The fantastic British greeting card industry where the UK leads the rest of the world, has grown over the past year or so to achieve an overall worth of around £1.7bn.
This figure includes around £200mn spent on 900 million Christmas cards, while over three quarters of the overall market value came via everyday cards, while Spring Seasons were worth over £150mn, spread across Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Easter, the latter representing a growing occasion across both stationery and gifting.
Lora Verner and English Graphics (above) have walked in with the cool Daschund trend appearing on cards, stationery, gifts and home accessories.
In the weeks to come we can look forward to seeing some stunning presentations of greeting cards at various trade events around the UK and Europe, including Top Drawer, which now incorporates Paperfest and holds seasonal Paper Awards.
Top Drawer will be followed by Paperworld in Frankfurt on January 27 – 31, an event that will be co-located with decorative accessories exhibition, Christmasworld, and the brand new Floradecora event for fresh flowers and plants. This, in turn, will be followed up by Spring Fair, which will host hundreds of card publishers, large and small, in Hall 3 of The NEC.
New to Greetings & Gift at Spring Fair 2017, located in Hall 3 of the show, will be the Debut area, curated by the Greeting Card Association (GCA), which incorporates 24 individual card designers, exhibiting at the show for the first time. These include:
Kate Phythian Design, Go La La, Eloise Hall, Lucy Truman, A Made Hand, Catherine Kleeli Cards, Pippi & Me, Lizzie Chancellor, Choco Greetings, Mary-Bo-Beany, Jelly Armchair, Paper Bird Publishing , Stormy Knight, Helen Wiseman Illustration, Elaara Islamic Greeting Cards, Old English Company, Stripey Cats Cards, Doodleicious , Country Colour, Dialectable, Proud Couture Ltd and English Graphics.
This is a fabulous assortment of exciting designer-publishers with a broad range of styles between them, and well worth a visit for anyone who loves their cards and wants an easy, affordable way to spice up their merchandise.
These newbies will perfectly complement the massive contingent of well-established publishers and more familiar Spring Fair faces, which this year includes some of the most successful and well-loved companies in the trade, such as Carte Blanche Group, The Great British Card Company, Woodmansterne, Roger la Borde, Santoro Graphics and giftwrap specialist, Penny Kennedy.
I’ll also be making a beeline for a few exciting designers who have some gorgeous new graphic and beautiful illustrative designs to present at the show, including Paper Salad, The Little Dog Laughed, Madame Treacle, Lora Verner, Deckled Edge and Moongazer cards.
Anne Geddes licensed calendar by Browntrout, Flame Tree Publishing, Chau Art, Hype Associates, Fay’s Studio, Cath Tate, Richard Sellmer Verlag, Deckled Edge, Danilo, Hearts Design, James Ellis Stevens, Woodmansterne Publications, Paper Salad, Chase & Wonder, Holy Mackerel, Go La La, Pop Shot Studios, Lola Designs, Pigment Productions, Laura Darrington, Two Little Boys, Doodelicious, Stormy Knight, Claire Louise, Holy Mackerel, Judy Lumley, Periodic, Heather Alstead, Catherine Kleeli, Lesley Anne Ivory, Lola Design, Berni Parker, Roger La Borde, Douglas The Boy Wonder, Anzu, Tomcat Cards, Tango Books, Hart Deco, Red Back Cards, Judy Lumley, Lizzie Chancellor, Tache Crafts, The Art File, Meany Bo Beany, Cherry Orchard, Two Little Monkeys, Moongazer
