Almost 1,000 greeting card designs were entered into the Design A Card For Black History Month competition, instigated by the GCA in conjunction with Sainsbury’s, which will see 26 of the selected designs being printed onto cards and going on sale in 107 Sainsbury’s stores, displayed in a dedicated shipper to mark Black History Month this year.
“This initiative is very much part of the GCA’s on-going commitment to drive diversity and inclusion within the industry,” explained Amanda Fergusson, ceo of the GCA. “We are absolutely delighted with the enthusiasm for this project, highlighting the importance of building connections through greeting cards, and also engaging the next generation of artists and card senders”
Mark Callaby, managing director of Ohh Deer and head of the GCA Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee was instrumental in developing this progressive project with the Sainsbury’s team.
The Sainsbury’s buying team of Abi Wilson, Kate Goss and Emma Tanner are currently ratifying their final selection of the 26 winning designs, following a meeting at Ohh Deer’s Loughborough offices (and via Zoom) with GCA Council members’ Adriana Lovesy from Mrs Lovesy and Ohh Deer’s Mark Callaby and GCA’s Amanda Fergusson.
All designers and publishers (irrespective of whether they were a GCA member or not) were invited to submit designs via Instagram.
As Adriana commented: “There are so many talented black publishers based in the UK and this initiative has really highlighted that.
I love the fact that the competition was run on Instagram and entry is therefore easily accessible to all. In doing this, Sainsbury’s and the GCA have ensured that the competition is truly inclusive while also providing these talented designers with a platform on which the public can see and show support for their work.”
The 26 selected designs are to be printed onto greeting cards, with the designers/publishers receiving a royalty of 15p for every card sold, with any additional profits made going to kickstart a new GCA Diversity and Inclusion Fund that will be used to drive future initiatives within the industry. Greeting card printer Windles is subsidising the printing costs of the cards in order to maximise the profits for the initiative.
Top: Three of the designs that were entered into the competition via Instagram.
