About US
AAI FRAMEMAKER
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Don't we all want to make our world's a bit more beautiful?
Robin Peck-Smith | Yes She Can | Peter Robertson Gallery, Edmonton
Made to Order
The benefits of
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Gordon R. Johnston | AAI Framemaker
Our reliance on human skill is necessary to manipulate materials.
It's important to remind people that everything comes from somewhere, someone.
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Our impact on people can be hard to understand, measure and see when we're purchasing - easier, however when small and localized. Smaller Studio's like ourselves, who build MADE TO ORDER works carry less burden and inventory ( and a carbon footprint to boot ) allowing talent to flourish by focusing more time on creating, developing and playing instead of concerning oneself about turn-over of product and/or stagnant stock among other things.
By working smarter by being smaller, we ensure these allowances equal savings; boomeranging back to our tremendous talent pool by paying fair wages, undisputed studio rates, and assignment bonus' -all- creating a vibrant and celebrated place to work, rejoicing in the talent we all have and embracing each person for what they give to each other and to AAI.
Our clients are just as important part of this equation, as they to end up with an enriched product and experience which all in all benefits the community and planet.
About Gordon
In their simplicity, Johnston’s frame designs offer another view of what framing can be
Gordon found his way into framing in the most practical fashion: an art-school graduate, he had to frame his own work. Realizing the cash flow was steadier as a framer than as an artist (which he and some friends were trying / some more successful than others ), it was best he start his own firm.
Gordon confesses he was probably carried along by the tide, rather than stirring up the waves himself in his earlier years - as ‘a model of bad business practice for a Maker’
( relying too much on other's antiquated softwood imported frames - manufactured and scaled for Interior's than for Artwork ). By looking, experimenting and drawing what you want, occasionally leads one to creating the very thing you were searching for - only better, as it's the natural outcome of frustration. Now, his Studio in Lower Laurier hums (sometimes screams) pushing a dedication to refined Museum Profile Designs from his morning iPad drawings. These examinations and tinkerings with his team of collaborators encircle his ‘fairly minimal modern framing' aesthetic with quiet and inventive finishes, engaging craftsmanship - and as a result - his business progresses, as his art and frame-making evolve; even blossoms.
