Our Story...

Some of the products that I sell were designed back in 1976.  At the time they were made by the print shop that Craig Schmidt’s dad owned and operated in Santa Barbara, CA.  The matte design was the work of a local artist for Kathy Bloomer, one of the pioneers of the Old Time Photo industry.  In 1996 Craig Schmidt (Craig being The Mats Guy 1.0) took over the entire business from Kathy and started making and selling the mattes for Old Time Portrait Studios across the US.  In January of 2019, Craig decided to retire and instead of letting these great designs ride off into the California sunset, I picked up the phone and made plans to take over the business from Craig… and our journey starts there…