Relationship comes from a PG Live meeting, adding newness to publisher’s portfolio
Taking her art in a different direction has led Sabivo Designs’ Sabina Kovacheva into a collaboration with International Cards & Gift – and it’s all thanks to PG Live!
The first two ranges have just been released under the Sabina brand at IC&G with a foiled and embossed finish alongside sentiments inside the cards giving a similar luxury feel that’s completely different to the designer’s own hand-finished ranges.
It was the 2023 edition of PG Live that led to the collaboration, and IC&G design director Amanda Miles said: “We haven’t labelled our working relationship yet, we’re working together to find the path that works for both businesses.”
Having already produced designs for the new Christmas 24 collection, male range Mancave is the just-launched IC&G range from Sabina, giving her interpretation of birthday icons with classic men’s pastimes such as fishing and biking, plus the more contemporary camping and surfing, and she’s working on Christmas 25 as well as other offerings for occasions.
The pair met when Amanda stopped at Sabina’s Sabivo Designs stand having been taken by her delicate hand-painted designs, and she explained: “Our business strategy is to always to support our customers and listen to feedback, and one way we can do that is to diversify slightly and add newness to our portfolio.
“The meeting at PG Live was perfect – I’ve worked in the industry as a creative for many years and for me personally good things come from good relationships. With Sabina, her talents as an artist and business woman were perfectly aligned and we connected, our communication is open and honest.
“We work with several freelance artists, and our relationship with Sabina is different because she allows us to present her designs in an IC&G way, which is very important.”
With several licensing collaborations already under her belt, Sabina is open to working with the right partners and very happy that the discussions were extended after the show.
“We seemed to be a good fit, which felt very exciting,” the artist told PG Buzz. “Sabina is essentially all designs from me, but I feel it’s the name of the design direction IC&G is introducing in their portfolio, which is traditional with a contemporary twist.
“Artist’s visibility is important to me and we discussed artist’s recognition through marketing campaigns, social media, back of the cards etc. It was Amanda’s idea to have my name, alongside the range name and then I developed a little logo to go with it.
“What I like about working with IC&G is that we have a dialogue and common goal, serving the customer the best we can. In my case it’s providing fresh commercial artwork. The core of the designs is my artwork, then it is re-interpreted with the IC&G customer in mind.”
