Regency Fine Art & Frame

In this episode of Life in Roswell realtors Matt and Jeremey visit Lester and Robert Herbertson at Regency Fine Art & Frame, a custom frame shop in Roswell making one of a kind frames and shadow boxes with modern technology.

Tell Us About Your Process

We have an in-house design area where a lot of the design work is done with the frames and mats and all the various materials that we have. We can sit down with the client and do the design work right here, but we also do a lot of virtual framing now where it's all done over the internet through email, mocking the pieces up in virtual design using Photoshop and sending images back so they can approve the colors, designs, and scales and so on, but some people still like to do it the old fashioned way.

What Kind Of Framing Do You Do Here?

Here in the shop you can see a lot of examples of some of the different things that we've done. We're a specialty framer. We do a lot of shadow box work, which is very unique in the industry because it requires a lot of special skills. Normally framing is put together like this, and it's compression held, so when you start doing the shadow box framing, you're dealing with a whole different element. This is a different kind of shadow box frame or reversed to do a hand painted saxophone by one of the artists that works with us. All these canvases we printed here in house. We have a large format printer. Here's another hand painted violin in a shadow box with the Fiddler on the Roof music behind it.

Something new we're playing with over here is a LED where we're using the LED lights to illuminate the art, and when you see it with the lights on and the lights off, it is absolutely amazing. People use it for a night-light in their kid's room because, again, with the LED, you could leave it on 10 years and it just keeps burning.

And this is a brand-new piece we just introduced. We just designed and introduced of the Pink Floyd. It's got the top 10 albums, the top cover art, and then a little history. Again, this is in the shadow box vein.

We also do a lot of work with some of the local sports teams, the Falcons, the Hawks, and a little bit for the Braves. Now, I'd like to get more Braves business, but we haven't got a good in there yet.

Tell Us About Your Work With Non-Profits

We do a lot of nonprofit fundraising. This is an example of something any nonprofit that comes in here and looks around, we actually give them a piece like this free of charge just for coming in and looking for their next fundraiser. This would normally be about a $400 piece. Robert runs the fundraising, which is the mainstay of our business as we do fundraising auctions with nonprofits all over the region in and out of Georgia. We're working with a lot of the local Roswell companies. We work with CDA. We do their big, giant Down Home Derby every year. We're with Blessed Trinity at its school, Roswell Rotary.

What Kinds Of Things Do People Get Framed?

As you can see, we carry out a lot of inventory and our family's been in this business over 40 years, so we've got a lot of experience. We do a lot of unique items like this Monopoly piece here. This is something that it's a specialty item that we have. You won't find it any place else. It's built with the client's original stock certificates. That's what people do. They come in with old photographs and we restore them. Or a box of baseball cards or whatever kind of items that you find that you want to preserve is a big part of it, too. It's not just displaying it, but actually to preserve them because we use archival techniques and the mounting of these pieces so that it does preserve them hermetically inside the frame, too. We do a lot of guitar boxes. In fact, we're doing some pieces right now for the new Rock 'N' Taco in Roswell. But again, because we're a combination graphic designer and frame shop, we're able to design all these unique backgrounds, print them out, and make our own mat boards. With our shadow boxes it's all about creating three dimensionality. We always try to lift pieces, turn them a little bit, get shadows working for us wherever we can. everything here.

Can You Show Us Where The Work Is Done?

Yeah. This is the backend of the operation where we do a lot of the assembly work. We've got a C&E mat cutter over there, which can cut any kind of shape or design we plot into it, but this is the graphic area over here. We've got large format printers. This is a six-foot shadow box that I'm working on for Rock 'N' Taco right now for their entryway, a little homage to the Beatles. This is a guitar that we're doing for them, as well. This is actually signed by the Rolling Stones. And We're also doing this for Rock 'N' Taco, this get together. We've got this special sequined tongue we're going to be putting in there, and we're going to be using black suede in the back of it.

Why Did You Choose Roswell For Your Business?

Because I live here. I've lived here for 40 years. I love Roswell. I just can't imagine ever leaving this place. It's just such a beautiful place, and the people, the stores. It's just a fun place. Roswell is a great spot to visit. Take these folks who drove 2 hours  to come here and get framing done because of what we do here is unique. And that's I think the best testimonial with it I could have.