To celebrate the beginning of a new baseball season, and the success of our hometown team so far this year, I thought I'd share this recent project featuring Citizens Bank Park. The print is a giclee by local artist Timothy Duffield and features a stepped panoramic of the interior of the stadium. The image measures about 30 inches from end to end. Our customer is a Phillies fan, as well as a relative of the artist, so this piece is very special to her.
I loved the ragged edge of the step pattern used in stitching the parts of the image together; it really is as much of the artwork as the image itself. To showcase it, we left a wider margin of the paper around it to let it breathe visually.
How could we not use Phillies Red for this frame? We chose a wood frame instead of metal to help it feel like the original art that it is. There are definitely exceptions, but I often feel like the use of metal frames gives a sense of framing a poster, not a more valuable print. However, I did want to make sure the red of the frame was really vibrant like a metal frame would be. The use of this particular red frame, which has a high gloss finish, gave us the pop we were looking for.
So far, we had, as one of my favorite TV personalities says, "a whole lotta look." To make sure we didn't take it too far, we chose a white mat that would give us some visual space between the image and the frame to relax the eye. Because the white matches the paper, and although we want that space, it is usually a good idea to provide a small dash of color through a second mat to help the project look natural- a wide expanse of white can be just as visually distracting as too many elements jammed together.
But what color to use for a second mat? We tried red. Too matchy matchy with the frame; it made it look like a cheap mall-bought, mass made frame job. I wanted to try grass green, to echo the color of the field. No matter the shades, red and green are tricky, and usually bring to mind Christmas. Not good for a piece that should evoke spring and summer. Finally, we tried a light blue that helped to extend the sky in the image, and helped the viewer remember warm sunny days spent at the ballpark. That was exactly what we were looking for. Now all we need is the peanuts and crackerjacks, and we'll be all set.
