Keith Johns hung up on art
Framing innovations keep family business on top of their game
FOUR decades after launching their specialised decorative services to the broader creative and interior design industries in the Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth’s Keith Johns Framing remains completely hung up on art.
Established on professional, personalised customer service, high-quality workmanship and an unwavering passion for their craft, Keith Johns Framing is one of a handful of remaining familyowned and run small businesses in the Bay that has made it, helped by generations of satisfied customers, to become a reputable household name.
While operating primarily as specialist art framers, Keith Johns is equally well-known as a reputable art dealer who supports local artists, as an art valuator and restorer and as a domestic and corporate decorative consultant with a list of premium clients that have included the likes of The Mantis Collection, Deloitte & Touche, the Radisson Blu and Sun Boardwalk hotels.
The business’s amicable owners, Keith Johns, 67, and his wife Glenis, 62, who are a refreshing reminder of the courteous, attentive customer service one could expect during the heyday of family stores, have been operating their enterprise from the same West borne Road premises for the past 23 years.
Framing, which is widely accepted as an art form in itself, forms the foundation of the company’s service offerings and Keith Johns boasts one of the largest selections of picture frame mouldings in the Eastern Cape.
“We were the first establishment in South Africa to have large corner framing samples which were introduced in the mid 1980’s.
“We have a workshop and stockroom of 375m ² which allows us to hold large quantities of stock on the premises and execute enormous orders, such as we did for the Boardwalk Hotel, in a relatively short space of time,” said Johns, who revealed that the company had also initiated other framing innovations.
“We have pioneered many framing innovations, one being the now well known “floating concept”. This entails framing pictures between glass with a glass surround. I conceived this in 1978 and its is still one of the more popular forms of framing today,” he said.
Johns was also behind a another framing innovation known as the “box frame” which saw glass placed on four and even five sides of the item, such as a signed soccer or rugby ball, to be framed.
“The glass sides not only allows the signed ball to be viewed from all sides, it also allows the light in.
This concept was devised from a request to frame a soccer ball as part of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s quest to host 2010 World Cup games in Port Elizabeth and as a result, a new style of framing was born,” Johns said.
Outlining the most critical aspects of the enterprise’s success, Johns named having an extensive knowledge of art, creative flair, expertise and a high standards of workmanship in framing and the building and nurturing of relationships as being key.
“We are passionate about art and we are certainly very passionate about creating the perfect match between an art pierce and its frame.
“Framing is naturally an important part of the entire look of a decorative piece, whether it is a work of art, a certificate or photograph,” said Johns, who went on to reveal that his industry was subjected to a number of trends, with photographs being among the trendy decorative items.
In support of the crucial nation-wide drive to grow entrepreneurship and develop South Africa’s small business sector, The Herald has refined and transformed its small business support column “How I Made It” to be more relevant and of assistance to start-up entrepreneurs and emerging small businesses in the Bay.
As a result, the first edition of The Herald’s new business feature #LearningCurve will published on Monday, May 15.