Home counties retail group House of Cards teamed up with the GCA and other members to tell students about the greeting card industry and career opportunities available, and encourage them to design a card for Thinking of You Week!
Miles Robinson, co-owner of House of Cards, pictured above with GCA’s ceo Amanda Fergusson, was delighted with the winning entries – which are now on sale in all his stores for Thinking of You Week 2021.
Miles and Amanda joined with other GCA members to provide a brief for the students. House of Cards were joined by printer Loxleys, envelope manufacturer Enveco, Max Publishing (owners of PGLive, Progressive Greetings magazine, and the Henries), and Briffa specialist creative lawyers, all contributed to the comprehensive brief. The students were given a month to design their entries, then, after lots of deliberation, the results were announced to the students, and in the greeting card industry trade press and on social media.
The winning design (below centre, between the two runners up) was from Joana Dionísio, who received lots of positive comments from the judges:
“Effortlessly stylish! The use of colour and pattern is gorgeous, I particularly love the incorporation of the hands into the graphics, the little details in this piece are so aesthetically pleasing”.
“Hugs are set to be a trend this year and love the fact the student has picked up on this with a card that I think is commercial in its appeal. I like the clever use of hands and hugs within the typography”
Joana was delighted “Thank you so much again for the initiative and for the amazing feedback on the designs, it was an amazing brief to work on!”
Runners up were Anna Zelasko and Ally Williams, both of whom produced designs that the judges also felt were very commercial.