Me as business consultant have the opportunity to collaborate with various entrepreneur projects in one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the country. Even though multiple projects pass through my hands, I must admit that I am not aware of the fine details of many of them.
My relationship with Lavinia Ruiz begins with friendship. I knew superficially about her activity and her company Lavinia’s Framing.
Our professional careers suddenly found points of coincidence. She; totally oriented to art, creativity and inspiration. I; focused on order, systems and productivity.
After advising her company for almost three years, it happens that I can take my head off the books and get to see the workshop for the first time with all its magic. I can appreciate in a more delicate way the great contribution she adds to art in Mexico.
For the first time, I had the opportunity to accompany her to the West Coast Art and Frame Expo 2019 in the city of Las Vegas, where the leaders of the sector come together.
Clients and suppliers concur with the sole purpose of exchanging their news and creating new business alliances that; Although they seem very interesting to me from a business point of view, I could perceive a bit of coldness.
“Some ingredient was missing, I thought …”
Emma García
I took on the task of absorbing as much as I could about the global trends of doing business. The automated way to create innumerable pieces basically. We review productivity, profit margins and especially the incorporation of technology to reach more and with better delivery times.
All this I repeat; From a business point I find it fascinating because it is the axis of my nature and my reason for being business consultant.
We handed out the work schedule and saw Lavinia running from one place to another to get to her workshops.
Very diligent she let herself be captivated by the marketing and the secrets of the industry that solve some technical problems with which she finds herself everyday in her workshop.
We shared the results of our workshops in the evenings and planned the company’s future while we left half-eaten snacks and half-full cups of coffee or glasses of wine.
An incomparable experience that brought me closer to the person and took me a little away from the company. I gave myself the pleasure of seeing her with a certain perspective. My complete ignorance in the subject allowed me to ask questions that Lavinia had a lot of patience in answering. I started by asking how she changed the brushes and pencils for moulding strips and nails. Lavinia is an artist with a great personal trajectory of which she speaks little.
I asked her how does she inspire to intervene pieces of other artists in her workshop and how she transmits the idea to her team. I was intrigued to know how she chooses one material or another; a shape or a color.
She looks at me like she does not understand me. For her it is so natural; She does not really understand me because I do not understand her either.
“An artist is someone who feels and then exists”
Emma García
An artist is the one who is sensitive, inspired and creative. I do not know if it is in that order, but it is a fact that there is a process in the terms that I do understand.
She is moved by the triumph of another, moved by aesthetics, moved by shapes, colors, moved by the projection that the piece will have in an exhibition; but the most important thing is that when inspiration does not arrive, then it is compassion. The visual side in balance with the emotional side, then the magic happens.
She told me what happens when pieces arrive. She told me about how artists or the owners of a piece behave. She described the personalities of her clients and the different demands or the total freedom they give her to intervene. She talks about states of humor, about meaning. She told me about how much each piece represents in her customers’ lives and how much she cares.
I remember again that Lavinia is an artist by herself. We agree that children are the beginning and the end in our lives. We talk about how economic need makes you do certain things that then lead you to unsuspected results as was the case with Lavinia’s Framing. In this coming and going of ideas, it would be unfair to leave out the main piece of her success; her brave life partner who is a determined and visionary man who, based on coffee, good food, wine and curiosity, was directing the steps of Lavinia and who supports her in everything for years. It is a love story that becomes a business success story.
It is a very interesting emotional and business binomial
She is the heart, he is the reason
Personally, I wanted to talk a little about this success story; because with great pride I can conclude that what I saw in the workshops and conferences that I attended was a series of automated growth techniques in its vast majority. I clarify that I have nothing against; In fact, it is what is recommended for almost all companies.
This experience gave me the answer to the excellent reputation that Lavinia’s Framing has in San Miguel de Allende and the importance it has for an artist what brings the magic of Lavinia’s workshop to their works in Mexico and abroad.
Lavinia’s Framing distinguishes the eccentricity, exclusivity, personalization and emotion that must accompany the work of each artist. Each piece is a challenge. Each piece is a creative process. Each piece is a project. Each piece will put us at risk as a company because it is a fact that this challenge entails a high degree of difficulty but satisfaction.
It is a fact that the automation of an emotion is impossible. It is a fact that our customers do not seek cutting and assembly.
Emma García
Our clients want their piece to have “fua” as Lavinia would say
We will all continue working in Lavinia’s Framing to keep running those risks that contribute to art in Mexico an ingredient of exclusivity, good taste and warmth.
We will continue working to use the best materials available in the market and put them within the reach of the framing industry in Mexico, committing to share our secrets and reach companies that want to professionalize their service in any part of the Mexican Republic. We will follow the steps of this dream of transcendence that today employs a significant number of creative and dedicated people. Surely we will soon see Lavinia leading forums where she can share her experience in creating a niche within the framing industry worldwide.