draftframes

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Canvas Creative

If you already have your heart set on a canvas and you’re just waiting for the moment to come along, a little planning beforehand could help you execute your vision perfectly. Whether it’s a picture of a wedding, christening, graduation, reunion, or another social event, taking the perfect picture for a canvas really only requires 3 things: light, a camera, and action.

Lights

Lighting is a really important part of any photography project, personal or professional. Events photography is industry-infamous for presenting challenging lighting, so a visit to the venue before the event is a great idea. You can assess the lighting in the available areas and see if there are any well-lit areas outside. You might also start to plan a few shots in advance.

This will help you decide if you need to bring lights with you. For a packed event, the less equipment you can get away with, the better and less complicated it will be for you and the guests, but if lights are really necessary, a chance to look at where and how you want to position them shouldn’t be passed up.

Camera

Use of the flash will certainly help in darker areas or in duller outside conditions, and a camera with a high ISO value, which makes it more sensitive to light, is definitely the choice for events photography.

For still shots, a long exposure will help capture more light. If it’s an action shot you’re after, though, a long exposure might not be appropriate, and extra lighting might become a necessity, so think carefully about what it is you’d like to capture.

Action

Action shots make more interesting pictures and are more likely to draw people’s attention to them. Before the big day, make a list of potential areas of interest – places where people will be doing things that will make for interesting pictures. A staged picture serves a purpose, but as a memento, something that captures the genuine joy and humanity of the event cannot be beaten.

On the day, try to stay in areas where you can get pictures without intruding, as sometimes the very knowledge that there is a camera there can cause people to stiffen up.

We also advise taking a large capacity SD card, so that taking more pictures doesn’t become an issue for you.

Putting the effort in with a little forward planning could be the difference between success and failure, especially if the event you want to photograph is a one-off, so take your time and treat yourself and your own project with all the care and respect that you would if it was someone else’s.

Choose from either a landscape, portrait, or square canvas format, and we’ll sort the rest.

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Raising Your Profile

Love it or loathe it, social media is a big part of many people's lives now, and while for most it is used for leisure and pleasure, it can also be a very useful tool for promoting your work to a ready-made audience.

If you are going to invest time in this, though, we are far enough along that there are some tried and tested methods you can use to help boost the level of interaction your posts generate online.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok all offer a free account, with Facebook and Twitter offering the option to promote these posts (for a small fee), but promoting your work means much more than simply posting it. Here are some handy hints to keep your work circulating.

Post Regularly

If people click on your page and the most recent post is months old, they're likely to leave. Regularly updating your posts, even if you have no new pieces to add, is really important just to keep traffic flowing through your page.

2. Interact With Your Fans

Even just liking the comments on your work can help people return to your page, as they feel valued by that interaction.

3. Follow Other Local or Similar Artists

This type of networking can be as great numbers-booster and if you boost the profiles of others, there’s a good chance they will return the favour.

4. Keep It Professional

Having separate accounts for personal and business use will help you keep your business out of the myriad of unending debates of social media and limits the risk of alienating your customer base with personal views.

5. Get on The Trends

If you see any trending #'s that could relate to your work, use them! It’s a way to get your work seen by association with the #.

6. Tagging

Tagging artists, galleries or related people into your posts is another way to get your work seen by a fresh audience, who might come across it because of the tag.

7. Don't Forget to Add Events

Uploading pieces can become a regular chore, so don't forget to add details of any exhibitions or events where your work will be shown.

To a savvy artist, social media is a free advertising resource, with millions of users ready and waiting to interact with you and spread your work around the world. Take advantage and make yourself a fan page: for no cost, it has to be worth a try.

To know more visit our website https://draftframes.com/

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Collage Crazy – DIY Collage Pics

If you come from a snap-happy family, there’s a fair chance you’ll get to a point where displaying all your favourites becomes something of a challenge. If this sounds like familiar territory for your family, a DIY collage made up of all your favourites might be the best way to save yourself from making some difficult displaying decisions.

There are different ways to achieve this effect. These are 2 of our favourites, with instructions.

Fixed Collage

Begin by selecting and printing your favourite pictures. Our own printing offers high quality papers and inks to ensure you get the best from your pictures. Loosely arrange them how you would like and, using sharp scissors for neat edges, trim them down to create the desired effect.

Now you can begin to think about frames. Do you just want one or are you going for a set? What size do you need? Where do you want the collage to live, and can you get frames to match the décor there?

