.02
The Custom Experience
PORTRAIT DESIGN
Every portrait that we create is a special commission made specifically with our client's family and home in mind. We design our artwork to reflect family connections, personalities, style, and to enhance the home in which it will hang. A lot of thought and careful planning goes into each portrait session and it all starts with creating the concept. When you reach out to us as a potential client, we start the ball rolling by going over some basic information about our process and fees and then invite you over to our cottage studio so we can dive deeper. This is our design consultation where we get to know you, show you examples of our work in person so you can see and feel the quality of the pieces, and start really coming up with a concept for your session.
WARDROBE ASSISTANCE
Many clients are nervous about what to wear for their sessions. Either they don't feel competent in their skills of outfitting the entire family for a portrait or they are just too busy to even think about it. We get it. That's what we are here for as a full-service studio. We will give many suggestions during our design consultation and will even send you home with a swatch card to give you a visual for the color palette we are recommending, but most times we are taking it even farther than that. Sometimes our clients text us photos of the outfits they are considering while they are shopping or going through their closets and we offer tips and suggestions as the texts are coming in, other times we are going to the client's home to sort through closets with them and pick out options. Many times we are meeting our clients at shops to help guide them, and other times we are doing all of the shopping ourselves and bringing the options to our client's homes prior to the session for a "dress rehearsal". Think of us as your personal image consultants. The clothes can make or break the final portrait and we are the experts on what will work best for the vision we have created, so let us help in whatever capacity you need from us!
INTERIOR SPACE PLANNING
Who doesn't like some help with interior design? The biggest compliment we receive (and we receive it a lot!) is that our portraits "complete the room" in which they hang. This is the cherry on the sundae for us, as that is the ultimate goal when designing a portrait session. Just like any piece of art that you would choose for your home, the colors and lines and feel of the art need to work in the room. It's more than just a beautifully posed portrait where everyone looks their absolute best, it's the crowning jewel of your home and we take the job of creating that very seriously. We ask our clients to either send us snapshots of their interior spaces or we will offer to come to their home and take some photos of the space ourselves. This serves two very important purposes. For one, we can't design a portrait to fit a room we haven't seen. The other important purpose of those photographs is to help us when it comes time to choose your favorite images from the session and decide on sizes and placement. We use a sophisticated design program that will allow us to use those photographs of your wall space to see exactly what your finished artwork will look like at various sizes and placement around your home. This will take all of the guesswork out of the equation when we are choosing your final images to be made into beautiful wall art.
CUSTOM FRAMING
Our job would not be complete without assisting you with framing your finished pieces. Sure, you can take your portrait to a frame shop and look over thousands of samples and handle it yourself. But our clients usually prefer the added service of us bringing their portraits to their home with a collection of pre-selected corner mouldings that we feel will complement the art and work well in the home. You'll be able to see the moudlings we have selected in your own home, against your own wall color and furniture, held against the finished artwork, and the best choice will become very obvious. Once we decide on the frame moulding, we handle getting artwork to the professional framer and then back to your home when it is all complete.
ART INSTALLATION
For those who do not wish to hang their own portraits, we are happy to install the artwork personally once it arrives back from our framer. This is actually a lot of fun for us!