DECOR: Redwood Media Group has a storied history with iconic art shows, such as Artexpo New York and [SOLO], along with exciting new shows, such as SPECTRUM Miami and Art San Diego. What made you decide to get into the framing expo business?

Eric Smith: Opportunity and history. Art and framing have always gone hand in hand, and it’s a natural fit for our business. I’m also very familiar with the framing market: From 2000 to 2008, I was vice president of Summit Business Media, and I ran DECOR Expo until we sold it in 2008. At that point, it went to another company, and I didn’t really hear much about it. But in its heyday, DECOR was huge! It was a mainstay in the framing industry, and everyone, including me, had really fond memories of the show.

So naturally, when in late 2012 I received a call from a business associate who asked me if I was interested in purchasing the DECOR properties—which included Art Business News, DECOR, DECOR Expo Atlanta and DECOR Expo New York—I couldn’t resist. I really missed the show. And now that my company, Redwood Media, is in a growth phase, I see no better time. The first step was launching DECOR Expo Showcase in New York this spring, alongside Artexpo New York and [SOLO]. That was a big success. We’re looking forward to bringing the showcase back to Pier 94 next spring and then launching the all-new DECOR Expo Atlanta in the fall.

DECOR: Why do you think the original DECOR Expo Atlanta tapered off?

ES: It’s important to realize that, from 2009 to 2012, it was under entirely different ownership. I’m not actually 100 percent sure the owners even produced the show, although they owned the name. I believe that group went on to other businesses in the end. Since Redwood Media Group acquired the show, we’ve been sort of incubating ideas around it for the past year or two. We believe in the slow-but-steady approach, just like we’ve taken with all our other shows: We’ve more than doubled the size of our company in the last two years! So, what framers really need to know is that DECOR Expo Atlanta and New York are under completely new management and will give them an exemplary experience.

DECOR: Tell us about that debut of the showcase in New York. How did it go?

ES: It was great. We have a small venue that we allocated for framing exhibitors, and we had about 30 exhibitors right at the front of the hall, so they got excellent traffic. More than 22,000 people go through Artexpo New York each year, and, of those, about 4,000 are trade buyers. So, we made a really big deal about getting the trade in to see the framing products, and our exhibitors were quite happy with that.

On the last day of the show, I did an exit interview and went around shaking people’s hands. Of the 30 exhibitors, 28 said they’d return. Bear in mind: The New York event’s really more of a showcase, not an expo. The full-blown expo we’ll be doing in Atlanta is a much bigger event. We’ll have product demonstrations, extensive education, a larger floor plan, and more exhibitors. At the showcase, it’s more of an add-on to Artexpo, and we’re really just showcasing new products. That said, it could grow into a full-blown show someday. If we could double the size next year, we think that would be great.

DECOR: You launched DECOR at the showcase this spring in New York. What’s your vision for the publication?

ES: Well, as I mentioned earlier, Redwood Media Group acquired DECOR, DECOR Expo, and Art Business News all together in late 2012. Our first initiative was to get Art Business News back in the market because it fits so well with the four art shows we’re already producing: Artexpo New York, [SOLO], SPECTRUM Miami and Art San Diego. Once we got that back into publication, we added a decor/framing component to it via our DECOR section, which readers seem to be enjoying.

We have excellent resources and writers within the framing industry—our show director and publisher Michael Pacitti, “the Guerrilla Framer” Paul Cascio, Tara Crichton; the list goes on and on. And, of course, we’re always on the lookout for more writers and more intriguing content, and we encourage interested parties to contact us. To date, we’ve been pleased to feature some really exciting profiles on industry players, like Roma Moulding and Urban Ashes. It’s an industry that keeps reinventing itself, and it’s exciting to play a part in documenting that.

Over the last 90 days, we’ve attracted over 300 subscribers to the new DECOR. If that continues, we’ll have 1,400 to 1,500 brand-new subscribers to the magazine in the next year to add to our list of 4,000. This all circles back to the shows: One reason exhibitors exhibit at shows is to meet new customers and peers, so we’re going to invite all of our subscribers to the expos. We want to make it easy for framers throughout the continent to network and connect.

DECOR: What new initiatives do you have for the new DECOR Expo Atlanta?

