Making Your City Relief Truly Yours

Every city tells a story, but your city relief should tell your story. At Urban Frames, we believe that personalization transforms a beautiful piece of art into a cherished memory. Here is how you can add those special touches that make your city relief uniquely meaningful.

Frame Finishes: Setting the Mood

The frame is not just a border — it is the first thing people notice about your city relief, and it establishes the entire aesthetic character of the piece. Our finish options are carefully selected to complement different interior styles:

• Classic Black: Clean, modern, and dramatic. A black frame draws the eye directly to the city relief and works in virtually any setting, from minimalist apartments to traditional studies. It is our most popular choice for a reason — it disappears as a frame and lets the topography speak.
• White: Light, airy, and contemporary. A white frame softens the piece and integrates it into Scandinavian-inspired interiors, bright living rooms, and gallery walls. It pairs particularly well with lighter-toned reliefs.
• Natural Wood: Warm and organic. The natural wood finish reveals the grain pattern and creates a connection to the handcrafted nature of the piece. It suits spaces with exposed wood, natural textiles, and earthy color palettes.

Consider your existing decor, but also consider the mood you want the piece to create. A black frame in a white room creates a striking focal point. A natural wood frame alongside other wooden elements creates harmony and warmth. There is no wrong answer — only the one that feels right for your space.

Size Matters: Finding the Perfect Scale

We offer three sizes to fit your space and your vision:

• Compact (11×11cm): Perfect for desks, bookshelves, or as part of a gallery wall. This size is also the most popular gift format because it is easy to wrap, easy to ship, and immediately charming. Many customers order a set of two or three Compact reliefs — perhaps the cities where they studied, lived, and currently reside — and arrange them together on a shelf.
• Detailed (23×23cm): The most widely ordered size. It works beautifully as a standalone wall feature in a living room, bedroom, or office without dominating the space. At this scale, the topographic detail becomes clearly legible and the interplay between streets, parks, and waterways is visible from across a room.
• Collector (50×50cm): The statement piece. At this scale, you can trace individual streets with your fingertip. The Collector size is best suited to larger walls or dedicated display positions — above a fireplace, at the end of a hallway, or as the anchor piece of a gallery wall. It is the format most often chosen by architecture and urban design enthusiasts.

Think about where you will display your relief and how it will interact with the room. Measure the wall space. Consider sightlines — a piece that is visible from your desk or your sofa will bring you more daily pleasure than one tucked into a corner.

Choosing the Right City

The city you choose is the most personal decision of all. For most customers, the answer is immediate and obvious — it is the city where they grew up, the city where they live now, or the city where something important happened to them. A first apartment. A proposal. A year abroad that changed everything.

But the choice can also be aspirational. Some customers choose the city they dream of visiting. Others choose a city that represents a chapter they want to honor — the place where a grandparent was born, or the city where a friendship was forged during a study-abroad semester.

Urban Frames currently offers reliefs for cities across Europe and beyond, each printed from precise elevation and topographic data. If you are unsure which city to choose as a gift, think about which place the recipient talks about most. That is almost always the right answer.

Custom Text and Coordinates

Add meaningful personal touches with custom engraving options:

• Important Dates: Wedding anniversaries, birth dates, or the day you first set foot in the city
• Coordinates: The exact latitude and longitude of a specific location — the restaurant where you proposed, the hospital where your child was born, the building where you signed your first lease
• Personal Messages: “Home Sweet Home,” “Where It All Began,” or anything that captures the meaning of the place in a few words
• Names: Family names, a couple’s names, or a single word that carries personal weight

These elements are engraved on the frame, adding a layer of sentiment that transforms the piece from a beautiful object into a deeply personal one. The engraving is subtle — it does not compete with the relief itself — but it adds meaning that only the owner fully understands.

A note on coordinates: we recommend using the decimal degree format (e.g., 44.4268, 26.1025 for Bucharest) for a clean, modern look. If you are not sure of the exact coordinates, a quick search for the address on any map application will give you the numbers you need.

