3,000 Orders. Thank You.
When Dean and I relaunched The Beautiful Frame just over a year ago, we had no idea what was waiting for us.
We believed there was a place for beautifully designed artwork that celebrated sporting achievements through statistics, storytelling and design. We believed fans cared about the details. The moments. The journey behind the trophies.
What we didn’t know was whether anyone else would care too.
This week, we quietly passed a milestone that means an awful lot to us.
3,000 orders. 🎉
Three thousand people who chose to support a small independent business.
Three thousand orders that have helped turn an idea into something real.
And honestly, we’re incredibly grateful.
From a Spare Room to 3,000 Orders
The Beautiful Frame isn’t a big company.
There isn’t a warehouse full of staff.
There isn’t a marketing department.
There isn’t a customer service team.
It’s just the two of us.
Most days we’re researching, designing, packing orders, answering customer emails, creating social content, fixing problems, speaking to suppliers and planning the next collection.
Sometimes all before lunch.
Like many small businesses, we’ve spent the last year learning as we go.
Growing quickly sounds exciting – and it absolutely is – but it also comes with challenges.
What Dean's garden looked like after one of our deliveries of new frames this month.
We’re currently in that strange stage where we have too many orders to feel like a tiny hobby business, but not quite enough orders to operate like a large company with dedicated staff, warehouse space and systems.
It’s a wonderful problem to have.
But it’s still a problem that needs solving.
There have been long days, late nights, mistakes, lessons learned and plenty of moments where we’ve looked at each other wondering how we’re going to fit another pallet of prints into the available space.
Yet every challenge has existed because people continue to support what we’re building.
For that, we’re genuinely thankful.
Moments We’ll Never Forget
One of the most surreal moments came just weeks after launching.
Aaron Danks, the Assistant Manager at Bayern Munich, commissioned 50 limited-edition prints for players and staff.
As lifelong football fans, seeing our work end up in the hands of some of the biggest names in world football felt almost impossible to believe.
That project eventually led to photographs of players and staff with our work, including Harry Kane and Vincent Kompany.
Not only did Aaron gift our prints to the playing squad, he also got us a signed print sent back to us!
Even now, it still feels slightly ridiculous typing that.
We’ve also been fortunate enough to see our prints find homes with people across the football world, including England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton following England’s European Championship success.
For a business that started with two people and an idea, those moments are incredibly special.
We were also proud to be featured on the Chris Moyles show back in November, you can watch the full segment here.
“That’s a nice thing to have, it’s smart as well because to the untrained eye it’s not glaringly obvious footbally, I could get away with that for a while on the wall before Tiff would actually have a look at it and go ‘ow it’s football... Really good work guys, they’re very nice” — Chris Moyles, Radio X
The Prints That Defined Our First Year
Every product has its own story, but a few have stood out.
Our Arsenal collection has been one of the biggest success stories we’ve ever produced, with incredible support from Gunners around the world.
The response to our Coventry City Championship-winning print was equally memorable. Seeing Sky Blues supporters celebrate a historic season through our work was exactly why we started The Beautiful Frame in the first place.
More recently, we’ve reached another major milestone.
The Beautiful Frame’s first official football club collaboration.
Working alongside Leicester City Football Club on the official LCFC x The Beautiful Frame 5000-1 Anniversary Collection has been a huge moment for us as a business.
As two Leicester lads who watched that incredible title-winning season unfold, creating an officially licensed piece celebrating one of football’s greatest stories feels genuinely special.
It’s the sort of project we dreamed about when we started.
What Happens Next?
The honest answer is that we’re still figuring that out.
There are new clubs we’d love to work with.
New sports we’d love to explore.
New products we’d love to create.
Most importantly, we want to keep improving.
We want better systems.
Better service.
Better products.
Better experiences for customers.
And we want to keep telling sporting stories in a way that feels meaningful.
Thank You
Every order matters to us.
Whether you’ve bought one print or ten.
Whether you’ve followed us since day one or discovered us last week.
Whether you’ve shared a post, recommended us to a friend, left a review or simply supported what we’re doing.
Thank you.
Small businesses only exist because people choose to support them.
The last year has exceeded anything we could have imagined.
3,000 orders is a milestone we’ll never forget.
Here’s to the next chapter.
— Leigh & Dean
The Beautiful Frame
Read more about us here.
