20 minute read
PG Live preview
Live and kicking!
The greeting card industry will get together at the Business Design Centre for the 2022 PG Live trade show in June. We catch up with some of the exhibitors…
Every show has something special about it, and for Michelle Hindle, head of sales at Belly Button Designs, she likes the fact that PG Live allows her quality time with customers: “PG Live is such a lovely intimate show - as exhibitors we love the opportunity it gives us to spend quality time with our customers - and as a destination show for greetings, we can guarantee to meet new customers too!
“For buyers visiting, especially if they haven’t been to the show before, they will get real value out of their time there. It is a very focused event so you will spend more time looking at product and having useful conversations than you will walking from hall to hall like some of the other shows.
“If you’re not based in the south or are not a frequent visitor to the capital (and I guess that goes for a lot of us over the past two years!) then the show also gives you a chance to come and shop (check out card-selling) or just enjoy a little retail and culinary therapy in general!’’
It’s the connection with others that is important to Paperlink MD Emma Young, too: “As a family business we love connection; it’s great to be back among old friends and welcome in some fresh new faces. We love sharing our latest designs when our team has been hard at work on a new range, and the customers love it too… there’s no better feeling. It’s a great chance to really get to know the needs of the buyers and help them stand out from their competition! We’re always looking for ideas and innovation, and the show offers us the chance to showcase our latest designs with buyers from around the world.’’
Helen Dyson at Dyson Design agrees. She loves, “meeting our lovely customers and getting to know new people, which is even more special after the experience of the past couple of years.’’
We wondered if our exhibitors had any tips for anyone visiting for the first time. Emma Young at Paperlink has this advice: “Take information home, make notes. I use OneNote on my phone so I can search back through my notes to find information. It also backs up the data to my computer for easy access.’’
Helen Dyson at Dyson Design adds: “Give yourself plenty of time to see everything and to chat with exhibitors, especially if you want to order on the stand to take advantage of show offers - for example, we’ll be giving 10% off for orders placed on the stand.’’
Emma Young, Managing Director, Paperlink
What: PG Live When: 7-8 June Where: Business Design Centre, Islington, London Web: www.progressivegreetingslive.com
Paperlink
Helen Dyson, Dyson Design
And if you’re debating whether to make the trip, Paperlink’s Emma Young might help you make up your mind… “Every show is different and has its place in our hearts… but last year made us realise just how much we love being a part of the greeting card sector. With the past cancellations and disruptions it was so nice to be able to see everyone again in the flesh. With working from home, our designers had tapped into new-found inspiration and it was fantastic to be able to show off the new designs and see visitors’ reactions on the stand. Nothing satisfies our creative itch like seeing our designs draw a genuine smile. It inspired us to work even harder this year and we’re coming back with so much more to showcase. We can’t wait to see those smiles once again!’’
Paperlink
And finally…
However enjoyable they are, shows can be hard on buyers and exhibitors alike. To keep you refreshed, look out for the tea trolleys - where you can get a real cuppa in a proper cup! And make sure you enjoy your free lunch (provided for exhibitors and buyers alike), and pop a note in the diary - the first day features an opening night drinks party!
Oh - and don’t miss the display of cards, which will be winging their way to HM The Queen from Greeting Card Association members and PG Live exhibitors.
The Art File is working with acclaimed artist Emma Turner, whose beautiful art range is heavily inspired by the lovely Richmond Park and its nature
The Art File
Stand: 200 0115 850 7490 ǀ www.theartfile.com
The Art File is exhibiting at PG Live at its usual spot, Stand 200. Acting as a perfect launch pad for its mid-year product launches, the company has designed and published three new greeting card ranges, as well as several range extensions of current popular and high-performing collections.
Among the new collections being launched, The Art File is working with acclaimed artist Emma Turner, whose beautiful art range is called Richmond Park. The collection of 12 large blank cards is heavily inspired by the lovely Richmond Park and its nature. These cards are finished with tasteful embossing, and use a bright, summery colour palette, which the folk at The Art File are confident their customers will love just as much as they do!
After being asked on numerous occasions by both trade and members of the public for a music-inspired range, Maestro has been launched. Designed by the multi award-winning in-house design team, this musical collection contains eight designs that celebrate all things music, instruments, and their talented players. Each design is finished with tasteful embossing and gold foiling, with a mustard envelope to differentiate the range further.
Finally, The Art File will be launching Pollen, a delightful range of 12 designs inspired by both the animals and insects that carry pollen, as well as the aromatic plants and flowers that create it. This intricately-designed collection is finished with debossing.
Alongside these three new collections are range extensions, including nine new designs from the wonderful Snowtap (whose range was launched only last year), alongside popular collections such as Natural Phenomenon, Soul Mates, Bear, Peace & Blessings (the Art File’s religious card collection), Nature Trail by Kate Heiss, and so much more! Make sure you visit the show stand to be among the first to see these fantastic new cards.
