Cute Owl’s Nest characters immortalised in children’s picture story series
Ginger Betty has learned the power of the licensing industry with the publisher’s award-winning Owl’s Nest greeting card range now immortalised in a series of four children’s books.
Thanks to the Brand Licensing Europe show, where Ginger Betty owner Tracey Colliston had a free stand as a result of her winning the Kelvyn Gardner License This! Design & Brand category, she met up with Boxer Books – and the rest, as they say, is history, albeit a bit of time in the making.
“What a brilliant week it’s been!” Tracey told PG Buzz. “My first in a series of four books, Love And Hugs Winter, arrived on Sunday, 6 August – I’m so utterly proud of it! Is this really happening!”
While Tracey has advance copies of the picture book, Love And Hugs Winter will be launched to retail in October in the UK and US, featuring the Ginger Betty characters with a few new friends included. The story is a celebration of winter, set in the forest among the first flakes of snow, with the animals enjoying friendship and special moments in life.
Having also created some notable cute ranges for other publishers, including Eliott & Buttons and Lots Of Woof for UK Greetings, and Barley Bear for IC&G, Tracey pitched Owl’s Nest in the 2020 License This! competition, which was run online as part of the Festival Of Licensing digital replacement for BLE that year.
And her win gave Tracey the stand at the BLE 2021 exhibition when Boxer Books saw her illustrations as characters and cards, and said they felt that the designs conveyed emotions which would translate well into children’s books.
“It was a brilliant chance meeting!” Tracey told PG Buzz. “We began to share ideas and, after lots of scribbles and conversations, we came up with Love And Hugs. We wanted to capture the essence of the greeting cards, with the values of friendship, heart-warming interactions and warm illustrations.
“It’s a lovely, cosy story of animals helping and supporting each other and it’s full of love and hugs! I’ve been busy behind the scenes writing the story and illustrating the pages for a while, and there are three more to come.
“The cover is cut-out and is lovely to the touch. It’s aimed children of pre-school age, and the first book, Winter, is perfect for snuggling up with your little ones and enjoying a story full of love and hugs!”
Owl’s Nest won the Best Cute Range in The Henries 2021 greeting card awards and this year the publisher’s Baby Betty collection is finalist in the same category, while its Words & More range is also a Best Traditional Words & Sentiments finalist.
There’s a new format for this year’s Kelvyn Gardner License This! competition which will see the judging take place ahead of BLE, which runs over 4-6 October at London’s ExCel.
The judging panel will review the entries based on their level of ingenuity, licensing potential, alignment with today’s marketplace, and why the brand is unique, and the three runners up and the winner of the prize worth £7,000 will be announced on stage at BLE ahead of the day one opening keynote.
Entries to the competition, which has been the springboard for many brands and careers, opened on Wednesday, 12 July, and it’s completely is free to enter – full details can be found here – with a closing date of 28 August at 5pm. For any questions on the entry process, please contact event organisers lily.drennan@informa.com or anna.lommatzsch@informa.com. To register to attend or exhibit at BLE 2023 click here.
