This, and Richard Benjamin,
photographer. (Al Alexio)
Company: Picture This A Framing Center and Gallery
Owner: David J. O’Brien
Location: Wickenden Street Providence, and Route 108 Wakefield
Year founded: 1992
Employees: 11
Annual Revenues: WND
For David J. O’Brien image is everything.
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And it’s his ability to project the right image that’s making his stores in Providence and Wakefield successful. Picture this, a large window along a busy Providence street that gets passersby to slow down or even pull over and look closer.
In fact, that’s his store: Picture This A Framing Center and Gallery on Providence’s Wickenden Street and on Route 108 in Wakefield. The fact that people slow to gaze into his store’s window is for O’Brien a tremendous compliment and affirmation of the store’s transformation from a poster shop to a gallery.
“This business is definitely a success story,” he said. “At one time people in the area thought we were just a framing store. We aren’t.”
When O’Brien purchased the store in 1992, it was a framing business that sold posters. Run as a one-man shop, O’Brien said not many people knew it even existed.
“At the time that I bought the store, I was in sales,” he said. “I was selling advertising for the former owner and realized what a market there was for this type of business. I just had to find it.”
Today, it appears he has. His two locations — on Wickenden Street and in Wakefield — display more than a dozen local artists, and have a selection of over 2,000 frames.
But O’Brien said his success today didn’t come without growing pains. In fact, when he first purchased the framing shop in 1992 and opened the gallery on Wickenden Street the idea wasn’t immediately accepted.
“We wanted to get out of the poster business, it wasn’t the market we were trying to reach,” he said. “We recruited photographer Richard Benjamin and when he began showing his works I think people began to take us more seriously.”
The business became so successful that in 1997 O’Brien decided to open a satellite store in The Arcade in downtown Providence.
“That was a test for one year,” he said. “And after a year we decided it wasn’t working. The Arcade didn’t draw enough traffic for us.”
O’Brien didn’t let the closing of The Arcade store discourage him from any future expansion. A few years later he decided to open another satellite store – this time in Wakefield’s Quo Vadis Shopping Plaza.
“I took on a partner, Craig Berry, when I opened the store in Wakefield,” he said. “When we moved there we had five competitors but it has been very successful for us. South County has a lot of fine artists. We also sell unique gifts in that store.”
And while the two locations may be under the same umbrella of Picture This, O’Brien said they are as different as night and day.
“There are major differences between artists in South County and Providence,” he said. “And the customers in South County want South County scenes while the people in Providence want Providence scenes.”
Finding local artists and showcasing their work has been an important part of the business, O’Brien said, but framing is still the major portion of the company’s income. In fact, he said, about 75 percent of the company’s business comes from framing – which has become an art itself.
“We have a focus on conservation framing and acid-free matting,” he said. “We also use ultra-violet protective glass. We try and educate people on the importance of using these materials. We don’t want to take any chances that the artwork will fade, or be damaged and we don’t think our customers want to take those chances either.”
Meeting the needs of his customers has been a top priority for O’Brien. He said it’s what keeps his business open seven days a week.
“I used to come here on Sundays to clean and see people leaning up against the glass to see what’s inside,” he said. “I would often hear clicking on the glass, so I finally began letting people in. It was about convenience for my clients.”
Both shops are open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Sundays from 12 to 5 p.m.
“Our hours are a little unusual,” O’Brien said, “but they are based on the needs of our customers.”
O’Brien’s latest venture has come in the form of clocks. Adding wall clocks to the selection of artwork that lines the walls of both stores, O’Brien said, was a natural transition.
“I decided six months ago to introduce clocks,” he said. “I did some research and found there weren’t many clock stores in the state and I thought, as a beautiful item that hangs on the wall, it would fit in well with the store.”
And as the phone rings in the Wickenden Street store, O’Brien looks outside his picture window. “I love this street,” he said. “It’s Rhode Island’s SoHo district.”
