Comment by aaronbrethorst | Hacker News Reader

Comment by aaronbrethorst | Hacker News Reader

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    I hope you talk with more picture framers
    and learn as much about picture framing
    as you can before you become this huge
    company crushing artists out of business.

I'm not the OP. Levleframes.com isn't my website.

And I'm not questioning the value of paying $900 for framing in some cases. But, I think it's ridiculous to assume that someone who bought a poster reproduction of some Klimt painting would spend $900 for a custom frame.

    I'm not a camera expert but I bet your
    camera was made in a factory, not designed
    to your exact specifications, just for you.

This is true. And not particularly relevant. A custom camera designed just for me wouldn't be able to take advantage of the rich ecosystem of V series lenses, backs, and accessories that I can use. Incidentally, every film camera is slightly different, which is why tutorials like this exist: http://stephengrote.com/teaching/courses/files/storage/Zone%...

    Your camera wasn't assembled in the US
    either. Nice camera though.

How is this relevant?

    Anyway, I don't know you, maybe we're nothing
    alike but I hope you talk with more picture
    framers and learn as much about picture
    framing as you can before you become this
    huge company crushing artists out of business.

Again: this isn't my website. And a framer charging $900 will either be able to differentiate their services from an $80 frame ordered off the Internet and a $20 frame bought at Ikea, and their business will do fine, or they won't.

Sorry, I assumed you were the OP because you were talking about the market, etc. So I was writing in Levleframes general direction ;-) I agree, he could succeed with the right marketing, especially with a lot of tutorials for the DIY market.

As far as a Klimt poster, it's surprising what people spend to frame posters. Ordering online is nothing new and tons of people order posters online, but people don't frame online because it's time-consuming work that takes practice and a lot can go wrong. You would be surprised how many people have a lot of difficulty using a ruler! Even professional framers. Which leads to returns & recuts for this website. Did the customer drop the frame, did the moulding warp from humidity? How do you know?

If you brought me a poster and you're not telling me you're on a budget, I'd work with you to choose frames for you and the art and depending on your level of involvement, I'd pick colors that we both agree look awesome. Often cost is the last thing discussed. Some stores, maybe you're spending more time to dial back a design to save money. It's like selling anything, what seems like a lot to me is affordable to somebody else. There are ways to save money but that's a long tangent.

Cost mostly depends on the scale, the quality of glass and your taste. Some frames are just expensive because of the labor involved, the country it's from, etc. You can also go crazy with fabric mats, stacking fillets, raising/floating elements and on and on. For prints 20" wide (just reading your website) that's going to be more affordable because you're using smaller sheets of glass and standard mats. But maybe with medium format film, those prints could be huge. Larger scale means larger glass, oversize 60" mats, shipping gets more expensive, everything is more difficult and cost goes up exponentially.

There's no typical scenario, that's why custom framing is so interesting. A microchip manufacturer could spend the same framing chip designs as the cigar bar framing ads for urinals.

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