15_17_Henries Finalists.qxp_RH Page 28/04/2022 12:31 Page 1
THE HENRIES FINALISTS
Hooray for The Henries
Winning at The Henries awards is a great achievement for any publisher, and the Best Humorous Range is one of the most hotlycontested categories with Rosie Made A Thing taking the 2021 title, beating off the challenge from Bold & Bright, Brainbox Candy, Emotional Rescue, Pigment Productions, and Redback Cards. Here PG recaps on all six finalists and where they’re headed now.
Shiny shiny sexy sexy simplicity Brainbox Candy co-founders (and buffoons) Ben Hickman and Mark Williams: “As with any of our ranges, at the initial design stage we always set out to create something completely different to anything we’ve designed before. We’ve used special finishes on some of our ranges in the past such as embossing and spot UV. “We regularly use a bright and fun colour palette so, for a change, on Quotish we opted to go for a beautiful uncoated white card with shiny shiny gold foil typography. So shiny in fact, that all the magpies in town were tapping on the studio window. “This forced the captions to work harder but the simplicity was eye catching, especially alongside the sexy, sexy bespoke black and gold envelope. It’s like the range got all dressed up in its poshest frock to go to the Henries themselves, just without the monumental hangovers that we get from such an event. After all, there’s no reason why humour cards shouldn’t look and feel gorgeous too, right Malcolm? Malcolm? “Since the Henries shenanigans, the success of the range has continued to grow with Age cards, Seasonal and Occasions being introduced.”
Above: Rosie Harrison (left), founder of Rosie Made a Thing collecting the Henries 2021 trophy from Hyve’s Alison Graham, sponsor of this award category.
Making sense of humour
Collaborating with creatives has proven beneficial for the lean, mean, product-focused humour machine that is the Emotional Rescue operation, and one of the publisher’s latest link-ups has been with Paper Salad founders Karen Wilson and Claire Williams. Above and left: Not known for humour in their Daft capers from Ben and Mark own right, the ladies collaborated with with their finalist Emotional Rescue – where the team range Quotish. Below: Colourful is always learning and adapting to collaboration at Emotional Rescue. what the good old British public likes to have a good giggle at – and together they produced The Henries finalist Is It Friday Yet? collection. With the tagline being “making sense of humour”, Emotional Rescue cards are 100% recyclable, designed and produced in the UK.
Obsessed with miniatures As a three-time Henries finalist, Bold & Bright founder Thea Musselwhite knows her Janice & Jeffrey range hits the sweet spot for humour cards. She explained: “The range started right back in 2017 but, due to having young children, I didn’t really get around to doing anything with my ideas until 2019. I’ve collected miniature things since I was about six years old, so I have a bit of an obsession with it. Being able to use lots of my pieces in the cards is brilliant. “I launched my range at PG Live in 2019 – that was my first trade show and it had a great response, and really took off from there. I’ve been a Henries finalist three times now. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, haha! “I feel very fortunate that I’ve had such a good response to my range in the short time I’ve been going. Nothing like a global pandemic to slow things down, so I feel really grateful that it’s all managed to keep going and keep growing. “I’m still a very small set up. It’s just me working from home, but I have someone who stores and packs all my cards for me.” Left: Bold & Bright’s Thea Musselwhite with her designs
Focus On Humour Cards
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