Posted by David Carter on 4/6/2019 to
Picture Mounts- Folders
Many years ago Carters Mounts had a concrete shed at the bottom of the
garden. A very small one less than 10 foot square. In that shed Carters
Mounts with a single Ultimat hand cutter was born. As the business , a
larger shed was built, still in the garden, near the orchard where
during the summer the children could play and the sounds of the dawn and
evening bird chorus were accompanied by the constant sound of my
efforts with one of the very first computerised cutting machines in the
UK.
At that time the whole of the photographic supply market for
picture folders and picture strut mounts was dominated by Spicer
Hallfield. Millions of the brown floppy "fall over "folders with a gold
logo on the front were sold and used for every possible event that one
could imagine.
I suspect people reading this will have had one at some time.
Knowing
that Carters Mounts could not compete head to head with the resource
and money behind the vast sales and marketing operations of companies
like SH a need was identified that pointed the way to a new range of
"strut mounts" that had a better perceived quality level, that were
nicer an openly used rather than being consigned to the dusty reaches of
the top drawer in the sitting room cabinet.
For a lot of
early Sunday mornings and very late Sunday nights time was spent making
and using cardboard shapes which were attached to picture mounts to make
freestanding assemblies. Nothing worked until I started playing around
with Golden Section ratios and quickly the proportions of the shapes
started coming into view. However having got the numbers , heights and
widths what about the shape. The all important shape that had to be a
combination of curve and line, that looked the part.
In the end the inspiration came from my lovely lovely daughters school work.
On
the wall in my industrial unit is a simple drawing of a name JOE...
embellished, drawn freehand , coloured and the "J " drawn in such a way
that it looks like the other two letters are being held upright,
supported by it's solidity.
A simple "Eurika" moment . The
letter , the grace of line, the connection . A complex translation of
the letter into numbers , endless tweaks on the computer and the J
becomes a JAY Strut .
Today the JAY strut holds up and
has held up picture mount assemblies celebrating The Queens Birthday,
images of Clarence House, St Jame's Palace and Buckingham Palace.
Carters Strut Mounts have held images of Test Matches, Rugby Union
Internationals and countless schools and colleges, Wellington,
Charterhouse, Mill Hill and Bigland Green primary School in the East
End.
Universal, unique , hand finished and all from a
need to improve the presentation of images from the unwanted mundane to
the sort after .. "yes we want one ".. all brought about by a simple
school drawing from my daughter so many years ago that still has pride
of place on my wall. A Carters Mounts "J" JAY strut... thank you Joanna.