Display area - what to include?

[WannabeFramer]

I have a little 'showroom', with most of my chevrons on a spinner and some carpeted wall area to fill. I have temporarily hung some random pictures and the Tru Vuew glass demo frames, but I really want to make and display some different kinds of framing . Just to showcase what is possible and help customers visualise a little easier.

So far I am thinking of including:

Sports shirt
Stretched canvas/float frame
Embroidery
Large-ish poster (dry mounted, maybe laminated)
Box frame/objects
Multi-aperture mount - postcards or similar
A couple of 'fancy mounts' - v-groove etc.

Does that sound a good mix? Anything I should include or leave out? Is a price guide for each a good or bad idea?

[NTG999]

That all sounds good, though IMO I would leave out sports shirts, I find that it is the one job where no-one wants to pay for the time it takes. I regularly receive phone calls 'how much to frame a football shirt?' and they never come in.
I personally wouldn't do price guides; every job is different

[Justintime]

What is your USP? Rather than show everything you can do, I'd focus on your USP and work on attracting your preferred customer base and building on it.

[Gesso&Bole]

Show what you want to sell. And show your level of skill. Never put 'run of the mill' stuff on the wall if you want to sell good stuff.

I personally have never put sports shirts on display because it's not what I want to encourage!

Everything on my display wall would be framed to the highest standard, showing closed corners, hand-finishing, and always at least a double mount, but some with mount fillets, title cut-outs and multi aperture etc. Also stacked frames, and deep bevel mounts. Oh, and shadow box object frames.

Because these are the sort of things I like to do.

Customers wont always want the fancy stuff, but if you don't show it you definitely wont sell it very often.

[vintage frames]

Your display area is your retail space.
All good retail is theatre.
You curate the style of the interior and use various theatrical props in order to give the impression that you know and believe in what you're doing.
Sometimes even a bunch of fresh flowers can say more than a wall full of chevrons.

If your customer believes you have some good aesthetic taste then they'll feel very confident about using you as a framer.
Mybe don't lean into the 'every man' framer too much. It might frighten off the customers who have the more serious artworks.
And that can be where the money is.

[WannabeFramer]

Thank you.

Vintage - I have a fake pot plant called Cyril- does that count?

It’s interesting about the sports shirts. I get regular enquiries via email but they rarely come back when I ask them to pop in and see me. I thought an example might be a way to continue the conversation - but they are not my favourite thing to do admittedly.

I’ve found that people sometimes can’t visualise the finished thing so I want to be able to point to something and say ‘like that’.

Justin - I haven’t worked out the USP yet. A lot is standard stuff as I am the only framer in the local area and still getting my name out (and learning!). I do want to show better options, and I like framing objects and unusual displays, so I was thinking of the display as an inspiration- almost a ‘look what you could have framed’ area.

I have had a few enquiries about wedding mementoes, but after the ‘could you do this?’ ‘yes sure, come and see me’, they fall flat. That’s the kind of thing I was thinking so I can say ‘yes, look at this’.

(Being a casual Registrar, I go to a lot of wedding venues. Some have lists of suppliers so I wondered about leaving my details as long as I avoid Conflict if Interest rules’.

I’ve started to become more confident guiding people and that seems to be appreciated.

I did see a good tip to frame the same image 3 or 4 different ways, from plain to amazing, and use that as a starting point for discussions. I lack imagination as to what a good image would be though. Does anyone do something similar?

[JKX]

We always had lots of framed and mounted/unfarmed work for sale and I never bought anything in framed, ever. I could always say to a customer "It's going to look something like .... THAT"

If I remember right though, you have a clause preventing you selling goods, unless made to order, so props is the way to go.

I did have a few props as well though, I bought an England Rugby short from JB sports, printed off a photo of Jonny Wilkinson from the internet, plus a ticket, signed those and the shirt "A. Rugbyplayer", framed it all, no expense spared. It won a LOT of shirt orders, plus many wanted to buy it, thinking it was signed by Jonny Wilkinson. One guy, when told it was a prop told me he wasn't a prop, he was a fly half. There was a printed explanation of how we mounted shirts and it all ended with "this framed shirt is not for sale" but people don't read things, incluiding opening hours!

I had a a set of trinket boxes on shelves within a slipover frame, and a spikey sea shell, which I used to challenge cuastomers to see how it was fastened in; no-one ever found the melinex straps. I also had my own medals, with cap badge, tunic buttons and "flash and hackle" Rebate lined in regimental colours. That also won lots of orders and made the order taking process much quicker.

Under the counter I had a laced and mounted piece of needlework, so the back could be shown and the extra materials to make flush at the back. I also had a platform mounted photo, a mounted encapsukated postcard showing both sides and other mounted things, to show the methods. It saved long boring technical explanations and impressed people who thought it must all be done with sellotape, and even more, those that understood and wanted, conservation.

If I were you I'd have things that look great (duh) but also show things you may get push backs on, like a sports shirt, like anything that could be classed as an upgrade, deep wrappd bevels, slips, mount decoration, 8 ply mounts, bottom weighting, coloured/gilded bevels, etc etc.

The biggest push back I had was always decent width mounts, many people don't even expect a mount - they came for a frame - and when shown a sample will say "Oh maybe just a narrow one then" - IMO (and generally) anything under 3" looks nasty, all my mount samples were 4" bar about 70 washline samples which were 5 - and there's something worth learning too! "Nobody" does them any more (and before anyone says "but I never get asked for them" - well, nobody ever asked me for museum glass either, but I still sold plenty!) . So have good wide mount widths, a good idea is to ftrame a square image, then you can make a set of small, square black frames (everyone wants "just a small black frame") - one an inch bigger than the image, one an inch and a half, one two inches - put them around the image in turn - see if customer still wants that.

Several of these things can be put in the same frame, have the insides easily accessible to show any unusual mounting methods or lacing etc.

[WannabeFramer]

Morning, sorry for the delayed reply.

You are right JKX, I am unable to have retail sales so everything will be for display and inspiration only.

I have been collecting random things to frame - medals, jewellery, Wales rugby shirt etc. Yes, that is the kind of thing I was thinking, to show what they could have and also to show the level of work involved to justify the price. When I get time!

I do like the idea of showing lacing and other 'inner workings', as you're right, many people think it is just sticky tape or glue. I have started to write up simple care guides to hand out - this week for a pastel with a gutter mount - what it is and why it needs gentle handling. A prop at the start would make it easier to explain how I will be treating their item. Platform mounts, double sided etc. All now on my radar, thanks!

I really want to push how things should be done, and that I will take the time and care on it. I suppose that is edging towards a USP? That I endeavour to do things properly and build them to last? My own abilities notwithstanding of course.

And the different square frame demo idea is really good!