Once you have your frames, you can begin arranging your collage. Remove the backboard from the picture frame(s) and, using small amounts of PVA glue, begin to create your collage upon it.

If you want to really personalise your collage and give it a unique edge, you could also add paper mementos, such as tickets, invitations or flyers, nearby the relevant pictures.

When everything is stuck down, wait 24-hours for the glue to completely dry and then pop the backboard back into the frame and hang it wherever you like.

Changeable Collage Display

This is a quicker, easier version of what is above. Pictures can be used whole or trimmed down. A magnet board works best as it comes with its own magnets, but these have also been done on other magnetic surfaces like refrigerator doors.

Simply use the magnets to affix your pictures. This display can easily be changed and updated as often as you get new photos.

This can also be done with a corkboard but pinning the photos will leave tiny holes in them.

These collages can be as much fun to put together as they are to look at afterwards, and you could even get the family involved in choosing and placing the photos, helping you make more memories along the way.

So get collage crazy, and don’t forget to post your results to our Facebook page.

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Frameless Debate – Choosing The Best Medium For Your Prints

Whether it’s store-bought print or one you had made specially, choosing the right medium to display your new piece can make all the difference to how it is received. Some mediums, such as stretched canvas, don’t give a great deal of choice, so this is something you might want to consider before buying your pictures at all.

Photo Prints

If the piece you have in mind is a print of a photo you have taken this decision can be particularly important and there are a few points that are specific to this area. Choosing the right paper and finish will have a massive effect on the style of your end product. We do provide a high quality printing and framing service ourselves, please check the Print & Frame page for details.

Papers, canvas and materials

As well as the traditional matte, satin and glossy papers, there are now a wealth of others with effects ranging from brighteners to enhance the clarity to papers and inks made to work together for optimal printing quality. Alternatively, for different effects, you might consider a print onto something different entirely, like material or metal.

Inks

As above, strides in technology have made inks in varieties that stretch far beyond colour and texture now. If you want your piece to be the highest quality, printing with the best ink for the medium and most suitable for the piece will keep you a step ahead.

Framed Paper Prints

This is generally what people have in mind when they think of framed prints and even here you have choices. What kind/colour of mat to use, whether or not to have glass and what kind you would like and then the choice of frames. While it all comes down to taste and budget, knowing the difference will definitely help.

Mats

These provide a barrier between the work and the glass as well as acting as a boundary within the frame. Available in a range of thicknesses and colours, have a look at what is available when you have chosen your piece and don’t be afraid to try something different!

Glass

Glass that protects or alters the effects of the print will be more expensive but plain, clear glass will do just fine in most cases.

Frames

Frames come in such a huge variety of materials now that it is impossible to list them all here but plastic, wood, metal and papier-mache remain popular and versatile choices. Finding a frame that really suits your piece and ties it into the room is invaluable.

Canvas

Depending on your piece and your space, a canvas may be the right choice for you, although the nature of these pieces provides little protection and this should perhaps be considered in the placement. A canvas can make a bold statement or help a piece blend I. The modern aesthetic of a canvas might be better suited to more contemporary settings.

Have fun choosing and don’t forget to check our selection of prints and frames.

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Gifting Memories – Uniquely Personalised Gifts

As birthdays, holidays, religious festivals and occasions come around again on their never-ending cycle, keeping up your gift game gets more and more demanding. Staying ahead of the pack with thoughtful surprises is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges facing mankind today.

One way to display your thoughtfulness is to find a personalised gift. A moment, a memory, a friendship or a family occasion can all be immortalised in many more ways that just a photo. Getting creative with your gift giving is almost certain to make the present all that more special and closer to the giftee’s heart.

At Draftframes we have a variety of services aimed at providing personalised presents that preserve memories long after they were conceived. Here are three of our favourites: -

Birth Poster

There is nothing more momentous than the birth of a baby. Bringing new life into the world is perhaps the sole purpose of our existence. The joy and wonder of this magnificent occasion can be signed, stamped and logged forever with one of our incredible birth posters.

You can choose from a range of sketches to find one that best represents the baby. Your poster can then be further personalised by displaying name, weight, date of birth, place of birth and time of birth. All that’s left is to pick the style and colour of frame and we’ll get to work creating your poster.

Map Prints

For those that travel to make memories, little reminders of the sights, sounds and serenity can never come often enough. Draftframes offer map prints of any location on the planet. From a river through the jungle to Broadway, New York. You can customise the map have as much or as little of any given area.

