First, it took me a while to get to this point. I want to acknowledge that it took a lot of research, time, and money to offer the services that I do to my clients. I ordered plenty of samples from labs and framers across the country. I even went the cheaper route in the beginning because I couldn’t imagine charging what I needed to.
Then, I realized that in order to offer the incredible service and products, I had to actually spend the money on the incredible services (programs that I use) and products. I was limiting myself on what I knew was really out there.
I knew that I wanted to offer these gorgeous albums, matted prints, and custom framed art to my clients. Once I got over this limiting belief in my head that no one would invest in such products, I got to work.
What I realized is that YES, clients will pay for custom art because it’s important.
We have a saying in our house, “Buy it nice or buy it twice.” We live by this when making decisions about furniture, dishware, decor, etc. This is also my motto for the products that I provide my clients.
We go with the museum quality matting so that your mats and prints don’t turn yellow 15 years from now. We use UV blocking acrylic on your frames so that you have minimal glare. Water and tear resistant backing on those frames? Yep! Do you want a modern, oversized mat in a gorgeous, handmade frame? We can do that. How about deckled, hand-torn edges on your matted prints? That’s definitely been done. Do you have a strange sized wall and need a custom sized frame? I’ve got you.
I photographed a wedding in Telluride last year and became very close with the mother of the bride. This wedding took place in June of last year and since then I have designed her a wedding album for bride and groom, a separately designed album for herself, holiday cards to send friends and family, and prints. Then, in February, she reached out to me with the idea of doing a collage. Admittedly, I hadn’t executed one of these because of my limiting beliefs. When I pictured a collage, I pictured a bunch of prints just thrown on a background. But, I knew with her request, and my framer, that we could create something truly special.
So, I got to work.
This is a special case because she lives in Chicago. I couldn’t just go to her home and take the photos or measurements myself. I asked her to send me a photo and the measurements of the wall she wanted this custom piece placed on. I also reached out to my framer to start talking about the specs of a custom piece. The client sent me some photographs she was thinking about using and asked if I could narrow it down and put something together. I created her a few different options (not too many because I never want to overwhelm or put the homework on my clients) and we decided to go with a 7 image collage.
Let me show you how the process went.
Here is the photograph of the wall (with measurements) she sent to me:
This was what I put together for her, using my design program:
Then, we decided on the 3” mat on the boarder, as opposed to the 2” option. It’s a subtle difference, but we definitely made the right call (first image is the 2” and the second is the 3” mat):
Next, we went with a frame that was going to match the classic aesthetic in her home and mirror some older frames she already had.
Her email after I sent her the final proof, “I LOVE how this looks and happy we took the time to make it just right. It’s going to be SO fun to look at every day. The 3 inch border mat works on the wall with finished framed piece measuring 31.5 tall by 23 wide so I say let’s go with this. Happy to get a check in the mail tomorrow.”
This is why I love offering full-service to my clients. I would never want someone to have to figure this out on their own. It’s stressful for most people and hard to even know where to start. It’s my pleasure to be able to take one more thing off of her plate.
Here’s the finished piece:
Yes, that’s one mat. My framer custom cut it to fit the sized prints we needed. It’s a work of art!
After my client unboxed her frame she immediately texted me, “Oh my gosh, we just opened the photo collage…what a piece of art! Truly beautiful! We are thrilled.”
I will never get tired of this career.