If you do custom picture framing in San Francisco long enough – and we’ve been doing it for over 40 years – you start to notice a pattern. People collect incredible things. Concert posters, show prints, limited edition exhibition pieces. And then those things live rolled up in a tube, or sitting in a drawer, or leaning against the back of a closet. Not because people don’t care, actually quite the opposite. They care so much they’re not sure they want to mess it up. We totally understand!
This week we had a great reminder of why it’s worth just going for it. A customer came in with a poster from Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody at The Broad in 2023. Rolled up, a little nervous about the whole thing, and with good reason – Haring’s work is all color and movement and energy, the kind of piece where a wrong call on the framing can really flatten what makes it great.
The glass question and why we don’t skip it
The first thing we talked about was glazing. For a piece like this, there was really only one answer: Optium Museum Acrylic. It’s the same museum-grade UV-filtering acrylic used in galleries and institutions that take preservation seriously and it does two things exceptionally well. It blocks over 99% of UV light, which is the main culprit behind fading and color shift over time. And it’s optically so clear that you genuinely forget the glass is there. No glare, no reflection, no green tint. Just the art.
San Francisco is full of beautiful, light-filled apartments and that light, as gorgeous as it is, is not your poster’s friend. UV filtering isn’t an upsell. It’s just the right call.
The frame itself
For the Haring piece, we went with a radiant acrylic frame: bold, reflective, and full of the same electric energy as the work itself. Haring’s figures practically vibrate off the page, and the frame needed to honor that rather than contain it. Sometimes restraint is the right move. This wasn’t one of those times.
It’s honestly one of our favorite parts of this job, that moment where the right frame clicks into place and suddenly the whole piece just lands.
About those rolled-up posters
If you’ve got one, please bring it in. Show posters, concert posters, vintage travel prints, museum exhibition pieces, they all deserve a wall, not a tube.
Custom framing at Underglass here in San Francisco is fun and not intimidating. We’ll walk you through every decision, and we’re genuinely happy to nerd out with you about the options. That’s kind of our thing.
Happy birthday, Keith Haring and thanks for the art. 🎨
