Question about foamcore for a 30”x50” Luster print

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Hi all this is my first post so I’m hoping I’m doing this right, and advice would be greatly appreciated.
I have a customer who ordered a 30”x50” Luster photo and wants it mounted on foamcore. I’m ordering from Viviaprints and the foamcore thickness they offer is 3/16”. The customer wants to hang this in their basement in Michigan and we are both concerned about warping. Should I mount the photo and foamcore onto a 1/2” piece of plywood? Or to aluminum? I also read that Velcro-ing the foamcore to the wall prevents warping as well.

Any thoughts?
Thanks so much.
 
What other framing treatment is this getting?
Nothing from me, I’m just beginning to learn about the framing journey, would you recommend that I just order the Luster print or order it mounted on foamcore and recommend that the client confer with a framer? The print is so large that I don’t feel comfortable experimenting with anything really on my own aside from attaching it to plywood/aluminum and spraying it with archival sealer spray.
 
I would have the client order the print, and client can decide what mount they want, if any. I am not sure what your role is in this?

Plywood is not something you'd usually find in a frame shop. I would never spray anything, that is up to the printer, not the framer. If the printer offers mounting services, to aluminum, that might be a good solution. Client decides on that.

Client can also discuss this with a frame shop to see what options they would offer.
 
Welcome to the G.
I'm seeing some red flags with a foamboard mount and a basement, or anywhere for that matter, without a secondary support, and some kind of protection (glass/acrylic) for the finish of the photo.
Mounting the photo to DiBond ACM panel and putting a gloss laminate over it would be the minimal look, if that's what they are going for, and provide the physical support and protection of the surface of the paper.
Unless this is sacrificial art, I would not just mount it on foamboard and stick it on the wall.
 
Yeah, what Ylva and Wally said. If the printer can mount it to aluminum that would be great although the shipping might be surprising, You could have the print shipped unmounted and have someone with a roller press (i.e. a sign company) mount and laminate it.
 
You are creating a porous board with one side that acclimates to changes in the environment more quickly than the other. By mounting the photo on one side you mess with the evenness of contraction and expansion in these kinds of boards.
It is a step up as far as rigidity is concerned, but nowhere near DiBond.
Again, you can do it as long as the art is considered sacrificial.
 
Welcome to the Grumble!

This comes up often. Someone gets a massive print made (or created massive art) and only after the fact tries to figure how to deal with it.
That's putting the cart before the horse.

There's is always the option of sourcing a print shop that can print directly onto an appropriate material.

This avoids the hassle of dealing with trying to dry mount or wet mount a very large photo print onto a substrate. As well as removes the trouble of trying to "figure out" away to make it stay flat.

Someone else has already figured all that out. And they sell products to save you from all these problems. We pay them for their expertise. Just as people pay framers for our expertise.

Look into specialty print shops, sign shops, or wholesale printers in your area. I have a wholesale printer who direct prints on many kinds of materials.

Edit:I just noticed in the OP that the print has already been ordered. So... No help this time. Sorry.

Maybe something to consider the next time someone proposes a very large print.
Have them do some research ahead of time. It will make everything so much easier.

I hope you find a solution. Share your results. It will help the next person with this same issue.
 
"A basement in Michigan" does not give us much to go on concerning the environment where it will hang. It depends on the house's HVAC system and how it is used. Humidity levels can range from being very low in mid-winter to tropical in the summer. There is also the possibilities of sewer backups in some areas from heavy storms.

This appears to be another situation where you (the picture framer) are brought into the equation, after the fact, to share in the blame if anything goes wrong. There are other numerous threads on this forum regarding contacting a picture framer after the fact for advise.
 
I would have the client order the print, and client can decide what mount they want, if any. I am not sure what your role is in this?

Plywood is not something you'd usually find in a frame shop. I would never spray anything, that is up to the printer, not the framer. If the printer offers mounting services, to aluminum, that might be a good solution. Client decides on that.

Client can also discuss this with a frame shop to see what options they would offer.
It's my photograph and they want a custom size, so it's just not on my website - I have to order it and send them an invoice. I did suggest aluminum/metallic, but they weren't interested in that. Thank you so much for your reply!
 
Welcome to the Grumble!

This comes up often. Someone gets a massive print made (or created massive art) and only after the fact tries to figure how to deal with it.
That's putting the cart before the horse.

There's is always the option of sourcing a print shop that can print directly onto an appropriate material.

This avoids the hassle of dealing with trying to dry mount or wet mount a very large photo print onto a substrate. As well as removes the trouble of trying to "figure out" away to make it stay flat.

Someone else has already figured all that out. And they sell products to save you from all these problems. We pay them for their expertise. Just as people pay framers for our expertise.

Look into specialty print shops, sign shops, or wholesale printers in your area. I have a wholesale printer who direct prints on many kinds of materials.

Edit:I just noticed in the OP that the print has already been ordered. So... No help this time. Sorry.

Maybe something to consider the next time someone proposes a very large print.
Have them do some research ahead of time. It will make everything so much easier.

I hope you find a solution. Share your results. It will help the next person with this same issue.

Hi I actually haven't ordered it yet, I'm sending an invoice tonight along with the suggestion to seek guidance from a framer. Thank you very much for your advice. I'm at the point in my career where I'm just starting out, I used to print my own large images on Epson/Canon at a print lab and tried to learn as much as I could about everything, it was like there was this great divide between this print shop and framing, no one there seemed remotely interested in anything with the framing process, only printing... most employees there did not even know how to execute the most basic concepts like mounting. It initially blew my mind. But it was a nonprofit print lab and did not have any capability of printing on anything other than photo papers and some fabrics.

Most of my sales are at art fairs and clients want things to be easy (I'm guessing also they want low overall cost too) and I want to make things easy for them, but I end up making things complicated for myself because I'm trying to figure it out (and I know basically nothing about framing). I also want to make the sale of course and sometimes this seems contingent on whether or not I can make this framing process easy for them. It's stressful. The archival photo print shops with more options than the nonprofit print lab are pretty pricey around me with varying quality (some actually disappointing...). My main locations that I sell are in Chicago and Southwest Michigan. Maybe I should start reaching directly out to frame shops and try to build relationships with them and refer my clients to them?

I guess most importantly I have to respect that there is a great divide (at least for me now) between the photo printing and the framing process and that I have years learning ahead of me.

Thank you so much everyone for your answers and your time, I really appreciate it, I can confidently tell the client that it isn't going to work and that they need to seek a framer out.
 
To me Foamcore is a somewhat temporary thing. It's great when you want large panels for display at
an exhibition, but it's quite flimsy and very vulnerable to damage - especially the corners.
To mount a print like that I'd maybe go for two layers of matboard. The laminated construction will make
it less likely to warp. 2.5mm MDF is also good if you spray the back to make it moisture proof.
 
Foamcore will warp. It would need to be on Gatorboard at a minimum. It really need to be on aluminium or maybe dibond.
Eric
 
Congratulation's on asking for advise for your photo business.
What the customer wants vs what is realistic are not always compatible with respect to the protection of their purchase for the timespan that they anticipate.
 
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