Painting Of St. Peters Square, The Basilica, And The Vatican

A local architect brought in this gouache painting of the Vatican in Rome, Italy. He requested that we preserve it and give it a simple, but tasteful design. In order to give this bright-colored image a little more contrast, we needed to use a dark top mat. Typically, when using a dark top mat, it is wise to use a lighter frame so that the two layers do not get washed into each other when being viewed. This worked out great because the customer was very happy with the silver frame that we chose. We put a silver-colored mat on the bottom to accent the mid-range tones and tie in the frame. The customer was delighted with what we had done. Any good design process should end with an, “aha!” moment when the customer sees their artwork look better than they imagined. This was the case, here.