Birmingham show continues GCA partnership as it opens on Sunday
Sensational collections will be on show in the Greetings & Stationery sector at this weekend’s Autumn Fair, bringing together creative, fun and colourful cards, wrapping papers, stationery, accompanying gifts and paper decorations.
And Autumn Fair is continuing its partnership with the GCA, as organiser Hyve Events wholeheartedly supports the trade association’s two current campaigns Thinking Of You Week and #Cardmitment to help champion and celebrate the joy of writing, sending and receiving cards.
From Sunday to Wednesday, 3-6 September, at Birmingham’s NEC, Hall 6 will come to life, celebrating the latest greetings and stationery collections from a host of favourite and new brands including The Art File, Emotional Rescue, Paper Salad, The Little Dog Laughed, Earlybird Designs, By Molly & Izzy, Five Dollar Shake, Emma Ball, Cardology, Penguin Ink, The Seed Card Company, Letterbox Love, Jumble & Co, Twizler, Dean Morris Cards, Alljoy Design, Jane Buurman Handmade, Lola Design, Holy Mackerel, Brainbox Candy, Perfect Planner Company, Natural Partners, Print Circus, Wish Strings, Louise Tiler, Emma Ball, MoonGazer Cards, and Morrigan.
The popular GCA Debut area returns, spotlighting some up-and-coming designers including Hazel Bee, Fox Under The Moon, Angie’s Folk Art, Dixons Doodles, Coach House Partners, Richart Designs, Susel & Co and Nicole Elders.
Situated next to the GCA Debut area, visitors will be able to find out all about the GCA’s Thinking Of You Week and #Cardmitment campaigns designed to encourage people to send greetings cards – now supported by designer and TV personality Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Not On The High Street founder Holly Tucker, as the artwork for the sides of the industry association’s special wall shows.
Daniel Mayhew, Autumn Fair event director, said: “The Greetings & Stationery sector, without fail, makes me smile and this year’s show will offer visitors an awe-inspiring and heart-warming collection of beautifully designed and thoughtful cards alongside stationery, wrapping and accompanying gifts.
“We are also delighted to continue our partnership with the GCA and support both Thinking Of You Week and the new #Cardmitment campaigns. We are totally committed to helping harness the emotional power and positive impact of greeting cards and look forward to welcoming visitors to engage with our specially created pop-up spaces next to the GCA Debut area.”
At the show, the Spring & Autumn Fair teams will also share videos for social channels of themselves holding their most treasured greetings card revealing why it means the world to them, and explaining why they’ve kept it.
On the show floor Cardology, Gift Of The Year winner famous for its signature pop-up cards, return to their front-of-hall location with an even wider range of fresh new launches, officially licensed, and own-brand, premium stationery products – with a new Harry Potter range.
Now in its third year, The Seed Card Company returns to showcase more of its sustainable, eco-friendly seed card stationery.
Cemented as one of the leading companies providing seed board greeting cards, notecards and gift tags that actually grow, they offer wildflower seed cards as well as carrot, lettuce, basil and parsley seed card options. The show will also see the launch of new gift tag and notecard designs with additions to the popular Christmas card collections.
Joining the line-up for the first time is Manuscript, which distributes its own-brand calligraphy and pen products across the world, plus an extensive collection of pens and craft products from leading brands, and children’s stationery range The Lionheart Tales, as well as luxury ribbon brand Ribbonly with its unique and popular range of ribbons for decorating.
New to Autumn Fair is Marina B Designs and there’s also an AF debut from Citrus Bunn, bridging the gap between luxury and fun with its silly animals on textured card, while other newbies to the show include Tomcat Cards, dedicated to cat lovers and featuring ranges from some of the finest feline artists in the world, and Last Lemon offering contemporary humour ranges.
The Art File will be showcasing its Tall Boy Prints range, and its award-winning Christmas 2023 collection will be on show, packed with an eclectic mix of contemporary festive trends with a hint of traditional flare.
Celebrating 25 years, The Little Dog Laughed will present its original animal-themed artwork on greeting cards, gifts, and homewares. Also celebrating a quarter century of making people laugh, Dean Morris Cards will showcase its outrageously funny cards and gift.
An exciting new stationery brand from Collins Debden, Jumble & Co launches a new collection called Two Minds which features dual-tone products expressing two facets of emotions, while Jane Buurman Handmade will be showing its new range of greeting cards printed from original free-motion embroidery artwork with stitching that looks so real you can almost feel it, and Lola Design has a new Wildlife botanical range embracing a passion for all things flora and fauna.
Celebrating 30 years, The Eco-Friendly Card Co offer 100% recycled greeting cards, notecards and Christmas cards and, with one of the largest, award-winning humour portfolios in the industry across birthday/blank, relations, occasions, age, spring seasons and Christmas, Emotional Rescue will be launching their new 2024 collection.
Paper Salad has been busy creating lots of lovely new designs for Autumn Fair pushing the boundaries in print and finishing as this year’s collection focuses on lovely textures, embossing and foil while keeping an eye on the environmental impact.
Five Dollar Shake and Counting Stars will bring their usual stardust to the show. All their cards are printed in Sussex in many small batch runs in the studio, and handmade using genuine crystals and exclusive FSC-certified papers – some of which are made with real gold!
In the GCA Debut area Nicole Elders’ unique designs combine the ancient art of calligraphy with contemporary design, while Angie’s Folk Art is a fresh new collection of images by Devon-based artist Angie Jenkins, and luxury stationery firm Susel & Co has expanded into homewares, including tea towels from UK-based fabric printers, alongside their notecards, writing sets, greeting cards, place cards, mini prints, and giclee prints.
Hand designs from Amy put a smile on your face at Richarts Designs, and Dixon Does Doodles has giant colouring posters, split pin puppet craft packs, jigsaws, and games featuring dinosaurs, animals, monsters, zombies and everything in-between, as well as cards
Little Giorgo’s Designs offers cute hand-drawn cards, prints and wrapping paper using the founder’s six-year-old son Giorgo’s adorably amusing illustrations, and Coach House Partners will showcase gifting designs including metal and wooden model kits, craft sets, jigsaw puzzles, books, notebooks, greetings cards and many other wonderful products.
Hazel Bee Cards homes in on the familiar and mundane moments of life for cute, sarcastic humour in 100% recycled, compostable, FSC and UK-made cards, while this year’s People’s Choice GOTY winner Fox Under The Moon offers inspirational picture books, cards, stationery and gifts.
With an exclusive edit of the most sought-after furniture, interior décor and accessories, gift, beauty, toys and fashion brands, and the launch of the game-changing buyer-exhibitor connection programme Connect @ Autumn Fair, the show has 11 sectors with the four destinations – Home which includes Home, Living & Décor, Everyday, and The Summerhouse; Gift including Gift, Beauty & Wellbeing, Greetings & Stationery, and Kids, Toys & Play; and Moda fashion featuring its own Catwalk as well as Jewellery & Watch, Clothing, Fashion Accessories, and Footwear; plus the newly-launched responsible sourcing show Source Home & Gift
Autumn Fair opens this Sunday, go to www.autumnfair.com for the latest information.
