What inspired Quirky Prints

Two years ago, three people gathered in a pizza restaurant (Ask Pizza if you must know!). Julia, a “Home & Garden“ type with a keen enthusiasm for Art, Tony, an energetic entrepreneur with a 30-year knowledge of print reproduction and Jon, techie genius, scathing wired warrior and rag torn from the dot.com fallout. (Oddly, quite a complimentary trio).

Our intent was to find a niche in the popular art market using our combined skills and expertise. As both the food and wine flowed, it became clear it was going to be difficult to be different. Popular art was an overcrowded market. The same prints for sale in the high street - thousands of similar pictures appearing in thousands of homes across the UK. Could we come up with something new, something Quirky in fact?

So it was memories of a recent Devon holiday – a happy but accidental meet with friends from London – a birthday supper and a last-minute panic dash for a present! All this brought us to a local antique market for inspiration. Eureka! - We found old Sepia and black-and-white prints of landscapes, people, shops and transport from times long ago. The “huge hit” at that birthday supper was a strange but arresting framed photograph of a man proudly standing by his motorbike from the 1920s. The embryo of the Quirky brand was hatched.

What! Old, obscure faded photos of people and places of no interest to anyone we hear you cry! Nothing of the sort, two years of dedication to collecting beautiful pictures from vintage photograph dealers, auctions, old collections and specialist shops from all round the world leading to an archive of thousands of hand-picked images.

Well it was a tough task. We have worked hard to bring you something very different. We really hope you get as much pleasure out of these extraordinary pictures as we have.

Meet the Quirky crew

Who's who - left to right Jon - Technical Director Tony - CEO Brian - Production Manager 1 Julia - Art Director Laurent - Ace Restorer & Studio Manager Ian - Sales Manager Garry - Production Manager 2 Scottie - Head of Production