My sister is a movie lover who has prophesied herself. He studied film editing in college, watches everything that comes out, and loves CGI and science fiction especially. She is not an art lover, so the decorations in her room are mostly movie posters with some musician lying here and there. Now, if she was 13 and going through an actor crush (and trust me, she did the whole Leo DiCaprio thing in 1999), it wouldn’t be worth commenting on. But, as a woman in her late thirties, the least she could do is treat her beloved posters with more respect than those posted on the wall. So, I insisted, and she made them all custom-framed.
Now you’d wonder why you would spend money on a custom frame when department stores have ready-made frames for available poster sizes. Well, for one thing, cheap plastic frames are for bedrooms, not adults. Other advantages of custom framing are that copywriters will treat your posters like works of art, place it in the frame for you, and make it look much better than a plastic frame.
As a general rule of thumb, I think that posters (movies, music, sports, etc.) are busy enough that a simple frame is needed for the image to shine through. On the other hand, a custom frame store has more options in colored frames and that can make your poster look unique. You can put a silver frame around a sci-fi poster and take the illusion further. Or have a “Jaws” movie poster framed in a red frame and highlight the wording. Consider the modern idea of movie posters reimagined. You can buy a poster of a movie from your childhood made by a modern artist and treat it like a work of art by adding a mat. You see, elements of popular culture lend themselves to fun framing. The new Superman movie can be matted in silver (or steel) to reference the title. In fact, I framed a black and white Iron Man drawing on a red doily and gold frame and took the drawing to a point much more interesting than a black frame and voila. Or you can use your favorite team’s jersey colors and play around with that on floor mats and frames. Bringing your posters to a custom framing job will make anything you would have placed as a child look more adult just by framing it correctly. Remember, you don’t have to give up the things you love. You don’t have to suddenly love art and hang only dark pieces that you know. But your walls don’t have to look like a teenager’s either.
I’ve said it over and over again, you can decorate your home with things you love in a simple way by framing your movie posters. You can keep the things you love forever without channeling your teenage compulsion to tacks or duct tape on the wall. Commit to how you hang it, not what you hang. My sister listened to me, she chose to have the posters professionally made and they look amazing. So do yourself a favor and frame your posters right. And be bold, it wouldn’t be cool to frame a “Great Gatsby” poster in an art-deco frame. Or a poster of Shakespeare in the park with a large ornate gold frame. It has definitely never been done before.