Collecting movie posters can not only be great fun, but also a shrewd investment. Which is why it is so important to make sure they are framed by a specialist. At Framers (www.framers.co.uk) we understand the importance of good framing to preserve your collection, which is why we only use archival materials throughout to give you total peace of mind.

1. 58 October 2014
ART BUSINESS TODAY
FRAMING
Caught on film
JONATHAN GOODERS GCF specialises in framing TV, film
and music memorabilia. Here, he shares the inspiration and
techniques behind recent commissions
A
s well as the conservation
aspect of dealing with
vintage material, there are
contextual and aesthetic
considerations. It’s easy to
be tempted to put every poster into a
simple black frame, which can look
absolutely right, but a more
imaginative approach can bring a
piece to life. The right frame can turn
memorabilia into visually pleasing
artefacts that go beyond their original
ephemeral intent.
A good working knowledge of the
history of a particular field of
memorabilia allows you to make
informed framing choices. Talking
confidently about pieces with clients
helps build a rapport, which means
your creative ideas are more likely to
be adopted. We always recommend
the best materials to protect and
preserve artwork (we only ever use
conservation or museum board).
Kiss of the Vampire
Our Gunnar computerised
mountcutter provides a lot of creative
freedom when designing a
presentation, as seen in this set of
front of house stills from the Hammer
film Kiss of the Vampire from 1963.
Front of house stills were displayed
in (or outside) the cinema at the time
of the film’s release. Each of these
stills measures 8x10”. Rather than just
going with a standard multi-aperture
windowmount I decided to create
more of a statement piece.
Hammer were notorious for their
lurid marketing, so with this in mind I
designed a piece that not only
presented the stills in an interesting
way, but evoked the marketing
material that would have been found
in a cinema lobby of the time.
The Hammer logo was created in
the Gunnar software using the draw
Left:The Hammer logo and
the dripping blood were
designed with the draw tool
in the Gunnar software
Above:The double mount
on this Mummy poster
utillises soft olive green
board that pulls from the
tones within the artwork
Opposite page:
Nielsen’s metalia moulding
works with the tones in the
artwork of this Le Mans
poster to suggest the shine
of the cars

2. ART BUSINESS TODAY October 2014 59
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FRAMING
tool, each letter being cut
individually using an inverse
bevel. The dripping blood was
also designed within the software;
to lose the white bevel, the blood
was reverse cut, which also
produces a slight shadow that
provides a 3D feel.
The stills were hinged using
reversible museum tape and
presented in two ‘film strips’,
which were raised with a small
float. To give the whole thing
more of a period feel, I opted for
an Arqadia beaten metal frame
and spacers were hand cut to fit
the different layers. To ensure the
stills remained fully protected I
used UV protection glass.
The Mummy
This poster for The Mummy is
another piece of Hammer
memorabilia. Released in 1959, this
was Hammer’s third gothic outing
after the huge international success of
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and
Dracula (1958).
This poster is a US half-sheet
(22x28”), which tends to be on heavier
paper stock than, for example, a
British quad (30x40”), or a US one-
sheet (27x41”). The poster was lightly
hinged using cotton museum gummed
paper tape. I wanted the frame to
evoke a sense of history, not only
referencing the time the film was
released, but also the late 19th
century, when the film is set.
Posters of this period are very
rare, so I used cotton museum
board to ensure the ultimate level
of protection, but also to
introduce the soft, warm depth
that only cotton boards can bring.
I used a double mount, with a
soft olive green colour accent to
pull from the tones within Bill
Wiggins’ original art, and to
provide the poster with an edge.
I selected a frame profile of a
traditional shape, with a slight
silver green shimmer that
emulates the tones within the
mummy’s bandages. Given the
value of the piece, I used museum
glass and pH neutral Corri-Cor
backing to finish it off.
Steve McQueen
Posters for the Steve McQueen classic
Le Mans are highly sought after. This
Spanish one-sheet (39x27”) is printed
on very thin paper; to bring out the

