Our Story

Grad school, a shop, and a need for art panels

That's really where it all started. Daniel was an artist in grad school who needed panels to paint on. But the sizes he wanted weren't out there. So he set up shop and started making his own.

That was over 15 years ago.

Since then, Square One has grown from one student's project into a company that builds panels, stretchers, and frames for working artists, all out of a 3-bay shop here in the upstate of South Carolina.

We are the Marinelli family, and we are Square One Art Panels

Square One has always been family owned and operated, not a franchise or a corporation. Daniel runs and works in the shop. The people cutting, joining, sanding, and handstamping every panel aren't just hired hands clocking in and out, they're part of the Square One family, and every artist we work with is treated the same way.

That's not a marketing line. It's how the shop has run from the first panel Daniel built in grad school to the ones going out the door today.

When you're family owned, every panel has someone's name attached to it. There's no passing the blame down a chain of management, no corner office making decisions about your work from somewhere else. If something's not right, you're talking to the person who actually made it.

We love hearing from the artists we build for, questions, custom sizes, a weird request nobody else would take on. Pick up the phone or send an email, and you'll get a real person who actually cares about your answer, not a call center script.

Square One was built by an artist, for artists. That's still how it runs.

Built to make your art work.