As always, the multi-award-winning Christmas 2022 collection will be on display and available to order at the show too. Be sure to place your orders and reserve stock before it’s too late!
Belly Button Designs
Belly Button Designs’ cards are designed in Manchester and printed in the UK. Offering a wide range of greeting cards and giftware for every occasion, the team has been on a journey together to spread joy, share love, and create smiles through connecting people via the simple act of designing greetings for over 25 years. In the pursuit of quality and beauty, the Elle range encapsulates luxury, with all its intricate style, delicate details of foil, and emboss.
Also launching at the show will be Luxe - a new larger size everyday range of 56 designs, covering very special birthdays and occasion sends. Luxe features delicate gold foiling and embossing, co-ordinating with the lovely new Meadow range. This is printed on both sides, on beautiful, uncoated board and supplied with a co-ordinated printed envelope. Both are made from 100% recycled post-consumer waste. New discoveries await you on the Belly Button Designs’ stand at PG Live!
Cinnamon Aitch
Cinnamon Aitch is launching 17 glorious additions to its bestselling She range at PG Live. Bold, graphic and popping with colour, the range continues to celebrate female faces bespectacled with words of positivity. Spanning across ages and skin tones, the contemporary designs are bang on trend and now with 27 gorgeous little squares of loveliness, there’s lots to choose from. Printed on generous heavyweight, fsc board, all are beautifully designed, environmentally kind and proudly made in the UK with love.
If you can’t make the show visit the website to take a peek at all the lovely newness!
Dyson Design
Stand: 339 0116 2855725 Ӏ www.dysondesign.com
Dyson Design’s new Nectar range was only introduced in February but is already turning out to be a huge hit. At PG Live, the publisher will be unveiling new cards to add to the collection, which features zingy colour illustrations of flowers and insects.
Spectacular watercolour illustrations of much-loved British garden birds will be on display in the Laura Andrew Splash Birds collection. Each image starts life as a random dash of paint from which the finished picture finally emerges.
There will also be beautiful new blooms on show added to Dyson’s Flower Garden range, one of a series of best-selling floral collections in the publisher’s catalogue.
Following a successful trip to Glasgow for Scotland’s Trade Fair, Dyson will again be offering a 10% discount for orders placed on the stand.
Jonny Javelin
Stand: 526 01423 563740 www.jonnyjavelin.co.uk
The Jonny Javelin team is looking forward to PG Live, and having the chance to meet up again with customers old and new. New products include five exciting Christmas ranges for 2022. Jonny believes it’s the best-ever Christmas collection, and it’s available to order now.
In January, Jonny Javelin launched lots of new everyday in Velvet, Signature and Twingles, including ages and relations/ occasions. June brings an additional 18 Signature juvenile ages one to nine for boys and girls to complete the full age span across this fabulous and diverse range. Bold, bright, sparkly and fun, these new Signature cards are code 45, 5x8in, and feature colourful fun-loving foils and flitters.
Although Spring Fair was very busy, the team noticed that quite a few of their regular visitors never made it, so hopefully, a few more months down the line, those customers will be able to venture to London to sample the delights, or even better… delight in Jonny’s samples!
Kingfisher Cards
The Kingfisher Cards stand’s highlights will include the wonderful Calypso range, which is full of bright summer colours; the gorgeous Julie Dodsworth range of cards and gifts - plus the launch of the awesome Beers & Cheers male range of relations and occasions.
Paperlink
Paperlink is hitting PG Live with refreshed vigour this year, with more than 75 new cards brought to life with fresh designs from its illustrators. This year the focus is on fun and celebrations - and there will be bottles of bubbly on the stand for visitors while they peruse Paperlink’s new lines.
Paperlink has something for everyone, with new ranges landing at the show and card additions to many of its most popular and sought-after ranges. The publisher will be able to offer stockists a full range this year and can provide a comprehensive planning service, using data-tested planning to really help retailers get a financial boost from their shelf space.
Greetings Today readers can also get in touch and pre-book slots to speak with the Paperlink experts. You’ll get 10% off orders at the stand (201), a free glass of fizz and their undivided attention to help you find the perfect range for your store and answer any questions. Simply book online at bit.ly/Paperlink-PGL.
Museums & Galleries
Museums & Galleries will bring to PG Live the world’s finest art and design brands translated onto beautifully designed and constructed products.
On show will be a wealth of greeting card ranges, notelets and card wallets, social stationery, gift stationery, gifts, and gift packaging.
Museums & Galleries is showing two new card ranges from the Natural History Museum (NHM). The first is a range of breathtaking wildlife photography showcasing winning imagery from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. This is an international showcase of the very best in nature photography and one of the Natural History Museum’s most successful, long-running exhibitions. Today more than a million visitors visit the touring exhibition across the UK and internationally.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year celebrates and amplifies the power of photography to move hearts and minds, sparking change. There are 31 stunning cards in the launch collection, with more to follow.
