81–88 of 88 posts
...and was immediately let down when the price was pretty much just as expensive as a regular framer. Womp.
These sentences in your copy set me up to expect a framing solution that would let me frame a poster in a nice frame for ~$40: "A handful came from Fab.com, there was a Ray Lamontagne concert poster I picked up after a show, and several others I had purchased on and offline. Not one had cost over $40." I felt let down that the minimum cost for framing 24x36 prints was then $109+. It's a nifty idea, and the custom-fra…
Thanks for the feedback! Price-wise, there is almost no way a wooden frame of that size with a framers-grade acrylic could ever get down to that size. Cost of the wood alone is ~$0.30 per linear inch. For me, I think it's wonderful that you can get a great print or poster for $40. That problem has been solved. But you can tell a cheap frame from a quality one every time.
Maybe YOU "can tell a cheap frame from a quality one every time" but I can't. I've never chosen to develop that expertise. Frames all kind of look the same to me, except that a few styles of wooden ones look needlessly gaudy/ornate/expensive. To me, the purpose of the frame is to FRAME - it's not art, just a square one puts AROUND art to protect and separate it. I care what color that square is and what size it is, but what MATERIAL it's made of...not so much.
I tried your widget and I wouldn't really call that "custom" picture framing. If I was you, I wouldn't call custom picture framing a racket. Your suppliers won't be pleased to hear you belittle their passion. Your two examples demonstrate no understanding of color or form. It's like you folded an Origami crane and you're already calling Michelangelo a hack. Here's a tip, the shape of the frame moulding can enhance th…
From your blog post: The cheap frame from the discount store has unsafe hangers and it’s not sealed and it’s barely held together by cheap staples and the thin, chipped glass inside is a death trap in disguise. I've spend a good deal of time today reading responses from other posters on this thread today. I think I can bucket them into three groups: "This is too expensive" This represents the bulk of the responses: p…
I'm not a camera expert but I bet your camera was made in a factory, not designed to your exact specifications, just for you. Your camera wasn't assembled in the US either. Nice camera though.
What you wrote about wanting an app to do this, it reminds me of my freshman year in art school when I was so excited about programming games, computer graphics, 3D models, the demo scene, etc. It was really difficult to get out of my comfort zone which was all this technology I grew up with. I eventually got into non-objective abstraction and sculpture and oil painting and realized it was really satisfying to learn from these dead artists who had so much to offer me. Anyway, I don't know you, maybe we're nothing alike but I hope you talk with more picture framers and learn as much about picture framing as you can before you become this huge company crushing artists out of business.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From your blog post: The cheap frame from the discount store has unsafe hangers and it’s not sealed and it’s barely held together by cheap staples and the thin, chipped glass inside is a death trap in disguise. I've spend a good deal of time today reading responses from other posters on this thread today. I think I can bucket them into three groups: "This is too expensive" This represents the bulk of the responses: p…
I don't know what your market will be, do you? Is $900 for a picture frame expensive? Depends what we're framing, how big is it and how long will it take to build? Are we framing a Celtics jersey with a cigar and some tickets? I always billed six hours of labor for shadowboxes. Not many framers do big shadowboxes. Then you're talking about cutting a custom jersey insert out of foam, pinning the sleeves just right (tw…
I hope you talk with more picture framers
and learn as much about picture framing
as you can before you become this huge
company crushing artists out of business.
And I'm not questioning the value of paying $900 for framing in some cases. But, I think it's ridiculous to assume that someone who bought a poster reproduction of some Klimt painting would spend $900 for a custom frame.
I'm not a camera expert but I bet your
camera was made in a factory, not designed
to your exact specifications, just for you.
Your camera wasn't assembled in the US
either. Nice camera though.
Anyway, I don't know you, maybe we're nothing
alike but I hope you talk with more picture
framers and learn as much about picture
framing as you can before you become this
huge company crushing artists out of business.
Extra credit - Take some photos of your frames in natural room settings. Inside the frame, place a color calibration sheet. Find the transformation of the color calibration sheet (EG - how the room affects color, glare, and shadows), and then apply it to the user-uploaded images. Perhaps this could sell the difference between normal and anti glare.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know what your market will be, do you? Is $900 for a picture frame expensive? Depends what we're framing, how big is it and how long will it take to build? Are we framing a Celtics jersey with a cigar and some tickets? I always billed six hours of labor for shadowboxes. Not many framers do big shadowboxes. Then you're talking about cutting a custom jersey insert out of foam, pinning the sleeves just right (tw…
I hope you talk with more picture framers and learn as much about picture framing as you can before you become this huge company crushing artists out of business. I'm not the OP. Levleframes.com isn't my website. And I'm not questioning the value of paying $900 for framing in some cases . But, I think it's ridiculous to assume that someone who bought a poster reproduction of some Klimt painting would spend $900 for a…
As far as a Klimt poster, it's surprising what people spend to frame posters. Ordering online is nothing new and tons of people order posters online, but people don't frame online because it's time-consuming work that takes practice and a lot can go wrong. You would be surprised how many people have a lot of difficulty using a ruler! Even professional framers. Which leads to returns & recuts for this website. Did the customer drop the frame, did the moulding warp from humidity? How do you know?
If you brought me a poster and you're not telling me you're on a budget, I'd work with you to choose frames for you and the art and depending on your level of involvement, I'd pick colors that we both agree look awesome. Often cost is the last thing discussed. Some stores, maybe you're spending more time to dial back a design to save money. It's like selling anything, what seems like a lot to me is affordable to somebody else. There are ways to save money but that's a long tangent.
Cost mostly depends on the scale, the quality of glass and your taste. Some frames are just expensive because of the labor involved, the country it's from, etc. You can also go crazy with fabric mats, stacking fillets, raising/floating elements and on and on. For prints 20" wide (just reading your website) that's going to be more affordable because you're using smaller sheets of glass and standard mats. But maybe with medium format film, those prints could be huge. Larger scale means larger glass, oversize 60" mats, shipping gets more expensive, everything is more difficult and cost goes up exponentially.
There's no typical scenario, that's why custom framing is so interesting. A microchip manufacturer could spend the same framing chip designs as the cigar bar framing ads for urinals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know what your market will be, do you? Is $900 for a picture frame expensive? Depends what we're framing, how big is it and how long will it take to build? Are we framing a Celtics jersey with a cigar and some tickets? I always billed six hours of labor for shadowboxes. Not many framers do big shadowboxes. Then you're talking about cutting a custom jersey insert out of foam, pinning the sleeves just right (tw…
I hope you talk with more picture framers and learn as much about picture framing as you can before you become this huge company crushing artists out of business. I'm not the OP. Levleframes.com isn't my website. And I'm not questioning the value of paying $900 for framing in some cases . But, I think it's ridiculous to assume that someone who bought a poster reproduction of some Klimt painting would spend $900 for a…
Related sidebar: last week I was on holiday and took some nice landscape photographs. They were nice enough that I had a few people on my social networks ask if I could frame them. Being a computer nerd and not a professional photographer, I was at a bit of a loss. I ended up googling for professional print services online and ordering some sample prints. Here's the thing: contrary to this article, they offered backi…
Well, here's the thing: "backing" is considered antithetical to proper framing, for the most part. That may be less of a concern with digital prints (no matter the medium), since those prints can easily be recreated as necessary, but full-surface mounting to a rigid substrate is not a reversible process; once it's done, it's done. And while that may be good enough for most people most of the time (for decorative appl…