Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
David Gustafsson started working at Viking Framer when he was just out of high school, and today he’s the business’s owner. His story is just as rich as those of the many pieces of artwork that pass through his doors: join us today as he shares some of it with us.
By Kyle Hitchmough
For those who might not understand, can you explain what it is you do here?
We have many facets. Picture framing is our number one job. Anything you want to hang on the wall, we can work out a way of framing it and displaying it. We have the gallery system, where locals can exhibit all their art here as well. We have an exhibition space where they can display it, have openings, things like that. Then we have a printing business. Photo reproductions, printing on canvas, anything that needs doing.
Why might someone want to come here, rather than buying their own frame from a retailer?
The difference is you get a professional’s involvement in the treatment of your artwork. You may think that we just whack a photo into a frame, and that might do the trick for a week or two but down the track you’ll find that photo might stick to the glass, or you might find you run into other problems, whereas someone that’s fully qualified foresees all these dramas occurring and can navigate around them. We look after your piece that you want framed in the best possible way.
How do you choose a particular frame for a particular piece?
We listen to what the customer has, and the idea that they have, and then we put it through the rules of conservation and framing. We weed out some, since not every style is going to suit that look, so we narrow it down and offer a selection through that process.
The ‘rules of conservation’? What are those?
Everything that we do doesn’t do damage to the artwork, that we’re able to reverse it. The rule of conservation is preserving the artwork for the future. It’s going to last a lifetime.
Do you have any particular trends in your clientele?
No. You couldn’t pigeonhole someone as our ‘typical customer’ and narrow it down like that. We might have someone looking at our website at four in the morning from the middle of Mt. Isa, to local residents from the mountain driving by. It’s totally varied, there’s not one demographic that we see.
How does an artist go about having their work displayed here?
They come in and we work out whether we’re able to sell it to our clientele. If we think we can, then we’ll give it a try. There are different ways, whether you want to hire the space, or bring in the artwork and we’ll assess what we want to do with it, and the best way to sell it.
Are you a local to the area? What’s your opinion on the area and the community?
More or less! It’s a great little community up here. It is very supportive of locals, which is the best thing about it. I know we depend on the locals, and I hope they depend on us for their framing needs.
What do you think Viking Framer brings to the area?
Number one is that it’s a framing service, but it’s also a place where we can see local artwork and promote local artists further afield than just the mountain via the internet and things like that, and discuss different options of setting it all up for them. On the framing side, people don’t have to go off the mountain to get their framing done, and you’ll probably find it’s cheaper up here than it is down the coast.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The fact that someone can bring a piece in and think that it’s not worth a lot, or that they don’t value it, or a new artist who’s unsure if it’s worth framing. Then you frame it up, present it to them, and the enjoyment on their face when they see the finished article is what keeps every framer in business coming back time and time again.
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