With a dark or light theme, a choice of frames and frame colours. Your map print should encapsulate the magic of your adventure, allowing you to revisit the memories again, and again and again.

Collage

Some occasions are too big to be captured in one picture. Events such as weddings, milestone birthdays or just good old family get togethers need more than one snap.

Our Collage collection allows you to pick the number of photo’s you’d like to display. The format in which you’d like them, and the frame that will surround them. With up to 16 photo’s you can document an entire day, week or year, have every guest counted for and present or simply have 16 different shots of your dog. The freedom to choose is yours.

For our Draftframes full range, Click here!

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Worried About Wood – Eco Friendly Framing

When it comes to looking after the future of our planet, it is everyone’s responsibility. The effects of global warming have been increasing exponentially, and that’s a big worry. From the overuse of plastics to the way we dispose of our waste, the most miniscule of actions can have a big effect on the future.

Although we can never fully reverse the damage we’ve caused, through educating and implementing changes we can change the outcome. The use of recyclable materials has been on the rise with more and more companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

This doesn’t stop shy of the art industry.

Aluminium

At Drawframes we look to use the least harmful products in our frames and canvases. We’d expect that your framed photo’s have a much higher shelf life than a can of cola, of course. But, looking to the future, we’d like to have as minimal an impact as possible.

Our aluminium frames are 100% recyclable. Aluminium has such a great recycling rate that 75% of all the aluminium ever mined, in the history of the metal, is still in use today. The methods used to extract bauxite ore from the ground are that industrious and time consuming, that it’s actually cheaper to recycle than produce new.

Not just a small fraction either. Recycling aluminium sees a reduction rate of 90% in the time, energy and money it takes to produce new metal. That’s what gives an empty drink cans a recyclable value.

Wood

Our parent company, Drawdeck plant a tree for every print they sell. Offsetting our imprint on the planet and remaining as carbon neutral as possible is the goal. Recycling old materials to create your own picture frame is another way you can help to do your bit for the environment.

Using reclaimed wood and just a few tools you can always knock up your own frame to add a little extra bit of satisfaction to your wall. With just clamps, a mitre saw, some wood glue and a stapler, you can make frames to fit from wood you’ve found. To read more about custom framing, check our blog here.

Shelf Life

Magical moments or pieces of art are not usually something easily thrown away. They move home with you, are passed forward if replaced and rarely condemned to the rubbish bin. If you do remove or replace and works from your walls, ask first if they could be repurposed or appreciated by someone else. Reducing waste should be everyone’s goal.

For more on our framing services, click here.

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The Dubai Frame

Dubai loves breaking world records. With over a hundred entries in the Guinness Book Of World Records, including 7 relating to one building alone, it should come as no surprise that the world's largest picture frame can also be found there.

The Dubai Frame was designed by architect Fernando Donis and won the 2009 ThyssenKrupp International Elevator Award, which was looking for a design to be the new face for Dubai. Construction on the project began in 2013 and after 5 years of work, it opened to the public in 2018. 

The location of the frame was carefully chosen so that a view from either side of it showed the best of Dubai. With modern Dubai landmarks through one side and a view of the older landmarks through the other, this technique clearly paid off.

Views aside, though, the Dubai Frame is a whole lot more than just a frame. Standing at 150 metres tall and 100 metres wide, it also houses a museum dedicated to Dubai old & new in the bottom, 2 elevators to take you to the top and once you are there, panoramic views across the land on either side – and below. The top bridge which connects the two elevators has a glass floor, giving an already-spectacular experience an adrenaline filled edge.

In its first year alone, the Dubai Frame saw a million visitors through the doors and it has remained hugely popular with tourists and locals alike.

Though the history of the frame is short, it isn't without drama. Known by some as the world's largest stolen building,  the dispute between Dubai's government and the frames designer has been on going for several years now. 

In 2016, Fernando Donis filed a lawsuit. He claims that the Dubai government, along with ThyssenKrupp International, have stolen his intellectual property and failed to contract or pay him for his work despite the project already being well under way at that point.

The Frame remains popular in spite of this drama, with YouTube full of videos taken from the topmost  viewing platform and pictures available of the Frame from many different angles.

So if you're in the area, The Dubai Frame is well worth a visit. Although they do charge for entry, they offer something unique in return and  they allow free entry to senior citizens.

Fancy creating your own designers Frames? Click here to get drafting and have a go at creating your own unique  frame designs today..