About AFD Home
George Eouse, President and CEO, established Art & Frame Direct, an Orlando-based global company, March of 1991. Eouse became interested in the art of reproduction when he owned a small chain of restaurants in New England. He decorated each restaurant with antiques but was frustrated by not having similar pieces for each location. He contracted a California company who reproduced old auto parts and arranged for them to recreate his favorite antiques. Soon after, went from the status of customer to owner, purchasing the company and moving to its present location in Orlando, Florida.
The business began with a unique product that catered to what was then a small market niche-high-quality, antique reproduction castings of very ornate museum-replica framing and mirrors hand finished with gold or silver metal leaf, and quickly progressing to reproduction of other decorative products and furniture. The product lines expanded to include an extensive collection of oil paintings ranging from masterpiece recreations to contemporary works in antiqued styles and subject, and custom oil paintings. At that time, the customers were contract designers, art dealers, and specialty dealers of antique furnishings. With only a small warehouse facility of 1500 square feet, Art & Frame Direct relocated three times in the first five years, reinvesting and expanding in both new designs and better technology.
The creation of Art & Frame’s products is an interesting blend of cost-effective technology and labor-intensive handwork. Art & Frame’s internationally located production facilities have the finest in mold-making equipment, yet all finishing is done by hand. The ability to reproduce a wide variety of styles and design means the company can offer the customers more diverse items. The company’s technology allows the complete high-definition work that is produced from actual antiques as models, or created by sculptors, that other companies are unable or unwilling to attempt. Eouse believes his ability to create both simple and intricate work gives Art & Frame a larger market share.
Today Art & Frame Direct operates exquisite showrooms open to the trade in major merchandise market centers in all the key regional and national venues, and also participates in numerous industry-based trade shows. The company now wholesales products from many distinct catalog divisions featured on the internet and offers downloadable catalogs on their website at www.AFDhome.com that include a full spectrum of decorative accessories including wall décor, framed art and mirrors, sculpture, lighting, furniture, and one of the nations best selling outdoor collections.
The company ships from two distribution centers of over half a million square feet serving the United States from each coast to customers from all over the world including major retailers, mail order , and regional concerns of all sizes, as well as custom manufacturing for interior design firms catering to hotel and contract furnishings and private-label manufacturing for several major retailers.
By partnering with other worldwide manufacturers to produce and distribute what they research to be viable and needed new products, Art & Frame Direct has consistently grown over 50% annually since the company was founded. Throughout the year Art & Frame Direct actively introduces an aggressive amount of new items.
The premier of new licensed brand collections, Dan Haggerty’s Grizzly Adams Wilderness Collection”, and the 2004 revealing of the “PGA Tour Home Accessories”, propelled the company to an even higher level of international and industrial recognition in design, production, and quality raising the performance bar for all members of the Art & Frame Direct company.
The beginning, middle and ending word for the strength, success and future of Art & Frame Direct is the unstoppable pursuit of Customer Service in every department, every job function, every facility. “Our team is committed to being a major force in this industry. The excitement of knowing that we are living our dreams to be one of the best in this dynamic industry, and that so many of our customers continue to respond positively and support our efforts, continues to motivate and help us exceed our annual growth and development expectations,” states Eouse.