www.thegallerysystem.com www.thegallerysystem.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/TheGallerySystem
Hi all, my name is Jillian and I am the owner of Gallery Systems. We have our factory located in Queensland, Australia, which we are fortunate to call ‘the lucky country’. It is such an amazing place to live.
The journey of Gallery Systems didn’t start with me though, I only came into the picture some 23 years ago. So, before I can give you my origin story, I need to set the scene for you first.
The True Beginnings!
About 38 years ago, a gentleman by the name of Bruce Green, was the owner of a small retail furniture store in a busy suburb of Sydney. Bruce wanted to sell prints to his customers as most furniture stores do. He started by hanging them in the old traditional way by banging a nail into the wall. This was frowned upon by the landlord of his shop, so he needed to come up with a better solution than the good old hammer and nail. On searching around, he found an imported gallery hanging system which he purchased at quite a high price. Unfortunately, he saw many flaws in this system and as the budding inventor he was, Bruce decided to make his own system.
So the original Clear Tape system was born.
Clear Tape System! So unobtrusive holding up pictures in an office building in Boston.
From what Bruce has told me, he was pretty proud of his system, as it had all the benefits that he required; the ability to move pictures whenever he wanted, create a professional looking display and once he sold a picture he didn’t have the worry about fixing any unsightly holes created by a nail in the wall.
Customers often commented on the system when they were in his store and more often than not would ask where they could buy the system. He put together a couple of crude systems for people who asked, however, he was not geared for making the products out of his garage on any scale.
Some time in the mid 80’s the Woolworths supermarket that was located a couple of doors down from Bruce’s furniture store closed down. As a multinational company, this made a big impact on a lot of the local small businesses, and one by one they started closing their doors. It wasn’t long before walk-by customers became almost non-existent and Bruce was also considering that he may have to close his doors. With a debt to the bank and a young family to provide for these were scary times.
What great timing!
What appeared to be great timing that not long before Bruce closed his shop for good, a gentleman walked through the doors who would ultimately change the course of Bruce’s life and indirectly my own life as well (which I didn’t know at the time as I didn’t know Bruce back then). This gentleman was the owner of a large art supply business based in Melbourne. The gentleman made a comment on Bruce’s hanging system and mentioned that he was very interested in reselling the system in his business. This was the exact pivotal moment that the idea of Gallery Systems was born.
So where to next?
Bruce considered the proposal and planned out how he could manufacture the system on a larger scale.
As a side note, Bruce closed his furniture store around 1987 and at the same time decided to take up an opportunity to import furniture into Australia and sell it wholesale.
I have had a lot of discussions with Bruce over the years and to this day I am not sure how it came about, but, never the less he picked up his life and family after closing his shop and rented a small shed on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia where he ran his importing business and started manufacturing his Clear Tape gallery hanging system on a very small scale with just one distributor in Melbourne.
It was not always an easy road!
This was no small task, as he had no staff, no manufacturing equipment and no idea about manufacturing or importing. But this didn’t stop Bruce. What he didn’t know, he would research and find out. What equipment he didn’t have he generally made himself with many trial and errors along the way. The road was not an easy one to take!
In 1995 he developed a new stainless-steel cable system to add to the mix, which took a good year to develop and test before going to market.
In 1999 Bruce decided to introduce an integrated lighting system. Now this was a huge challenge, which did not stop Bruce. Ultimately this system took about six years to develop before the system became saleable.
At one stage around 2001, Bruce decided to upgrade a manual machine that made a component for one of our hooks. This would be a one-off machine so it had to be designed and made from scratch. Well, that was a minefield. It took nearly three years to build the thing. Bruce went through three different machine builders, as the first two unfortunately went broke. The machine ended up costing about 5 times the amount that was first quoted. But Bruce powered on!
At this stage, there were so many trials and tribulations that Bruce decided to give away importing furniture (that’s another story). But something needed to be done to concentrate on the core business of manufacturing hanging systems for art!
Was it all worth it in the end?
The stories go on about the trials and tribulations of keeping a manufacturing business going in a time where most Australian manufacturers were closing their doors and heading to China. Ultimately though, after all Bruce’s efforts, Gallery Systems sells hanging and lighting systems around the world.
So, literally from back yard to worldwide success, Gallery Systems as a business has come a long way!
As a bit of a brag here you can find our products in places such as Apple Inc, Microsoft, Nasa, major universities around the world, such as Oxford, Harvard and Princeton. …. And the list goes on! Not only do we have our products in these prestigious locations, we have our products in 10’s of 1000’s of ordinary homes around the globe like yours and mine!
So where do I fit into this picture that has been painted I hear you say? In short, I started working for Bruce in 2001 as his assistant! Then in 2017 my husband and I bought the business when Bruce finally hung up his hat and retired.
So! I have given you enough to read today. I will leave my origin story and how I became passionate about Gallery Systems for my next blog.
Talk soon!!
