Framebridge: Official Framer Q&A

This year at the Affordable Art Fair, we have an exciting new addition. Meet Framebridge: AAF’s Official Framer. We were lucky to connect with Tessa Wolf who oversees Merchandising and Operations at Framebridge to get the inside scoop on what this company is all about.

Framebridge is a relatively new company. What’s the story behind how your company began?

Framebridge’s founder & CEO Susan Tynan realised there were numerous ways to improve on the traditional custom framing experience. Each year, Susan would frame art collected during her travels and the list of issues would pile up: high prices, the search to find a great vendor you trust and the hassle of having to visit a storefront to both drop off and pickup your art. In early 2014, Susan founded Framebridge with the mission of making custom framing easy, affordable and accessible to anyone with beautiful art and photographs. We realised the ecommerce model would allow us to make the framing process easier on a busy schedule: you can order your frames from your couch late at night and they arrive to your doorstep ready-to-hang. We also offer a set pricing menu that appeals to a whole new segment of the population that might have been too intimidated to consider framing in the past.

What sets Framebridge apart from all the other framing companies?

At an underlying level, our customer focus in what sets Framebridge apart. We approach each decision with the intent of being the most customer-friendly frame shop in the market. That leads to a lot of differentiators:

▪ Clear, affordable pricing that users can view on our website www.framebridge.com before purchase.

▪ Customers can ship us their art. We provide mailers and free shipping both ways. We also allow customers to upload art and photos, which our team will print and frame.

▪ We operate our own production studio so all framing is done in-house. We work with highly experienced framers who bring great precision and care to our products.

▪ We provide design consultations to customers through our ‘Designer’s Choice’ offering. The Framebridge design team will understand the piece of art and offer a selection of appropriate frames for customers to choose.

▪ We have an amazing community of Framebridge customers who love art and design as much as we do.

They are so generous in sharing their framed art on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We even display customer submissions on our website so other customers can get a sense of what our frames look like out in the world.

What is your personal favourite style of frame?

For art, I really love of our Marin natural wood frame. It gives everything a clean, Danish-modern feel, and it’s my favourite “new neutral”—you can almost always use it in lieu of white. For vintage maps, book pages, etc., I keep finding myself drawn to Bali, our thin black bamboo frame. I love the warm red undertones and the layered texture. It’s a great alternative to plain black! Framebridge really focuses on bringing Instagram photos to your home with your online framing system.

Do you have an Instagram account? If so, what are your favourite photos to take or follow (food, landscapes, celebrities, etc.)?

We do—we’re @framebridge! We use Instagram for everything—inspiration, to interact with our customers, to meet and find new partners, to share new products, etc. We love taking photos of our frames in pretty and varied interior settings, and get really excited when we spot them out in the wild (in other people’s spaces). Our favourite accounts to follow are those of inspirational interior designers and bloggers, and companies we think do great work. @mrorlandosoria is hilarious and has a lot of awesome design content, @the_citizenry and @abccarpetandhome have beautiful photography, and we love that @sfgirlbybay seems to find and share the most gorgeous colours wherever she goes!

If you could have your ultimate collection of framed art, what type would you hang on your walls? (Photographs, modern art, black and white, etc.)

This is a tough one, but I think it’s hard to beat the impact of custom-framed, large-scale photography. My ultimate collection would have one statement piece and then several smaller, original modern pieces that I could move around and style differently throughout the year.