16x20 with engraved plates inset

[jiarby]

Hello!

First post here, we just bought a shop that does some custom framing in addition to trophies, awards, signs, & banners (diversification!) and this was one of our 1st framing jobs.

We currently have to cut mats with our laser engraver, but have an old speed-mat in the garage that we are trying to figure out if it is worth cleaning up & installing.

We used Corel X3 to do the mat layout. Should have seen the job when he brought it in! It was newsprint glued to a blue mat with elmers, then plastic dymo labels in a plastic poster frame.

 

[chris R]

Nice work

 

[Baer Charlton]

Just a thought Chris.... speaking of diversification... but scanning that old newsprint..... and a few minutes in Photoshop can rejuvinate the ol' ball game and ring the ca$h register.

and the ink jet will out last that news print by a home run.

 

[jiarby]

That's an interesting topic!

We have a job on the shelf now where the customer brought in an 8x10 photo of her son (& his prom date). The son died so Mom now wants us to take the 8x10 and blow it up to 16x20 and then print it on blank canvas with the plotter then make wrap it all in a wood frame.

Out of respect for their privacy I'll skip posting this one but the girl is gone now and we are stretching the canvas today! The photoshop time was the biggest cost component

 

[Baer Charlton]

Photoshop time, whether it's done during business hours or 1AM due to insomnia... it should always be quoted and billed in the rate structure of a plumber.

Everyone talks about "photoshopping" a pic.... but few have ever laid out the $900 for the program, much less spent the 100s of hours to competently learn what to do expeditiously.

So just like with a lawyer or doctor, you are not paying for their time "today", it's their time spent getting to today.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln "the only stock in trade a lawyer has is his time and knowledge".

 

[Kirstie]

Right Baer. Once and only once, I offered to do the Photoshop resoration on a photo for a customer. Hours later, I finished the job and had the photo printed and framed. I told myself then that my time is worth as much as that of Digital Custom. Now I send everything off to them. I spend enough hours on Photoshop for the web site for my own marketing. I don't need to do it for customers as well. Charging appropriately for our time is a topic we should explore. I am in the midst of a 20 piece corporate poster art and framing proposal that has taken days of my time, both in person and online. I made a great web based proposal, only to realize that I did the work prematurely and needed to run many more designs by them before working on the formal presentation. Anyway, enough of that, I will start a corporate framing thread soon.