that you can’t and shouldn’t answer over the phone. Simply be strong and get them into your store or gallery, so that you can make a sale.

When you do get a question about price, explain briefly that pricing depends on a lot of variables, including the mounting method, glazing options, degree of required preservation and display options. The existence of all those variables makes it impossible to answer that question over the phone. Promise that you’ll provide an exact quote when the customer comes in.

Avoid mentioning the size of the piece the customer wants framed because he or she probably knows the dimensions of the artwork and will expect that information to be enough for you to quote a price. Also, avoid discussing the frame itself because this question, too, may lead to another pricing question: “What’s the cheapest frame I can buy for this piece?”

After you rattle off all the variables that affect price, follow up with a question of your own to retake control.

Open the Door
Clinch the deal by asking for a commitment: “Can you come in now?”

When a customer says, “Yes,” let him or her know where your shop is. Give directions that might bypass a competitor’s location.

Conclude the call by recommending that the caller ask for you upon arrival. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the only one there; it puts a potential customer on a first-name basis with you and lets that would-be client know that he or she has a friend in the business.

After ending the call, write down the name of the person you spoke to. It’s also good to keep track of your conversion rate—that is, how many prospects show up after a call. These techniques are amazingly effective, and they can make a dramatic difference in increasing your income.

Selling is possibly the most overlooked and underdeveloped skill in our industry. It’s also part of your job, so learn to do it well. Improving your sales skills and those of your staff can pay off in a big way. Because the sales process often starts with a phone call, include these tips in any training program.

When your website does its job well, your phone will ring more frequently. How well you handle each opportunity to speak with a prospect often determines the success or failure of your business. Be a guerrilla. Learn to sell. ◆

Paul Cascio, the Guerilla Framer, is the lead instructor for The American Picture Framing Academy (pictureframingschool.com). He also provides business and sales training and consulting. Contact Cascio at pdc@pictureframingschool.com.

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More than 1,200 manufacturers, 40 percent of whom were from abroad, attended the FamaArt preview last March in BolognaFiere. The preview showcased the excellence of European frame manufacturing and graphic arts, with more than 50 exhibitors representing the top businesses in frame production and frame-moulding machinery.

Also open to visitors, next spring’s exhibition will present the new season’s designs with three days dedicated to European excellence in framing, marking the return of top-quality manufacturing in the frames and graphic-arts sectors.

“It is a happy comeback for our fair district,” says BolognaFiere President Duccio Campagnoli. “Thanks to the newfound partnership with the consortium of European manufacturers, Bologna will once again host and organize an international showcase for … frame-making, in which ‘made in Europe’ still stands for quality—a sector which grew up and once did business the world over from its hub in Bologna. This is further evidence of Bologna’s capacity to create events tailored to business and Italian industrial districts, launching them on an international scale.”

“We are very happy about the agreement with BolognaFiere,” says FAMA Europe President Mauro Fioravanti. “After a three-year gap, we are to return to Bologna, the district we worked in for so many years with great success, to the satisfaction of all businesses in the sector. Now we are ready for new successes starting from BolognaFiere.” ◆

Got a scoop to share with framers across the nation? Send your moulding and framing press releases and stories to info@decorartandframing.com

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