ES: For starters, we’ve got an all-new venue. We’re not going back to the Georgia World Congress Center, where the show was usually held. We’ve decided to take a three-year growth approach, building year upon year, and hold it at the Marriott in downtown Atlanta. It creates a beehive of buying and networking. Everybody will stay in the hotel, eat in the hotel, drink at the bars and enjoy an excellent, three-day framing expo in the ballroom.

We’re also planning a really compelling front-of-the-shop educational series, which will be free for all attendees. We’re going to have cutting-edge product demonstrations on the show floor. And we are going to revive our extremely popular DECOR Expo Top 100 Art and Framing Retailer Program. We’re going to throw a big party during the show and honor these hardworking framers and also give them exposure in DECOR magazine. There will be other surprises mixed in to make things exciting, interesting and fun for participants. It’s going to be a very exciting event, and we hope framers from across North America will join us.

DECOR: What do you hope exhibitors and attendees will take away from these two new framing expos?

ES: For attendees, seeing new products, sharpening their skills … and, hopefully, they’ll take home a Top 100 Retailer Award. For the exhibitors, they’ll meet lots of attendees they don’t see at the West Coast show. There are a lot of framers in the South and Southeast—and, for that matter, the Northeast—we’ve made contacts with over the past year, and everyone has been telling us they miss DECOR Expo Atlanta.
As art-industry veterans, we try to stay on the forefront of all the latest advancements in the world of artists, galleries and frame shops, and we have a lot to offer framers in that regard. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back to DECOR Expo Atlanta next fall.

Christine Schrum is editor-in-chief of DECOR magazine. She has extensive experience in the fine-art industry, particularly in art-show marketing and production, social media, blogging and magazine writing. She is currently director of content and social media for Redwood Media Group, purveyor of fine-art shows and publications.

The post DECOR Expo Atlanta: A Design-World Mainstay Returns to Atlanta appeared first on Art Business News.

You know those ugly frames you see in some frame shops? The ones that are covered in dust because they’re so hopelessly unappealing they just never sell? Well, The Framing Place & Gallery has given these little monstrosities their moment in the sun—while also creating a highly successful social media promotion for their business.

“You really can’t underestimate the importance of online brands,” says Matt Coles, owner, “especially when you consider the ever-expanding social media networks. Contests like ‘The Ugliest Frame Contest’ are simple, cost-effective ways to help establish your online brand.”

Social Media-Savvy Marketing

Here’s how the contest worked. Using Social Apps HQ (www.socialappshq.com), Matt created a promotion that would run seamlessly on Facebook. People were invited to post pictures of their ugliest frames, or to make their own ugly frames and post the pictures via the contest. Then, users would encourage their friends to vote on the worst frame by “liking” the image and sharing with their Facebook friends. As you can imagine, this created a lot of viral activity. When the voting deadline was over, the picture with the most likes was crowned the winner, and the person who submitted it was awarded a $300.00 framing makeover. Fun stuff, great branding and a buzzworthy promotion.

“The competition was a success in more ways than one—not only did participants have fun viewing and voting on ugly frames, but the more likes a picture got, the more exposure it would get on Facebook through users’ news feeds,” says Matt. “As a result, The Framing Place and Gallery was promoted to new audiences on social media, who were directed to The Framing Place website.”

As a side note, Matt also took care to accommodate those contestants who aren’t on Facebook but still wanted to participate. He simply asked them to email him their photos and descriptions, and he uploaded the images for them. That should tell you a lot about the kind of customer service you’ll get at The Framing Place.

The Little Frame Shop That Could

Nestled in the small, Canadian town of Huntsville, Ontario, The Framing Place & Gallery has been doing business for 30 years. It all began in Orla Irwin’s basement, when she set up shop and began to share her passion for framing and decor with her neighbors. Her innovative approach to design began to attract more and more clients, and before she knew it, she had opened a framing shop and gallery space in downtown Huntsville.

The secret to The Framing Place’s success? Innovation, creativity, and client care: “When you frame something,” says Orla, now retired, “you can’t treat it like a simple object, because it’s not just an object to the client. It means something to them, a memory, a hope, a desire. Whatever the connection is, you have to be aware of it, and let it influence the decisions you make.”