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colours and lighten the slight
discolouration, the piece was hinged
with Hayaku archival gummed tape,
and was mounted onto a slightly warm
jumbo conservation board.
The poster has some edge wear,
which was concealed by the
windowmount. There was slight paper
loss in the image, which I disguised by
applying colour matched pastel to the
undermount behind the poster.
Nielsen’s metalia moulding works with
the tones in the artwork to suggest the
shine of the cars, and to provide
sufficient support for the UV glass.
The Earth Dies Screaming
This poster (a US insert 36x14”) harks
back to the style of the classic
Hollywood B movie posters of the
1950s. I wanted the framing to reflect
and celebrate this.
Using a triple mount, I
incorporated two bright core boards to
pull the black, green and orange from
the poster. This creates a striking visual
impact and emphasises the stepped
edge that leads the eye into the
artwork. The poster had suffered some
discolouration and aging, so to reduce
this I opted for Bainbridge light stone
conservation board, which is a tone
lighter than the poster, so makes it feel
fresher.
The poster was framed using UV
protection glass and the moulding is
Nielsen’s deep gloss palamino. This
gives the presentation a 1950s Formica
kitsch feel and introduces an element
of fun.
Doctor Who
To mark the 50th anniversary in
November 2013 of the longest
running sci-fi series on TV, we decided
to create a celebratory window display.
It turned out to be quite a challenge.
After designing the piece on paper,
I had to deconstruct it into single
components. This was especially
difficult when it came to the TARDIS,
as I wanted to create a relief model.
Not only did this have to be scaled to
the appropriate size, but each
component had to be sized
independently to provide the
dimensions required to key into our
Gunnar mountcutter. Some had to be
reverse bevelled, some would have
straight edges and some standard
bevels, so a lot of head scratching was
involved. The final TARDIS model is
made up of 15 individual elements.
Images of each doctor, along with
the space-scape, were sourced from the
web. The space background was dry
mounted onto conservation board and
spacers were cut to continue the image
around the inside of the frame. The
text and ‘TARDIS 50’ logo were
created in the Gunnar software in a
similar way to the Hammer logo for
Kiss of the Vampire. Again, these were
inverse bevelled and raised with foam
centred board.
The police box sign, St John’s
ambulance emblem and telephone
panel graphics were created in
Photoshop and printed onto lustre
paper. As a final flourish I added small
‘handles’ to the doors to complete the
illusion.
ART BUSINESS TODAY
This poster shows signs of aging so
mountboard a tone lighter than
the paper provides a fresh light feel
This Doctor Who piece was
created to celebrate 50 years
of the TV show

4. October 2014 61ART BUSINESS TODAY
FRAMING
David Bowie
The idea of this piece was to create an
overview of the client’s collection in a
single frame. He had numerous press
cuttings, which we arranged,
photographed, and then manipulated
in Photoshop to create a backdrop for
the presentation. This was printed
onto matt paper and dry mounted
onto conservation board to create the
mount. The record was floated off a
warm grey to push it forward, and the
cards were double mounted to provide
a unified feel.
As with the Doctor Who piece, the
spacers were carefully hand cut to
ensure they married up with the
background image, to provide a wrap-
around feel. The piece was framed in
Nielsen’s matrix cube gloss profile
with UV filtering glass.
Santana
Although this is an old concert poster
with no commercial value, it holds
particular personal
significance for the
client, so rather
than displaying
it in the
conventional
way, I wanted
to create
something that
transformed the
poster into an art object to reflect the
importance it holds for my client.
Working with the powerful graphics
in the poster, I double mounted it
using strong reds and blacks to
emulate and extend the colours. The
white bevel pulls from the white in the
wording. Where the poster had been
pinned up it has suffered corner
damage, so to disguise this I opted for
shaped corners. These not only cover
the damage, but they bring an extra
element to the overall design.
The ‘in concert’ text at the top
proved especially challenging as it is
not centralised and is at a slight angle.
A few trial and error tests on pulp
board were required to ensure that the
window aperture is spot on.
We opted for a hand-finished
frame, which was built up with
multiple layers of gesso that were
sanded back to provide a glass-like
surface. This was further built up with
black matt spray to give a tactile feel
and depth of finish. To complete the
presentation, I used a small red spacer
to add extra depth.
As there was so much black, and to
avoid losing the detail behind
reflections, I used museum glass,
which also ensured the poster would
be protected from fading.
By working with your client and
thinking outside the box, it’s possible
to take even a humble poster of no
value, and turn it into something of
beauty in its own right. ■
Jonathan Gooders GCF owns Framers in
south west London, framers.co.uk
Top:The background of this David Bowie piece
was created by scanning press cuttings and
manipulating them in Photoshop
Right: Jonathan Gooders GCF
Below:This is an inexpensive poster, but the
luxurious hand-finished frame reflects the
emotional value it holds for its owner