The Framers Forum

prospero wrote:There is the Golden Section. This is a certain proportion between things that is approx 16:9. It is pleasing to the eye. Don't ask why.
No accident that modern TV screens are close to this ratio.

another name for this is the Fibonacci spiral. its a natural math equation

When you think about it, why are most frames square? You don't have square eyes.

I wish I wasn't a member of the no quotes club (but I won't go there)

Steve I agree with you we frame things at the end of the day how a customer wants it and if they only want 20mm borders then if you can't persuade them then thats what they get.

However if I was critiquing a piece of framed artwork I would want to see well proportioned mounts top and sides equal, the mount and frame not being equal widths. I would want to see that it was in balance and didn't jar when you looked at it.

A man goes for a haircut.

He says to the Barber, "I want a Tony Curtis cut".

"Righty-o ", says the barber and starts snapping away......

When he has finished the man looks in the mirror and sees his crew-cut and exclaims, "Arrgh! What have you done! Tony Curtis doesn't have his hair like that!".

"He does if he comes in here", replies the barber.




(yes I know it's an old joke)

Don't make the art jealous.

And don't scare the #### out of it either.

I teach new staff certain rules that have been mentioned here and they do work very well, customers keep coming back knowing a good result will happen with their art work.

Knowing when to break the rules and still have a great looking end result takes experience.

Don't make the artwork jealous as greys said is a principal rule for us.

Also take into account the decor, a sharp dark mount is gonna be a proverbial sore thumb in a room full of subtle shades.

to customers bringing in a piece of wallpaper/curtain material because they want the framing colours to match - Frame to the picture - not the room. A well framed picture will go anywhere.

Mountboard slips - The mount should be cut showing no bevel,either cut face up or straight. Not just a normal mount.......you know who you are

When they start dragging in bits of wallpaper that puts up the red flags for me. I've had bathroom tiles, kitchen cabinet doors......
That approach is far too literal and simplistic IMHO. You have to take the whole room into consideration, not the details.
I always thought a frame should provide a pleasing transition between the image and it's surroundings. But people get the idea that "we have oak furniture ergo all the frames in the room should be oak", it's not a good design principle. A frame should harmonise with the surroundings, not try to blend in.

Then we get on to colour. The times people have said they want a red or whatever element in a mount to 'pick up' a similar colour in the image. What they mean by 'pick up' I have never been able to fathom out. If they want a particular colour the stand out more in an image, they want a complementary colour. Not the same one, which will have the opposite effect to what they seek to achieve.

How about some photos we can take the p.... constructively criticise

Another tip when cropping portrait photos, this was taught to me by an old-school press picture editor - aim to have the nearest eye on the centre line.
Obviously not carved in stone, and doesn't always work, but it's a maxim I use regularly - and holding the alt key when cropping in photoshop makes the crop box expand from a central point rather than a corner so it makes life very simple.

In our local (french) restaurant, there are loads of pictures all framed in France. Every mount is "wrong", ie the top and left (or right) are the same size and the bottom and right (or left) are different. If say the to and left were 2" then the right would be say 3" and the bottom a little bit more. So perhaps design standards are different in France.

As I work with mounts all day, just looking at them puts me off my food. They look shit.

Can't say that I've noticed that as the norm here, perhaps it's just a renegade framer who's had a few too many lunchtime drinkies

misterdiy wrote:As I work with mounts all day, just looking at them puts me off my food. They look shit.

thanks misterdiy, just spilt me tea

You can bet your bottom dollar that it is an inferior designer who has come up with that idea either that or the framer having a laugh. Most of the time the interior designer hasn't got a clue and quite often with restaurant chains won't even have been to site to see the finished restaurant.

Someone must like it though, I had a couple a while back who wanted a signature board done for their wedding - they wanted their photo up in the top right corner, top & right border was 2" - left & bottom was the remainder of the mount 20x24. Oh, the photo was only something like a 5x7 or the like. Looked alright when it was full of signatures etc.

I will advise people but if they really want something done like that I'll do it - never been known to refuse money

I think signature mounts are a bit different because the mount will be "decorated" (or more likely filled with abuse ) and so will look in perspective. Having said that all of the signature mounts we have done tend to be around 12" x 8" in a 24" x 20" frame. Its amusing to see the comments when they bring it back to be finished off though

lol