Meet Claire Lardner and Christine Sweeny of FrameWorks in Coconut Grove

Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Lardner and Christine Sweeny.

FrameWorks is a diversified, certified woman owned, commercial art consulting and framing manufacturing company, with a long time retail presence in Coconut Grove and a national footprint in the commercial contract framing industry.

FrameWorks was launched over two decades ago when Christine moved to Miami and opened a frame shop, Kennedy Studios, in 1989 located in the heart of Coconut Grove. Christine partnered in the business with her father and the first retail location was launched where the current Palm Plaza development is. At the time that Palm Plaza was developed, 1995, she moved her retail location and rebranded as FrameWorks in its current corner on Commodore Plaza. In 1996, Claire became an equal partner/owner in the business bringing her successful career as an attorney to the partnership. Christine and Claire have continued to invest in FrameWorks evolution with cutting-edge technology and equipment, with a constant eye towards future development. FrameWorks has continued its upward growth and expansion trend since Claire joined with Christine.

When FrameWorks began, Christine was a sole retail operator. The company currently employs 22 people, many of who have been with the company for over 15 years. In addition, Christine and Claire have hired and trained many of FrameWorks employees from the local Coconut Grove community.

FrameWorks is committed to providing superior customer service, competitive industry pricing and staying on top of business trends. Both Christine and Claire have achieved the prestigious industry designation of Certified Picture Framer, awarded by the Professional Picture Framing Association. Less than five percent of all picture framers in the country hold this designation. Their commitment to continued personal development in their chosen trade has allowed them to have consistent growth over the past two decades.

FrameWorks serves two sectors: residential and hospitality. The residential clientele is just that – local residents from around south Florida who come to their retail stores for picture framing and art printing services. FrameWorks is proud of the fact that they have a reputation in the South Florida community for not only the exemplary framing services they provide but their constant and continued support of local charities, community events and school art programs. Christine and Claire pride themselves on being recognized for this.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
For the most part, our growth has been relatively smooth.

Some of the obstacles that we have faced is obtaining funding for a woman owned business. It appears that a woman owned manufacturing business needs to prove themselves more to banks than a male owned business. There are more hoops to jump through. The other financial hurdle is growth; financing it and getting the right personnel in key positions.

Obviously one of the hurdles was the recession as this took away a great many hospitality jobs for many years.

Please tell us about FrameWorks.
FrameWorks is an art consulting and picture framing company. We have two retail and wholesale locations: Coconut Grove location is an art gallery and custom framing for residential clientele, and our production facility in the Bird Road Art District in Miami. Owners, Claire Lardner and Christine Sweeny, are certified picture framers; a designation that less than 10% of all picture framers have. FrameWorks’ specializes in the Coconut Grove gallery using archival and museum grade framing techniques to preserve our client’s artwork. FrameWorks is known for using the most current and advanced framing technologies available, including a full print production department.

Our production facility occupies over 14,000 square foot where we create and produce extraordinary works of art and frames that are exported around the world. At this location, we manufacture framed art and mirrors and create art for our hospitality clients. We are known for being very creative in our art and framing techniques and coming up with solutions for our clients.

What sets us apart is our staff. They are an extremely talented group of individuals, from artists to craftsmen. Our commitment to technology is shown in our framing and printing equipment. We have four large format printers, one is a flatbed printer that prints on almost any surface up to 2″ thick and overall size of 8′ x 10′ with textured inks. With these printers and a CNC router, we have been able to produce unique images and allowed our clients to become even more creative in their designs.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Would have purchased more printing equipment earlier.

Contact Info:

• Address: 4150 SW 74th Court
  Miami FL 33155
• Website: www.frameworksmiami.com
• Phone: 3052679360
• Email: celardner@mac.com
• Instagram: frameworkscoconutgrove
• Facebook: frameworksmiami

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