News

Rock legends revealed on Royal Mail stamps

Royal Mail has unveiled 12 new special stamps to honour 60 years of legendary rock group The Rolling Stones.

The main set of eight stamps features images of the band performing at venues all around the world at various points during their illustrious career, including London’s Hyde Park in July 1969, Tokyo in August, 1995, New York in July 1972 and Knebworth, Herts, in 2017.

An additional four stamps, presented in a Miniature Sheet, feature two shots of the band together and two of the many posters which have promoted their worldwide tours over the years.

Celebrating their 60th anniversary in 2022, the Rolling Stones are only the fourth music group to have a dedicated Royal Mail stamp issue – following on from The Beatles in 2007, Pink Floyd in 2016 and Queen in 2020.

In 2005, the Rolling Stones were awarded the accolade of greatest touring band of all time at the World Music Awards. They have sold an estimated 250 million records and in the UK have had eight no.1 singles and 13 no.1 albums. Their countless awards include four Grammys, three MTV Music Awards and nine NME Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

David Gold, director of public affairs & policy at Royal Mail, said: “Few bands in the history of rock have managed to carve out a career as rich and expansive as that of the Rolling Stones. They have created some of modern music’s most iconic and inspirational albums, with ground-breaking live performances to match.”

The collaboration was brought together and facilitated by Bravado, Universal Music Group’s leading brand management and lifestyle division.

Card and wrap firms make awards shortlist

Congratulations to the companies who have made it onto the Gift Association’s Gift of the Year shortlists.

Products that have made the grade in the Cards & Wrap category include Bauble Christmas Cards and Plantable Seed Cards (pictured), both from Love Country; the Pot of Gold range of cards with bright colours and delicate foiling from Paper Salad, and Parade, a collection featuring ZigZags, 3D box cards and 3D foldouts, from The Art File.

In the Festive & Occasions category, judges’ shortlisted choices include the 24 Days of Stationery Calendar from Martha Brook and Reusable Christmas Crackers from Keep This Cracker.

Making the grade in the Stationery category are the Sucseed Notebooks from Vent for Change, made using recycled paper and reclaimed coffee beans, kiwi, cherry and lavender waste; Wildlife Botanical fabric journals from Lola Design; and the Personalised A5 Journal from Signature Gifts.

Battersea Pop Up Cards from Cardology pop up in the Branded Gifts category shortlist, while Reversible Crackle Wrap from Wrag Wrap appears in the Ethical and Sustainable Gift shortlist.

The next stage in judging will take place at Spring Fair at the NEC Birmingham in February. The finalists will be announced shortly after Spring Fair, with winners announced at an awards ceremony in May.

You can see all the shortlisted products at www.giftoftheyear. co.uk/2022-category.

Greetings Today Golf Day tees off this summer

The 16th Greetings Today Golf Day returns to Puckrup Hall on 1 July after a two-year absence (thanks to Covid).

A great day is in store for everyone, playing off full handicaps with both a nine-hole Texas Scramble in the morning, followed by lunch and an afternoon 18-hole individual competition. Plus, of course, the four-ball UK Greetings mega trophy!

The prizegiving will follow a delicious barbecue. Our last event was played in glorious sunny weather, so we are already keeping our fingers crossed for more of the same.

Tickets are £100 per person - email malcolm@lemapublishing.co.uk or call 0788 9991513 to book your place. The 2019 winning four-ball team from Paperlink

Museums & Galleries reveals dual catalogues

Museums & Galleries’ (M&G) enthusiasm for bringing out new greeting card collections and diversifying its product offer has meant its annual trade catalogue has become bigger and bigger in recent years.

For 2022 the company has taken the decision to split the catalogue into two separate editions – an everyday and a Christmas collection.

The new everyday catalogue is 180 pages, and is bursting with new licences (including Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Percy the Park Keeper), range extensions and refreshes, along with new product categories.

The new catalogues will be mailed to all current customers. The full ranges are also available to view and order online at M&G’s website at www.museumsgalleries.co.uk.

Kali goes back to her roots

Kali Stileman Publishing, a publisher specialising in design-led greeting cards and wrapping papers for children and the young at heart, has truly gone back to its roots with its Botanical collection.

The range consists of 25 designs, featuring intricately illustrated flora and foliage on linen board. The collection soon became bestsellers, with the exciting news that Kew Gardens now stocks the range.

This is particularly special for Kali, who was taught botanical illustration more than 20 years ago by Pandora (Paddy) Sellars, a Kew Gardens artist and family friend. A case of things going full circle!

RetailFest returns to rescheduled Top Drawer

This February, RetailFest will be returning to Top Drawer, offering visitors the chance to get some insider knowledge about how to navigate the industry, and hear what trends we can expect in 2022.

Due to the increase in Omicron cases, the organisers of Top Drawer delayed the show, which is now being held from 20-22 February at Olympia London.

Show director, Russell Rule said: “We are committed to bringing you Top Drawer S/S22 in a safe environment that you can feel comfortable attending for your yearly buying needs. With this in mind, we feel it’s the right decision to postpone to a later date in the same buying season. We will always work in the best interests of our exhibitors, visitors, contractors and staff, and we believe a safe and successful event can be run in late February 2022.’’

RetailFest will feature a series of live talks and thought-provoking sessions from some of the industry’s best-loved names and retail experts. You can look forward to some lively presentations from speakers such as Louise Daniel, And so to shop; Amira Hashish, Soho House; Enass Mahmoud, Decor by Enass; and Fiona McCarthy, Vogue Living, as they and many more share their insights and knowledge.

Sessions will look at subjects including consciously curated shops, social media and marketing, and trends in retail colours.

Find the full programme at www.topdrawer.co.uk/retailfestprogramme-2022.

Publisher carbon balances paper and board

The Eco-friendly Card Company has ‘carbon balanced’ all paper and board it has purchased over nearly three years.

The firm has always been keen to find new ways of reducing its environmental footprint, and a new collaboration between the greeting card publisher and The World Land Trust has enabled it to carbon balance all of the paper used in its products since May 2019.

A paper becomes carbon balanced when the average emissions associated with its production are offset by the global conservation charity World Land Trust (WLT). WLT, whose patrons include Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham, is an international conservation charity that protects the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats acre by acre. WLT carbon balances paper by protecting threatened habitats that would otherwise have been lost, avoiding the release of stored carbon. This also enables the regeneration of degraded habitats, which gradually re-absorb atmospheric CO2.

The Eco-friendly Card Co director Sue Morrish said: “We’ve had a longstanding commitment only to use 100% recycled papers but wanted to go further, so we are delighted to be working with the World Land Trust. We wanted to backdate this so retailers and consumers can be confident that any product they buy with the Eco-friendly Card Co name uses carbon balanced paper.”

The publisher has also extended the offset to cover all bespoke Christmas cards and calendars it has printed. This, combined with its stock line greeting cards, calendars and stationery, means the total offset is 67,000 kilos over the past three years.