Once the robes and cardboard hats (or hoods, depending on your institution) are turned in, the exams are over, the ink on the diplomas has dried and even the inevitable hangover from graduation parties has resolved itself, most graduates resign their accomplishments to a line on their resume and a rolled up scroll left somewhere around their parents’ house.
Worse, some fall into a stack of papers and are recycled, chewed by the dog, or just thrown out like unwanted flyers and pamphlets. This is your diploma! This piece of paper represents four years (or more) of hard work, late nights studying, and the struggle to continually expand your mind, horizons, and still merge that with the expectations of your teacher, professor, or other grading official. You have a personal responsibility to treat this document with care, if only because it means respecting yourself and all the things you’ve already accomplished. A college diploma frame will ensure that your diploma will be preserved for years to come. It’s not expensive to preserve your diploma with class and style. One of the most common college diploma frames is also the least expensive and simple.
It has a brushed metal frame on the outside, and protecting and framing your diploma is thick cardstock matting that provides a layer of gravitas to your notable achievements. This matting can be chosen to match the color of your school’s signature colors. It’s simple, inexpensive, and best of all, it ensures that your diploma is completely free of dust as well as protected from a modicum of sunlight rays to reduce fading. This option leaves your diploma beautifully presented to hang on a wall or even store, but every time you see it, you can remember the things you’ve already accomplished and the potential within you to accomplish so much more. Some graduates will have the opportunity to display their diploma in their new offices, and for those lucky graduates, there is a certain level of ceremony (you might even say pomp and circumstance) necessary to befit your new position.
This type of college diploma frame will be a little bit more expensive, but it will have the added benefit of not only serving as a personal reminder, but demonstrating to your new colleagues and clients exactly what you’ve already achieved. This high end of the spectrum has many different, beautiful results; most are framed in wood picked with exactingly high standards, stained and lacquered for a gleaming finish, shaped and grooved with contrasting lacquers and even occasionally gilding in the grooves.
The matting inside can be multilayered and layer several different colors (say both of the school’s standard colors) or more fine details like a gold leaf border or an engraving of the name of the school or the school’s crest (if applicable). You can make your diploma into a beautiful display of your pride and accomplishments. There is definitely also a middle ground to tread between the most elaborate and decorative and those very simple options. Basically, the frame consists of the frame itself, made from wood or metal, which can come in simple formats all the way up to molding-like intricacies, the document itself, and then the matting that stands between the frame and the document. You can increase the depth and coverage of the matting, play with colors, textures and finishes, and you can adjust the frame in many different ways, from the most simple to something that looks like a hand carved piece of art. Obviously this range is also price dependent, so whatever your style, you can find something that fits you personally. A collegiate education is nothing to be taken lightly. Earning that diploma is a significant achievement; maybe this new year you should resolve to be the kind of person who takes their achievements seriously and use a college diploma frame to remind yourself every day of what you’ve accomplished.