Enormous Art began as a partnership in 1990 between Catriona Atkinson and Kane Yeardley, who had spotted a niche in the market when the trend was for very large (Fly, or Subway) posters. Giant sized affordable art prints were a gap in the industry that Enormous Art filled, and all of the smaller sizes followed shortly afterwards.

 

Enormous Art has distributed for many of the top UK Museums and Galleries own collections, to UK retailers, and to the export market worldwide, here are some of the names that they have been proud to work with:

  • Manchester Art gallery, 1994
  • Tyne & Wear Museums, 1996
  • Liverpool Museums, 1997
  • Aberdeen Art Gallery, 1998
  • Bodleian Library, 1998
  • Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 1998
  • Leicester City Museum,1999
  • Westminster Abbey
  • Glasgow Museums, 2000
  • TATE, 2001 (launching for the first time a set of images from Tate Modern)
  • National Museum Wales, 2002

 

In 2001 Enormous Art became a Limited Company with Catriona Lister as Managing Director. In 2001 Enormous Art also acquired the assets and stock of their US distributor, English Watercolours Gallery and formed the new company Enormous Art (USA) Inc based in Louisville, Kentucky with Catriona Lister as President. (This was a solution to combat the’ Banana Wars’ sanctions put on European imports to the US in the form of 100% tariffs and this ensured that Enormous Art could still supply its US customers at sensible prices.)

 

Enormous Art is a Multi-Award winning Business:

  • In 1999 Enormous Art won Awards and Nominations for Sales Promotion and for Innovation from The Fine Art Trade Guild.
  • In 2002 Enormous Art won the prestigious ‘Gift of the Year Award’ presented to Catriona Lister at the Ceremony at the Savoy Hotel, London by actress Maureen Lipman.
  • In 2002 Enormous Art won the Sheffield Business Award for Export Excellence in recognition of a business that has maximised opportunities to exploit and develop new markets, leading to business growth and job creation.
  • In 2004 Catriona Lister was a finalist for the Businesswoman of the Year Award for her outstanding contribution to the business performance of her organisation.
  • In 2005 Enormous Art was again nominated for an Export Award by The Art & Framing Industry.

 

Enormous Art has exhibited at Trade Fairs Worldwide:

  • In the UK, at Spring Fair and Autumn Fair at the NEC, Birmingham; Home & Gift Fair, Harrogate; Top Drawer, London.
  • In Europe, at SACA Bologne, Italy ; Maison & Objets and Museum Expressions, Paris , France;’ Image’, Amsterdam , Holland.
  • In The USA, at Art Expo, Decor Expo and Galleria New York,; ABC Show, Atlanta; WCAF, Las Vegas.
  • In Asia at Gifts & Premium, Singapore; Gifts & Housewares Fair, Hong Kong.
  • In UAE, at Ambiente Arabia, Dubai and Index, Dubai. (Here they made first page of the Emirates News selling their entire stand in the first hour, on the first day of the Show)

‘The entire stock of goods on the stand of Enormous Art was snapped up by UAE’s Royal Photographer Noor Ali Rashid. He bought the goods to go on show alongside his renovated gallery to be located in the Hyatt Regency Dubai. He was quoted as saying “I bought these goods because of the quality which is excellent and the price was right”.

 

Working closely with set designers from their home town, Sheffield’s famous Crucible Theatre, Enormous Art made an impact with their stand designs at Trade Fairs by making faithful recreations of famous artist’s works for visitors to step inside on their stand, these included ‘Nighthawks’ by Edward Hopper, ‘Cafe Terrace at Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh, and ‘Waterlily Pond with a Japanese Footbridge’ by Claude Monet. Enormous Art was one of the forerunners in bringing shrink wrapped prints, sold flat, into UK shops and developed a range of smart eye catching wooden display systems for UK retailers point of sale. These stands encouraged impulse buying as well streamlining sales.

 

Enormous Art was one of the first art print publishers to embrace the internet and launched their first e-commerce website in 2000 complete with search facilities by genre, title, period, subject, and colour; unique in the industry at that time! Enormous Art has always embraced new technology and was a pioneer of large format digital printing, now known as ‘giclee’ art prints. Their portfolio of images available has expanded to 100,000+ in all sizes and formats.

 

Enormous Art is proud to carry out Print on Demand and web fulfillment for many of its Museum partners Heritage customers as well as for self publishing artists and photographers.

 

In 2012 Enormous Art launched its giftware lines and now supplies bespoke ranges to many of the Treasure Houses, Historic Houses, Stately Homes, and Castles of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

 

In 2015 Enormous Art celebrated 25 years in business. “I am extremely proud of how our Company has evolved and developed over the last quarter of a Century. We have managed to move with the times and embrace change. Employing young, dynamic, and enthusiastic staff has been one of the keys to our success.” – Catriona Lister, Managing Director.