Focus on The Henries Awards

The UK leads the world in greeting cards, both in design and per capita send. The annual Henries awards recognise and reward this creative prowess. With the winners being announced at an awards event on 6 October, LSB takes a look at some of the licensed properties that feature in this year’s Henries finals.

Hooray Henries

Nature speaks

Abacus Cards has long been synonymous with photographic greeting cards, so it’s not surprising its BBC Springwatch collection has made it into The Henries finals in the Best Photographic Range. Introduced back in 2015, BBC Springwatch was the publisher’s first foray into licensing a photographic brand and it now also holds the licence for BBC Countryfile and Gardeners’ World. As Liz Ellis, studio manager of Abacus explains: “BBC Springwatch captivates a wide audience with its live footage of nesting birds as well as the fun antics of squirrels and other wildlife. For the card range, we’ve taken inspiration from the programme and tried to depict wildlife at its best.” As she adds: “People have a fascination with nature, it’s a wonderful source of inspiration and we’re lucky to work with some amazing photographers who have managed to capture and portray some brilliant wildlife shots, some of which are comical – these stunning images are featured on our BBC Springwatch cards.” All Abacus’ three BBC licensed card collections are now being supplied with sustainable packaged options, including fully-recyclable paper bellybands or wrapped with Nativia clear biobased film bags.

Inset and below: Animal antics from Abacus’ BBC Springwatch range.

Lovely jubbly!

Lords and masters of licensed products, with a shelf full of trophies (and widespread distribution) to prove it, the Danilo team was delighted with the news its long-standing official Only Fools and Horses range made the finals for The Henry Cole Classic award in The Henries, for ranges that have stood the test of time. “We’re so excited that this evergreen brand has made it through in this prestigious category,” said licensing director Dan Grant. Only Fools and Horses is a much loved British sitcom and has become equally as loved in the greeting card world, with over 25 million greeting cards featuring the brand having been sold by Danilo over the last 15 years, incorporating the iconic characters, recognisable scenery and well-known catchphrases. “This brand is one that so many people can relate to and identify with, which is it performs so well,” says Dan. “It’s a heritage brand which special meaning, bringing laughter to all those who loved it the first time round, as well as for those who are finding it for the first time on Netflix appealing to several ages of generations.”

Looking for a good fit

Quality of design and fit are the most important thing when the Swan Mill Group looks at licences, such the Morris & Co range from Ling Design, which is feted in The Henries. “We’ve been offered great designs over the years, but understand the creative must work for our categories and our customers,” explained David Byk, ceo of Swan Mill. “GBCC and Ling are both card companies yet have different looks and requirements – Morris & Co was a natural fit for a design-led look in Ling whereas humour and juvenile might work best from GBCC. If that property would work in gift packaging, for instance and it does not duplicate what we have already, then our Penny Kennedy business manager would discuss that with the creative teams. It’s a team approach with us working out what we need and, looking at the designs and brand, where it would fit best.”

And there are also collaborations across Swan Mill’s companies such as how Penny Kennedy’s long-standing relationship with the official Morris & Co licence and the success of its gift packaging helped Ling Design develop its card collection. “The Morris & Co brand has gone from strength to strength. The access to the catalogue, and the quality of the imagery and support is great,” said David. With its Best Licensed Card Range Henries finalist collection now extended to around 100 lines, including open, occasions, Christmas and bespoke, Ling is also producing a Morris & Co gift stationery range with notebooks, pens and address books, and introducing lots more lines for 2023.

Inset: The Art File’s pun-tastic Snowtap range.

Inset: One of Ling’s Morris & Co card designs.

Tapping into a team effort

At The Art File, it’s a team effort to pick a good licence for card and wrap designs, with inspiration coming from anywhere.