A separate card range explores nature art from the NHM’s archives - bringing the work right up to date with stylishly adapted animal illustration collages with foliage motifs against luminescent backgrounds that pop. A total of 12 new designs join this range.
Another new licence on display is Percy the Park Keeper, a new addition to M&G’s popular The Illustrators card range. Percy the Park Keeper was a 1996-1999 British animated children’s television series based on the popular books by British author Nick Butterworth. It stars Percy, and many wild animals, including the Badger, the Owl, the Fox, the Mice, the Mole, and the Robin. Percy the Park Keeper books have sold more than 10 million copies in more than 35 languages. Six everyday designs join the Illustrators collection, and four designs have been added to the Christmas selection.
Cath Tate Cards
Cath Tate Cards is 40 years strong this year! From the very beginning - starting off on Cath’s kitchen table with her two-year-old daughter crawling around her ankles - to today with daughter Rosie Tate now co-director. In recent years, Cath Tate has expanded the bestselling humour ranges and broadened the offering to include a wide range of art cards, working with brilliantly talented artists and designers.
Cath Tate is celebrating with a special show offer – customers who visit the stand will be entered into a raffle to win 40% off their next order. There will also be party bags and bubbly.
New for the show are hilarious additions to bestselling ranges including 21st Century Disasters: funny modern problems matched with 19th century colourised images. New designs in the Modern Icons range include Abba and Johnny Rotten. Plus, there will be new floral cards from Charlotte Day, that come with seed stick packs - plant and they will grow into a variety of bee-friendly UK native wildflowers.
Stand: 400 01924 230 4197 www.ukgreetings.co.uk
UK Greetings’ Eco range is 100% recyclable and is just one of the many fabulous ranges of gift wrap the company will be showcasing at PG Live. From the fashionable plant design to handles that are 100% paper, it’s the perfect gift-wrapping solution for anyone looking towards a more sustainable future. The stand will also feature the latest products from Collage, and a hand-selected range of greeting cards featuring new collaborations.
Rosanna Rossi
The Rosanna Rossi studio has been a hive of creativity in readiness for PG Live. The Odyssey collection, known for its beautiful, detailed illustrations, has been extended to include Graduation, Pet Sympathy, Birthday Relations and more. There are also gorgeous new additions within the Fiori Rosa collection with its vivid pops of colour and gloss black detail.
The stunning Christmas collection Winter Moon is the most festive range to date. All designs are enhanced with shimmering gold foil and snow-white texture detail.
Wendy Jones-Blackett
Wendy Jones-Blackett is launching not one but TWO new ranges at PG Live in London. Building on the success of the bestselling Rainbow Drops range, Wendy has added fluorescent inks to cold foiling and new imagery - imaginatively called Acid Drops as the colours are day-glo bright! There are new patterns featuring cocktails, paisley, musical notes and elephants - just some of the gorgeous new cards that will be on show. Bright, young-at-heart, fresh and fun is the order of the day wth these birthday designs.
Also at PG Live will be the new large-sized handmade cards called Special Days, a soft, romantic range of occasions inspired by Wendy’s love of paper and specifically a papercutting workshop, which she attended a few years ago at local shop Chirpy in Chapel Allerton. “I loved the method and the beautiful results so much that I wanted to emulate the look - but without all the tiny scalpel cuts on the tips of my fingers! So I found a way of reproducing the technique in a less painful fashion and we’ll be revealing the resulting Wedding and Baby designs at the show,’’ she says. The cards feature nature, meadows, trees and lovely silhouettes of newlyweds, all hand-finished with a variety of sparkling gems.
Earlybird Designs
Earlybird is launching six more of its super-popular thank you packs - eye-catching neon designs printed on 300gsm FSC board using Neon inks and carbon balanced printing.
These designs come with eight cards in a pack, size 102mm x 78mm, and supplied with a craft fleck envelope in eco-friendly recycled card boxes.
Earlyird is also extending its cute AMY card range, which features positive sentiments. The popular illustrative range now has added slogans such as Awesome, Fab and Super cool, to complement Amy Hodkin’s fun and fabulous artwork.
All cards are FSC, carbon balanced and supplied with a recycled craft fleck envelope.
Kali Stileman
Expect to see a kaleidoscope of colours, luxurious textures and Kali’s latest and loveliest designs at PG LIve. Keep an eye out for the launch of the tiddly widdly Christmas range, children’s cards and a number set.
Redback Cards
Stand: 421 01752 830482 www.redbackcards.com
It’s been a busy start to the year at Redback HQ and the company is thrilled to be bringing more than 60 new designs to PG Live this year. From colourful age cards to new humour from the hilarious Zeppelinmoon, Redback has got every occasion covered. The team is excited to be launching lots of new designs from the popular reversible sequin range Shine! These include three brilliant new designs that use reversible Glow in the Dark sequins! Redback also has exciting new additions to Piñata, Good Things, Wulffmorgenthaler, Liz Climo, Cloud Nine and Holy Flaps.
