Finding your framing niche: to thrive and grow in the custom framing world, carve out a niche for your business

Art Business News, March, 2002 by Jessica Lyons

While framing technology continually advances, and trends change, and with competition for customers who want everything from shadowboxes to acid-free mats, it's difficult for framers to distinguish themselves from the rest. But carving out your own niche is vital in ensuring a strong business and customer base. If you become known for doing one thing especially well, your customers come to depend on you and will keep coming back for more. This month, Framing Business News catches up with several framers who have done just that.

Almost all of the framers interviewed for this story said that providing excellent customer service is the key to finding one's niche in the framing world. That means knowing one's neighbors: who they are, what they are interested in, what styles and framing techniques they are buying and what they are framing.

The Frame As Art

"From what I've heard, we're fairly unusual," said The Custom Framer Owner Charlie Barnes. "The people who buy our frames like them because they know they are not going to find them anywhere else."

Barnes said his staff's creativity and knowledge of the craft sets The Custom Framer apart from other framers in the greater Chicago area. When he and his wife Mari opened The Custom Framer in 1984, they combined her retail experience and his artistic abilities with the goal of providing top-quality framing. They continue to take that mission seriously almost 20 years later.

The shop is known for its detailed hand-painted mats, a product made possible by his staff's artistic backgrounds, said Barnes. One employee has experience doing lines and washed panels on mats. Another employee's background is in painting. Two others attended the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Everybody who works for me has an art background," Barnes said. "We'll take raw wood and come up with ideas off the tops of our heads. We've taken posters and painted the frame to be a continuation of the poster. One time, we took some botanical prints, and two of my guys framed them using their own personal techniques. One did a wide crackle frame and attached wooden twigs to the border to give it a custom look."

The crew at The Custom Framer believes that the frame is and should be seen as a continuation of the art. They're detail oriented and knowledgeable about the artwork they are framing. Their craftsmanship shows in the details, from hiding the nail holes to twisting the wire and finishing the back of each picture, because they believe the back of the frame should look just as good as the front.

The Custom Framer has found its niche in providing both creative frames and excellent customer service--Barnes offers a lifetime guarantee on all framing. He said that by selling a unique, finely crafted product, he has found a customer base that prefers long-lasting quality to slashed prices and quick fixes.

Finding the Right `Recipe'

"Geography has a lot to do with it," explained Peter Lampros, owner of Frame Craft/Lampros Gallery in The Woodlands, Texas. "In some areas, communities are older, and they have a set pattern to the designs that are popular. We happen to be in a very diverse area, so knowing that our customers' tastes are very diverse is good for us. It's about knowing your customers and finding out what their needs and wants are."

And once a framer has realized his or her strengths, it's important to market them.

Fast Frame President Brian Harper likens finding one's niche to baking a cake. "You have to have the recipe before you start, and that encompasses a multitude of things, from marketing to purchasing to the actual operation of the store," Harper said. "A lot of framers tend to get into the business because they like art or they like working with their hands. Unfortunately, they sometimes forget it's also a business.

One recent addition to Fast Frame's recipe for success is it's new, 30-day guarantee on frame design, he said. "Not only do we have a lifetime guarantee on craftsmanship, but we will redesign free of charge for 30 days as long as it's a similarly priced product."

Shadowbox Specialization

Beveled Edge Owner Phyllis Iseman found her niche in shadowboxes 17 years ago. Today, two walls of her Richmond, Va., custom frame shop are filled with examples, or "idea pieces," that inspire customers and show off Iseman's talents.

"We've framed everything from a painted beer can to Santa pictures to autographed hats and jerseys," she said. "I have my husband's Vietnam ribbons [on display in a shadowbox] as well as my father's World War II memorabilia. I have my three-generation shadow box framed: my mother with baby pictures and baby shoes, me with pictures and shoes and my son's baby pictures and shoes. We approach it as an heirloom piece. We treat it with just as much respect, if not more, than any very limited edition that we've had in our shop."

Her advice to would-be successful shadow box framers is to feel your customers out. Iseman tells the story of a man who came into the Beveled Edge with a piece of his college basketball court that his alma matter was selling to raise money for the school. Iseman asked the former basketball player if he had any other mementos of his college glory days that she could add.