Snowtap, one of several licences which The Art File has signed for greeting cards, was born from designers Susy Snow and Gracie Tapner’s love of the natural world with a pun or two thrown in for good measure. Living next door to licensing agent Kirsty Guthrie, of KJG, they got chatting about elevating their brand to the next level with licensing being recognised as the way forward.

And The Art File’s sales and marketing manager James Mace said the “phenomenal response” to the resultant card collection has been followed by a place in the finals of the Best Licensed Card Range in The Henries, with new designs having recently joined the collection.

The collection is named after the two designers, with Susy’s graphic design expertise meaning she’s behind the colour palettes and layouts, and is obsessed with fonts and hand-drawn typography, while Gracie specialises in line drawing and watercolour.

“Susy’s also known as the pun queen,” James said, “coming up with classics like Saturday Night Beaver and Aristurtle. These puns really bring the beautiful drawings in the designs to life.”

When picking a licence, most of The Art File’s team has a say with the final sign-offs by company cofounders Ged and Karen Mace, along with production manager Alice Tillotson, lead designer Lucie Whitehead and James.

“There are many things to consider when looking for viable licensing partners, some of the most important would be the strength and breadth of artwork available, an open mind, and willingness to grow the licensing collaboration together,” says James.

Producing something unique

Ohh Deer’s co-owners Mark Callaby and Jamie Mitchell are involved from the start when the publisher is looking at licences, picking the designs they love for their inhouse design team to get to work on.

But then it can get a little messy, as Mark explained: “We’ll pick the range to pieces! After the design team come up with some ideas based on our initial feedback and ideas session, this is presented to us and we’re making tweaks, changing patterns and fonts, until we’re completely happy with the whole range before it’s ever sent to print.”

Mark reveals that “It's a mixed bag as to who decides which licences to go for. We're happy for anyone to pitch ideas but, ultimately, it's myself and Jamie that will sign things off. Our collaboration with Cath Kidston was driven by myself and our collaboration with Bob Ross was driven by Jamie.”

Having worked with Cath Kidston for many years producing cards for all the brand’s stores worldwide, it was Mark who started the conversation about licensing, which led to the Cath Kidston range that has just earned Ohh Deer a Henries’ Best Licensed Card Range finalist place.

“The most important thing when looking for a licence to work with is, simply, does it fit? We recognised early on that most people wouldn't put Ohh Deer and Cath Kidston together but Jamie and myself knew that we could produce something with an Ohh Deer twist to help make this range unique and fill a gap in our portfolio,” adds Mark.

Inset: Cath Kidston with an Ohh Deer twist.

Adding depth and breadth

With licensed product a big part of UK Greetings’ portfolio Ben Whittington, creative humour director for character and licensing, said: “We’re always looking for interesting new licensees and collaborators to work with and have some great new collaborations with individuals launching this year. These include amazing designs from artists such as Kendra Dandy with Bouffants & Broken Hearts, Georgina Fihosy from AfroTouch, Gin Bahia from Eastern Print, and David Olenick, as well as new licences such as Battersea Cats & Dogs Home, who we first met at BLE.” With fewer blockbuster movies released due to the pandemic, Ben and the UKG team have been doing more with the classics, such as celebrating Winnie the Pooh’s 95th birthday last year with a brand-new standalone range as well as working on new product for Disney’s centenary next year. “We’re also doing brandnew work with existing licences such as Peter Rabbit and Comedy Wildlife and we’re continuing to challenge

ourselves with the Disney licences, creating new innovative pop-ups and interactive elements that are 100% sustainable.” And the team’s work with Peter Rabbit has come up trumps, earning a finalists’ place in The Henries Best Licensed Card Range, while Inset: A Peter Rabbit design from UKG. the publisher’s long-standing and oh-so-cute Boofle range is a nominee for the Henry Cole Classic Award and gives the company the licensing experience in the opposite direction with the in-house brand now widely licensed across plush, stationery, ceramics, apparel, celebration cakes, confectionery and gifting. Inset: An added value and sustainable Mickey design from UKG.