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thisframesforyou

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The mechanics of framing I am grasping and practicing, my big struggle is with mat color selection. Any suggestions on how to learn/improve this?

Thanks for any advice,

Keith
 
This is mainly and instinctive logic. I prefer to make the art the center of attention not the frame or matting. To do this, I choose either the dominant color of the art or the color of the paper.

Often what I see is someone likes a red color that is about 5% of the imagery and they think they can ring this out buy throwing a red mat on it. This is counter productive because then they are looking at the red mat. Keeping the area around the image secondary in contrast to the images keeps the contrast and attention in the art. The red stands out more because there is no other color competing with it.
 
Welcome to the Grumble, Keith!

There's so much to learn.. this is a great place to start! The "Search" button is invaluable!!

It's a challenge to pick the right color. Eventually you'll know what sells in your market and will start there, as long as it is appropriate. My mentor told me that the mat color must be found in the picture or print. I also use an old art class trick: when putting samples of mat next to the print, squint your eyes and you can see what is dominant... if its the mat, that's not good... you want the print to "pop" and be dominant.

Please fill our your profile.. you'll get more responses when we know more about you, where you are, how you are working etc.

Best of luck!
Bonnie
 
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I've always believed that you should never use the most predominant color in the picture as the primary mat color. For instance, if there is a lot of blue in the sky and elsewhere, by using Blue for your primary mat the picture just disappears. In this case you would look for a contrasting color that is in the picture. When you have chosen the right colors and frame, your eyes should be drawn to the artwork first, and the Mat and Frame should look as if they are part of the art and not taking away from it.
 
That is a loaded question. There have been many books written on color selection. But one thing I have learned..... the customer is usually right. Sometimes no matter how hard you try to convince your customer that the mauve mat will not not look good on the art, it's her favorite color and will look fabulous in her mauve and turquoise living room. :icon11:

Seriously, though, IMO the back ground or more subtle colors often work best. Imagine a photo of a single long stemmed rose in a charcoal vase photographed with a black background. A red mat would detract from the subject of the photo. A charcoal or black mat would work much better. I learned this in the first few days of my framing career and have applied it successfully to many framing jobs.
 
Nona Powers recently published a book on the subject that was specific to framers. You can find it in the PPFA Bookstore or PFM Bookstore. It is fairly inexpensive and a handy reference.
 
When all else fails, pick a color that matches your clients coat! No Joke it works.
 
Think of it like this. Your job is to frame the picture, not add to it, nor compete with the artists creation. You want the focus to be on the picture. A cartoonist puts a black line around his/her/it's cartoon, so you will look to see what is within that black line. The black line is, in effect, the picture frame.

If you have a blue picture, then put a blue mat on it, then add a blue picture frame that will be displayed on a blue wall, have you framed the picture?

Avoid selecting colors that "blend" with the picture, you want the picture to "pop", to stand out.

If you were told to make a million dollar frame for a rich customer, and you did it, far beyond your wildest imagination, it came out great. Everyone raved about your picture frame, it makes the evening news, it's all over the Internet, your frame becomes famous, all is wonderful for you and your picture framing business, except for one little thing.

What is that, you may inquire? Here it is: They are supposed to be raving about the picture, not the picture frame!

John
 
The best way, possibly the only way to learn this is to practise, practise, practise.

Where possible I always try to sell a double matt because you can use a thin sliver of a really strong colour around the inside to draw the eye inward to the art. Generally, you then need something more subdued for the top matt. Also, if you want to frame something like an etching with some of the border shown to reveal the signatures and edition numbers you will find that none of your whites will match the paper but put a sliver of colour around first and anything close will work.

Light is another matter. I have two 3' triphosporous flouros hung 1.5 metres above my design table. These are the same "daylight" tubes used in soft furnishing shops and they show colours, contrasts and clashes up with brutal clarity. They also help to pick up any flaws in the artwork so you can point them out and not get blamed for them later.

Generally speaking, repeating the subordinate rather than the dominant colours of the artwork in the matts works best but opposites can also be effective. For instance, yellow or orange "fires up" purple and mauve. Look at a colour wheel and you will find several other good combinations.

A couple of little rhymes may help:

Blue on Blue? No can do. (Go on, try it!:D)

White on White? Try all night (ditto) One will always make the other look dirty, yellow etc.

:soapbox:
Finally, do not be intimidated by your customers. Sure, they may say "I just want something plain" and they may even be satisfied with a strip of limed pine and a 2" off-white matt but you won't build a good reputation or a successful business that way. Your job is to wake them up to the possibilities and show then something with a bit of WoW!! You want them to go home, hang it on the wall and brag about it to their friends and send them your way.

Properly done, framing is as much an art as painting is.
 
