Since adding custom frames to our product offerings, I thought it may be helpful to give a few tips on what I discovered when trying to choose the right styles to add across the whole assortment of our products on our website. These tips may be more useful for artists and creators alike. Sometimes we can tend to sit on things too long and design decisions affect us getting ourselves out there. But hopefully, others can find it useful too.
Choosing the right frame for a piece of art or a photo can be a pain… but it doesn’t have to be. In narrowing down how to add the right frame to our products I realized there were way too many things to consider when trying to create options for our customers to choose from. What color to offer with which piece? What size should it be? What style? What trends are in? and on and on it went.
You have to decide on two things. What do you want the focal point to be? The frame or the art? For me, I want the frames to be an accent to the work. I paint in such a way as to draw the viewer’s eye to the things I want them to see first. So for me, the frame is a way to compliment the piece, rather than complete it.
The other thing you have to convince yourself of is that it’s your art and you should do what you like… others will follow suit. What I mean by this is you are not going to please everyone with what you have to offer. Let people buy into your vision and what you think works best for what you’ve created.
Being a Marine Life Artist I utilize a lot of blues and whites in my works. They are the natural colors of the ocean and environments I am in.
Because I paint mostly on old pieces of wood and other various rustic surfaces I have found that weathered lobster trap planks work amazing as frames for my originals and reproductions. They compliment the wood look and my customers familiar with my technique enjoy the rustic nature of the frames. You can see some examples here.
I have also narrowed down the styles of frames I offer for my canvas prints to black, white and natural wood float frames. I found these colors match my personal style and serve as an accent to my preferred colors. You can see some examples here.
So there you have it. My experience in selecting what frames I wanted to offer to customers looking to add to their collection of wall art. It really came down to what I thought looked best, not what was trending. In doing so, I was able to make the decision fast and get these products up on my site and start selling!
