We have been working with Simon from Limited100 for a while now. We have several of the limited edition prints in The Classic Lounge, and I try to keep in touch with Simon on a fairly regular basis.
Seeing how we’ve been around Simon for so long, it seemed fitting to share more of his story with you. So I recently had a conversation with him about Limited100, its history, and his plans for the future.
This is how our conversation went:
Tell me about Limited100
We’re an online store that sells luxury handcrafted automotive wall art for collectors, enthusiasts and gift buyers. I’ve always been into cars, spotting makes and models from the age of 5, playing Gran Turismo from 8, and thrashing a friend’s GTI-6 around the Vale of Belvoir when learning to drive. Nowadays, at 36, I usually have a project on the go, such as an E60 M5, and more recently an RS6 V10 Avant that I plan to take beyond 1000 bhp.
Back in 2020, I moved into my first house and wanted to make it my own, and had a bit of a Breaking Bad-inspired green theme going on in the living room and kitchen. It was mostly flowery naturey stuff, and I thought it’d be cool to have a car on the wall too, specifically a Lamborghini Miura, which I reckon is the most beautiful car ever made. I searched online for a high-quality framed print, and almost everything I saw looked a bit low rent and not built to last.
I stumbled upon this amazing shot of a Miura by Birmingham-based Paul Ward, gave him a ring and asked how much he would want for me to use the image once. Then I had a bit of a brainwave, which goes back to my uni days studying entrepreneurship – it taught me to always be thinking of solutions to everyday problems – such as transparent toasters (as an example, not my idea). I’d been thinking of concepts for online stores for years, but could never find anything truly unique. It had to be inimitable, and I didn’t want to dropship someone else’s products; I wanted something I could be truly proud of, and having developed websites for AGA Rangemaster in the past, the luxury market fascinated me; it still does. With more people working from home and investing in classic car experiences, I figured launching Limited100 would be a splendid new adventure. The AGA of car wall art, I guess?
The name Limited100 obviously comes from highly limited print runs. Why do you think that matters to people?
I think if we sold one-of-ones, the price would be too inaccessible, and runs of 1000 wouldn’t be special enough. 100 has the exclusivity and scalability we needed to make it a viable business. Buyers of our automotive wall art appreciate the handcraftsmanship, quality of materials and level of customer service they get.
Day-to-day, I’m often a bit of a concierge for buyers looking to renovate their garages, offices, or buy a gift for a loved one. I’m also working a full-time job remotely for an American firm, so most development work is evenings and weekends – although earlier today I had to nip over to our printing house to check on some V12 Vantage artwork settings for an order bound for Texas.
You work with a lot of photographers. How do you choose who you work with?
Usually, potential artists reach out via our website or Instagram, and our team assesses whether we think there’s a market for their art. A lot of hours go into adding products to our Shopify store, creating mockups, print files and test print runs. We also need to check their images are high enough resolution for the giant print formats we sell, and ensure the art is pixel-perfect even under a magnifying glass.
We’re at a point now where we nearly have a complete range (although personally I’d like to see an E46 M3 CSL, Audi RS2 and a couple of Cosworths). My priority now is ensuring the growth of orders for our resident artists’ published works. The images need to be truly awe-inspiring, impeccable, and usually have gone through extensive editing. It also helps that our photographers are lovely people and a pleasure to work with.
Tell me about what goes into making one of these prints
Assembling world-class automotive art begins with sourcing the car and managing the photoshoot, whether it’s in a studio or on location, although many of our images are from artists’ previous shoots. Then there’s the editing, which can be as much as 5 hours per piece. We also coordinate the occasional end-to-end photoshoot and print package on behalf of clients, such as this Lola T70. Then there’s the curation, which I lead.
In terms of production, our prints are made by hand in a variety of sizes and materials, all the way from print-only on fine art paper, through to framed, canvas, aluminium composite, and for our largest format, measuring up to 5 metres wide – acrylic glass (POA). Once a customer places an order, we have the print files ready to go; I just have to add the edition number and create the certificate of authenticity prior to printing and framing.
Most materials are sourced locally in England (our frames and mounts are made a couple of miles up the road in Nottinghamshire, where we’re based), while extra ingredients come from Sweden and Germany. Production and material sourcing is over 90% in the UK, enough for us to gain Made In Britain status that we proudly display on our pieces.
You’re based in Nottingham, but people all over the world buy your art. What’s it been like seeing your product ship globally?
Really rewarding, my background is in digital marketing and using skills in that arena has helped grow our site from diddly squat to around 30,000 visitors annually. We don’t do any paid advertising. I’ve had a go and also tried working with agencies, and it never covers its own cost, so I’m proud to say all of our orders come from organic search and the occasional order through partnerships. I may revisit paid advertising at some point, but I remain sceptical.
We’ve sold over 500 prints since launch, and our biggest markets after the UK are the USA, Australia, Germany and Canada. We’ve also shipped to Thailand, Qatar, Japan, South Korea and a bunch of other faraway destinations. Quite a number are repeat customers too, with a number buying over 10 prints each so far. Our biggest projects have been for premiership footballers, a classic car dealership in London, and interior design pioneers.
What’s your favourite car that’s been turned into a Limited100 print so far, and why?
It has to be ‘Pagani Zonda C12’ by Rudolf van der Ven, the latest artist to join Limited100. While my perfect Zonda to own would be a C12S 7.3, and that example is an earlier 6.0, it shares almost exactly the same design, and the C12 Rudolf shot is chassis number 1 that was 3D-scanned Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, which combined with its appearance in the first episode of new-format Top Gear alongside the Murciélago, makes the Zonda peak car for me. Much like the Edonis, F1 and T.50, its design was sui generis (a term I just learned), or “in a class all by itself”.
Some customers choose specific edition numbers like 8/100 or 50/100, etc. Why do you think people care about the number they get?
Most don’t, surprisingly, and once an order is placed, we pick an edition number at random, in no particular order. Clients care most about durability, quality of materials, attention to detail and in many cases speed of production and shipping.
We do state, though, on our website that if they want a specific edition number, then contact us while placing their order, or ideally just before. Some do request a special number, one regular client always likes to snap edition 1, Bond enthusiasts hanker for 007 and other notable orders were 8 to Japan and edition 40 of an F40 print for someone’s boss’s birthday in Portugal.
What’s next for Limited100?
This year, we will continue to expand our range and look to work with more interior designers, dealerships, and architects. We’re also trying to grow reseller partnerships, with in-person retail currently being tested too.
In the meantime, I’ll keep working on making Limited100 more discoverable across search engines and LLMs. We look forward to working with Bridge Classic Cars and running the occasional prize giveaway to help get our name out there and help you guys offer something unique to your subscribers.
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