..one good way to see what's going on locally is to visit aas many shops as you can and just see what the mats are on various art......my wife does the design work ( she has an eye for art ) and starts with the THIRD most dominate color in the art and goes from there.
 
There are a mess of standards out there that tells you what to do - there are also a mess of classes that will try to teach you another way to choose colors but it all boils down to what the customer wants. I am here to guide the customer only, the decision is up to them and I have framed some gawd awful color combinations in my opinion but the customer loved them. For my own collection I try to picks colors from the art, generally very minor colors that I want the mat to help highlight.
 
JRB said:
What is that, you may inquire? Here it is: They are supposed to be raving about the picture, not the picture frame!

John
Click to expand...

This reminds me of Maaco commercials, "you don't always recognize a job we did, but you can always tell a job we didn't do..." Framing is a sort of behind the scenes art-form. Although a three inch baroque frame can do very well on certain types of work.
 
Mat color selection...

Keith,

Welcome to the Grumble. Although you will wade through a variety of opinion on this topic, you will not some common threads... There is such a thing as "Good Desgin" and the advise below is an excellent place to start...

wvframer said:
Nona Powers recently published a book on the subject that was specific to framers. You can find it in the PPFA Bookstore or PFM Bookstore. It is fairly inexpensive and a handy reference.
Click to expand...

I've not looked at her agenda, but I also see that Nona is teaching at the PMA - PPFA Convention in Anaheim in a week! If you could swing a class with Nona, you'll never look back.

John
 
We LOOKED at many pictures on walls until we got into framing! Now we STUDY pictures on walls!! There is a big difference :)

We look at both the design and fitting process (the best we can since the project is completed and hung!).

Besides attending classes (as has been recommended), we look at the framing design in TV shows (West Wing was good for traditional art), movies (I designed a huge mirror from an idea I got in a movie), in hotels, corporate offices, people's homes, etc., etc. - and the most helpful:

magazines! Pick up a vast selection of magazine types and go through them - it's amazing how many "pictures of pictures" you will see. Decide what you might like to promote, study trends, notice the hanging patterns!

There is a lot to learn just by looking around.
 
artfolio said:
The best way, possibly the only way to learn this is to practise, practise, practise.

Where possible I always try to sell a double mat.

A couple of little rhymes may help:

Blue on Blue? No can do.
White on White? Try all night: One will always make the other look dirty, yellow etc.
Click to expand...

I think this sums it up for me!

You cannot match a white to the paper. You can come close. I always use a double mat in that case.

Yes, you should listen to your customer, but don't be afraid to show them some different options as well. The final choice is theirs, but most customers like to be surprised with different options, ones they never thought about.

It happens all the time. Customer comes in and wants something simple. You let them pick what they had in mind. They are disappointed. That's when you come in and show them different designs.

Also, some customers simply think that the white mat is how it is meant to be.
I am re-doing several watercolor portraits, all had a starch white mat, so first thing you see is the white mat; not the beautiful portraits.

I showed this customer different options, and she was thrilled. The previous framer who did the work for her has lost a customer. I gained one.
(We are going with velvets, structured, double mats (and museum glass)).
 
I've always believed that you should never use the most predominant color


dont I dis-remember a old 'law' that stated to emphasizs the 3rd most prominant color??? it really boils down to a 'touchy-feely' kind of thing based on art content, texture, room/wall/frame color. it's a 'learned' process and as stated above "the customer is ALWAYS right"-----right up until it goes home and absolutely SCREAMS to be redone because the colors wont work in that room( or the matting just isnt 'right, etc),
 
Some very good suggestions, thank you. Realizing that there may be a couple correct answers to the question encourages me to find the one that works for the customer.

I do look at pictures much closer than I ever have in the past and I just may start squinting a bit more as one poster suggested.

Thank you.

Keith
 
Welcome to the Grumble, Keith. :)

Here's another helpful hint. When designing art that's been
printed on thin paper, it's a good idea to have the backing
color behind it from the get go. If it's thin enough that
the backing (usually some kind of white foam board or
rag mat) will change the color, then put that behind from
the very start. Otherwise, you can spent twenty minutes
choosing the right white, only to find that the piece is
brighter than the mat once it's on the final backing.
 
Color selection

On the issue of color selection, I would say: when all else fails, try white. The only problem you'll have is to decide what color white. Seriously!
 
Another tip is to work upside down. Not literally, but turn the piece so it faces the customer. When you work this way you are able to disconnect from the subject and see color and tonal vales. One practice technique I have used over the years with new staff is to grab an old National Geographic, or any magazine and just start designing page by page through it. (including the ads, remember a customer will bring you a piece sometime that makes you want to :vomit: and you still have to come up with a design )
 
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