UK publishers, Paper Salad, Dandelion Stationery, Ohh Deer, Rosanna Rossi, Roger la Borde, Little Posy Print, Santoro and Think of Me Designs have all reached the finals of The Louies, the US greeting card awards, run by the American Greeting Card Association.
Different from their UK counterparts The Henries, (organised by Max Publishing, owners of Progressive Greetings), The Louies celebrate individual card designs rather than ranges. The 153 Louie finalists have just been revealed with the winners to be announced on 1 May at an award celebration in San Francisco (during the Noted Expo).
For the first time ever, Dandelion Stationery designs have been nominated in four categories for the Louie Awards – ‘Birthday Humour’, ‘Friendship/Encouragement’, ‘Halloween’ and ‘Non-religious occasions’ categories. Jo Wilson, director of Dandelion Stationery said: “We’re absolutely delighted – chuffed to bits! I never for one moment imagined we would get to the finals. Entering the awards was a bit of a punt really. In the scheme of things, we are a very small greeting card publisher. There are thousands of card publishers actually based in the USA, and even more that export to the USA so the competition is huge, and incredibly tough. We are delighted to have made it this far.”
Paper Salad has three nominations and is a first-timer at the awards as well, after co-owners Karen Wilson and Claire Williams attended the awards last year and decided “that we’d have to enter this year,” says Karen. “We are delighted to be finalists in three categories and as we are going to San Francisco it will make our trip extra special.”
Ohh Deer has also scooped a trio of nominations for its ranges in the Baby, Humorous and Friendship/encouragement categories in while Roger la Borde has finalists in two categories (Blank and Christmas).
For Anna Nelson, co-owner and creative director at Rosanna Rossi, the nomination came as a surprise. “We’re so thrilled by the news. We haven’t been a finalist in the Louie Awards before so it’s great for us to be recognised among other fantastic companies both within the UK and International.”
Following on from their win in last year’s Louies, Think of Me Designs (owned by Brits Dan and Freya Kane, who now live in California, but still fulfil orders from its UK warehouse) are “very excited to once again be flying the flag for UK design in 2020 as finalists in the Father’s Day $5.00 and Below category”.
Top: (left-right) designs from Dandelion Stationery, Paper Salad and Ohh Deer that are in the finals of The Louies 2020.