Material and Craft: What Goes Into Each Piece

Every Urban Frames relief is 3D-printed from biodegradable PLA — a corn-starch-derived polymer that is rigid, precise, and takes fine surface detail exceptionally well. PLA has a significantly lower environmental footprint than petroleum-based plastics, which aligns with our commitment to sustainable production.

The printed relief is then mounted into a handcrafted wooden frame in our Bucharest workshop. Each frame is cut, sanded, and finished by hand. The natural wood option reveals the grain; the black and white options use a matte finish that is fingerprint-resistant and durable.

The entire process — from data processing to final inspection — takes two to four working days. Every piece is checked before shipping to ensure the topographic detail is crisp, the frame is flawless, and the mounting is secure.

Color Customization for the City Itself

Our standard reliefs are rendered in a single tone that contrasts with the frame, but we offer customization for customers who want something specific:

• Single Color Reliefs: The classic choice. A white relief in a black frame, or a black relief in a natural wood frame, creates a clean, graphic effect that works in any interior.
• Two-Tone Options: Combine colors for different districts or to highlight waterways and green spaces against the urban grid.
• Custom Color Matching: Match the relief to your brand colors for a corporate gift, or coordinate with a specific interior palette. Send us a color reference and we will match it.

Display Ideas: Where to Put Your Relief

Once your customized piece arrives, the question becomes: where does it go? Here are approaches that work well:

• Above a desk or workspace: A relief of the city where you work or where your company was founded adds personal meaning to a functional space.
• Gallery wall: Combine your relief with framed photographs, prints, and other objects that tell your visual story. The three-dimensionality of the relief adds depth and texture to an otherwise flat arrangement.
• Entryway or hallway: A relief near the front door serves as both a conversation starter and a personal statement — visitors see it immediately and ask about it.
• Bedroom: A relief of the city where you and your partner met, placed above the headboard or on a bedside shelf, adds a quiet layer of meaning to the most private room in your home.
• Office or meeting room: A relief of a city relevant to your business — your headquarters city, a key market, or the city where the company was founded — works as both art and identity.

The Personalization Process

Creating your custom city relief is straightforward:

1. Choose Your City: Browse our curated collection of cities
2. Select Your Options: Frame finish, size, and any custom elements
3. Share Your Personalization: Tell us about dates, coordinates, or text you would like engraved
4. Place Your Order: Our artisans begin crafting your unique piece
5. Quality Check: Each relief undergoes rigorous inspection before shipping
6. Delivery: Your personalized city relief arrives ready to display

Inspiration from Our Customers

Our customers have created truly special pieces:

• The New York Commuter: A Manhattan relief with the coordinates of their first apartment in the East Village
• The Paris Proposal: An Eiffel Tower-focused piece with the engagement date engraved along the base
• The Family Heritage: A relief of their ancestral hometown in southern Italy with three generations of family names
• The Graduation Gift: A parent ordered a relief of the university city with the graduation date — a gift the graduate displays in their first apartment
• The Anniversary Surprise: A couple exchanged reliefs of each other’s hometowns on their tenth anniversary, now displayed side by side

Care and Maintenance

Your personalized city relief is built to last, but proper care ensures it remains beautiful for decades:

• Dust regularly with a soft, dry cloth — a gentle wipe along the contours is all it takes
• Avoid direct sunlight for prolonged periods to prevent any gradual fading
• Use gentle cleaning with a slightly damp cloth if needed; avoid harsh chemicals
• Handle with care when moving — the frame is solid, but the relief detail is best treated gently
• Wall mounting: Use appropriate fixings for your wall type; the piece is lightweight but should be securely hung

Why Personalization Matters

In a world of mass-produced decor, a personalized city relief stands out as a unique expression of your story. It is not just a beautiful piece of art — it is a conversation starter, a memory keeper, and a testament to the places that have shaped who you are.

When you add personal touches to your city relief, you are not just buying a product — you are creating an heirloom that will be cherished for generations. The city is real. The topography is accurate. And the personal details you add — a date, a name, a set of coordinates — tie it permanently to your story.

Browse our collection and start designing your unique piece today.