Call to action to join GCA mentoring programme with Geoff Sanderson
As the class of 24 graduates have been selected, the GCA and creative mentor Geoff Sanderson are looking for greeting card companies to open the routes into the industry for students from art colleges and universities.
In a new blog on the GCA website Geoff, who recently launched Jungle Studio bringing creative talent to market following a career with Moonpig, Hallmark, Crown Greetings and Tigerprint, has featured the graduates selected from this year’s New Designers show, a live project with Newcastle College Of Art students, and a progress update from the 2023 Class graduate group.
“This is a key project to promote our greeting card industry,” explained GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson, “demonstrating routes into it to art colleges and universities is key to raise the profile of the industry, encouraging students to consider greeting cards as a career, and ensuring that we continue to lead the world in greeting card innovation and design and our industry continues to thrive.”
In a call to action, she and Geoff want to hear from any publishers already working with colleges and students to gather their experiences and stories for sharing and to build a picture of what’s being done to attract new creative talent.
The blog will also help those looking for new talent, and they want to encourage companies to offer work to students and reach out to local colleges and universities.
Amanda added: “Promoting what’s being done is also good PR and will help us refine a New Creative Talent programme for 2025.”
The blog includes one-page calling cards giving a quick overview of the style and recent work of each student selected by Geoff, which can be downloaded along with their contact details.
He added that the New Designers 2024 showcase features “a motivated group of recent graduates who have expressed an interest in working in the greetings industry,” and said the young creatives have a passion for cards and are available for work.
Cerys Howells is one of the 2024 group and said: “The greeting card industry offers illustration graduates a chance to learn how their work will resonate with people through their designs. Opportunities like this help graduates network, while mentoring has helped… With this guidance, new artists like me can build a path towards a successful career.”
Geoff highlighted the Newcastle project as “an example of what can be achieved by working with your local uni or college and a group of engaged and motivated students”.
Having pitched a greeting card range development brief to over 60 final year degree students across diverse courses, from fashion to interiors to illustration, the project ran over three months and involved a series of creative critiques.
An eight-strong shortlist then pitched their ideas to a real-life client in an off-site boardroom which garnered real-life commercial as well as creative feedback before final designs were developed and finessed post-graduation, and these concepts are now heading for client approval.
Explaining that some of the 2023 graduates have gone on to take an MA or find jobs, Geoff added: “Most are juggling the demands of a job to pay the rent and balancing that with finding freelance work, self-publishing/selling on Etsy and keeping the candle burning on ambitions to work in the industry. I’m happy to report that many have had some of their work published with Moonpig among others.”
Sara Hassan was one of the 2023 group who felt the GCA’s information about the greeting card sector opportunities aided her creative motivation immensely, and she commented: “Seeing my designs published online has boosted my creative confidence, making the dream of working freelance full-time feel like a more reachable goal.”
And her colleague Sophie Moran added: “I love designing greetings cards as it’s one of the best ways to spread joy, knowing your card will be given to someone to brighten their day makes designing it so much more fun as I try to make it as bright and cheerful as possible.
“I think the biggest difficulty of finding work after uni is contacts, knowing the right people to contact and what to say is hard. A pathway like work placement and mentoring schemes helped as it offers guidance and opportunities along with a helping hand, so it takes that sense of unknown and stress away.
“Seeing my designs go live on Moonpig was really surreal – my friends have since sent me pictures of the cards they’ve bought from my collection, and it still hasn’t sunk in that they exist now!”