Matt began working at The Framing Place eleven years ago. A landscape painter, Matt already had both knowledge and an intuitive feel for composition and design, and he easily applied his skills to the world of framing. Orla quickly recognized his talent for the business.

“He really had a natural instinct for framing. He was creative, great with people, but most importantly, he had vision – he knew how to compete in the modern world and brought our business to new levels.”

It was precisely this vision that inspired Matt to purchase The Framing Place from Orla and her husband, Doug, in 2012, after the couple had run the business successfully for decades. Now, he plans on bringing the business to new audiences and new heights.

“There are a number of new challenges in the modern business landscape with social media, online businesses, networking, etc., but I really see these as new opportunities to develop the business and bring its services to new audiences,” he says. “And I’ve always liked the idea of contests; not only because they’re a cost effective marketing tool, but because they’re a lot of fun.”

Over the last decade, in addition to managing The Framing Place, Matt has found time to jury numerous art shows and has worked as the Art Director at the Algonquin Art Centre, a world-class gallery in Algonquin Provincial Park. We’re looking forward to seeing more great things from him in the future.

Visit The Frame Place & Gallery online at www.framingplace.net and be sure to like them on Facebook too.

The post “Ugliest Frame in the World” Contest: A Beautiful Promotion for The Framing Place & Gallery appeared first on Art Business News.

In Venezuela, the sun shines year-round, brightening everything it touches—from lush, green foliage to the deep blue sea. No surprise, then, that Venezuela-born photographer Malena Assing has had a lifelong love affair with light and color.

“I like the impact of bright colors,” says the artist. “Vibrant colors represent life and being alive. With my work, I want to bring light and happiness to everybody… something that awakens their senses.”

One look at Assing’s abstract photography on paper or on Plexiglas, and you’ll definitely feel the impact. Her works pulsate with dynamism. In “Running Lights III,” for instance, Assing captures a series of unexpected, multihued reflections over indistinct objects. The result is electric.

Assing’s “Incessant Movements” series of photographs in quick succession explores the movement of light and how it creates color fields with background shadows.

“I want to show viewers that there is nothing static—that everything changes continuously,” says Assing. “Life itself is sequences of photographs of our experiences that we collect in our minds.”

Growing up in Venezuela, Assing always dabbled in photography but did not pursue it in school because “studying art was not well seen.” Instead, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in advertising and marketing. In 1999, she moved to Miami, and everything changed.

“I had the chance to start anew,” she says. She enrolled in art and photography classes, and her career took a 180-degree turn when she began taking portraits of children.

“I found that I had an innate ability to photograph children and come up with images that were somehow natural and appealing,” she says. “I seem to have a special connection with kids and can reflect their personalities in my work.”

She became a professional photographer in 2002 and has gone on to photograph hundreds of children and families in the Miami area and around the world. She has also done freelance work for Key Biscayne Magazine, Complot Magazine, Selecta magazine and others.

But when it comes to her more unleashed creative passions, Assing prefers to explore subtle nuances of light, color, shadows, abstraction and emotion. Critics sometimes compare her work to the emotive, intuitive paintings of the Lyrical Abstraction and Tachisme movements—a comparison she embraces.

“I work with emotions, and these emotions come from somewhere deep down. My work is intuitive, and color is the language that I use to express emotions.”

In that vein, Assing says, Mark Rothko,  Carlos Cruz-Diez, Julio le Parc and Wassily Kandinsky are her strongest influences, although she gains great inspiration from her three children, as well.

Currently, Assing is working on a new series of photographs with the working title of “Mystic.” They feature vibrant colors, though less intense colors than those in her previous works. During Art Week Miami this December, she’ll be showcasing new pieces at Curator’s Art Voice Projects, a gallery in the Wynwood Art District. She has made a name for herself in Midtown Miami; last year, her work was well-received at SPECTRUM Miami.

Assing plans to head to Spain next year to participate in Foto Alicante. She’s still deciding which pieces she’ll bring, but one thing is certain: Her little corner of the show will be luminous with color.

For more, check out malenaassing.com.

The post Malena Assing: Tripping the Light Fantastic on Plexiglas appeared first on Art Business News.