fotoflōt, a photo display system, was recently added as a Zenfolio fulfillment partner. We thought it would be helpful to tell you a little about how fotoflōt came into being, and to give a few examples of how they’re used.
fotoflōt grew out of the founders’ personal experiences. We’re long-time photo enthusiasts and were seeking better ways to display the great images that are possible with digital photography. We didn’t like framing our prints and having the images hidden behind reflections and glare. We wanted a clean, simple mounting system that would put all the focus on the image. And we wanted to make it easy to change images to get maximum usage of scarce wall space.
So we invented fotoflōt. The photographic print is bonded to the front of a thin acrylic panel, so there’s nothing between the viewer and the print. print and acrylic are laser-trimmed, fusing them together and producing a polished edge. The mounting system creates a floating effect, subtly emphasizing the image. And the mounting system is magnetic, letting you change images in seconds and reusing that scarce wall space.
The following (mostly personal) examples are only a small sample of the many ways that thousands of fotoflōts have been used. Maybe they’ll stimulate you to come up with some new ways to use them.
Wall arrangements. fotoflōts are frequently used for arrangements of multiple images. Tom’s daughter and her husband had hundreds of images from their travels around the world and wanted to use some of them to decorate their home. They decided to display their favorites along the stairway, and the images are visible from both the lower and upper floors. The fotoflōts provide a great topic of discussion with visitors.
Collages
fotoflōts are also popular for collages.
Virtually every available size has been used for a collage at one time or another.
Tom created this 10”x15” collage as a wedding gift for a friend.
Panoramics
fotoflōt is well-suited for panoramics, providing aspect ratios from 2:1 up to 6:1. The wide range of standard sizes make it possible to use panoramics much more widely (so to speak) than is usually the case.
The photographs in this 7.5”x22.5” panoramic are of Tom’s daughter and new son-in-law. A professional photographer took the photos, and Tom created the panoramic (with appropriate permissions).
Desk stands
A number of fotoflōt sizes, from 7.5”x10” to 7.5”x30”, are available with a desk stand. They make good gifts, and can be used alone or as a complement to images mounted on the wall. Tom created this 7.5”x15” desk stand fotoflōt to capture the memory of his other daughter and son-in-law on a wonderful family trip to Montreal.
Magnetic mounting system
The magnetic mounting system provides flexibility that can be used in a number of ways. This example comes from a customer who said, “Artwork that goes on the wall and sits in one place forever tends to get boring. I’m always on the lookout for the possibility of ‘active’ art that can be changed in some way to keep it interesting.”
Our customer has created a family portrait gallery up her staircase and moves fotoflōts around to place a visiting son or daughter in the position of honor. For example, daughter A isn’t coming tonight so she gets taken out of “first place” at the bottom of the stairs and gets moved halfway up the stairway. Daughter B is visiting tonight, so she goes onto that prime spot.
Let us know if you have any questions or comments, and please let us know about any interesting fotoflōt applications that you discover.
Tom McAuliffe
Jürgen Reinold
