“I don’t know why I like it – I just like it.”
Stephanie Colbert Randall, third-generation owner, and her staff at Colbert Custom Framing & Art Printing, hear this comment often while designing custom framing and custom art printing orders with clients. So many people see something, like it, but can’t quite put their finger on why.
They are experts at choosing the right matting and moulding for anything you want to frame, recommending excellent aesthetic and practical solutions for custom printing orders, and even offering the option of a custom engraved metal plate with their new engraving capabilities. All work is done in-house from start to finish.
Using God-given rules of color and contrast, along with engaging with your personal taste, Colbert designers can recommend the right colors, the right placement, the right style moulding for your art, while keeping the proper handling and treatment of your art in mind.
Examples of Colbert design guidelines:
Every project is a story. The matting and framing are tools to guide viewers through that story. Colbert designers recommend hues, textures, and shapes that give the whole piece the right character and personality to tell the story that needs to be told.
Matting and framing should always be submissive to the artwork. It should draw the most attention to the artwork and not to itself. Choosing the right textures, hues, and tones accomplishes this.
Complimentary colors enhance one another and analogous colors calm one another. Want a pink flower to stand out? Choose matting in the green family. Want to tone down blue in an image? Choose matting in the blue/gray family, which will cause other colors to stand out and the blue will be less noticeable.
The human eye is attracted from dark to light. The matting should not be brighter or more noticeable than the art. Usually a white mat often causes the most distraction, while choosing a hue or tone more muted than the image will make the image stand out rather than the matting and frame.
Custom framing orders placed through November 2023 qualify to save $5 off every $25. The company also offers In-Stock Materials sales on custom framing orders – 50% off in-stock mouldings and 25% off in-stock matting. Materials-only orders qualify for even larger discounts (clients pick up completed components and finish the project themselves at home). The on-site warehouse contains thousands of feet of high-quality moulding and sheets of matting.
The 5,000 sq. ft. facility is located in Market Meadows Plaza on the NW corner of 75th St. and Naper Blvd. Store hours are M-F 10AM-6PM and Sat. 9AM-5PM. Groups are also welcome to use the facility for a meeting venue, by appointment. Call (630) 717-1448 for details.
