With so many new ranges and companies debuting at PG Live, retailers were spoilt for choice as to what to add to their card racks to pep up their summer offering. PGBuzz put some of the visitors on the spot for what really caught their eye.
Jenni Taylor, buyer at Bentalls, Kingston:
“Just some of top picks from the show were: Five Dollar Shake – More Glitter; Lola Design – I Eat Glitter; Catherine WINGET – Art/Landscape Scenes; Muffin & Me – for its gorgeous ‘Just to Say’ options; Modern Toss – just great humour; Sarah Kelleher – Inky Florals; Sarah Lovell Art – Three Friends and I Drew This – Landmarks. These ranges were eye catching, beautiful designs and rich colours, and all had something original and different about them to what else is out there currently.
I spent my Golden and Sunshine tickets with Paper Salad. I bought into its new children’s Space range (great for boys), and the girls’ equivalent (which was fab, with unicorns and lots of glitter!). The adult age designs in the Space range were also eye catching and really strong! I also loved some of the new occasions designs.”
Nicky Goodman, owner of Paddock Wood Cards, Paddock Wood:
“I just loved the atmosphere this year at PG Live. You really feel as though you belong there which is why I love going. There were some really great new cards coming through in the Springboard section of PG Live. Plus, some of the established card companies were showing some fantastic fresh ideas too. For example the Scent with Love scented cards from Cherry Orchard is a really different take. I spent my Sunshine Retas ticket with Rush Design and my Silver ticket with Springboard company Paper Sole – both very strong.”
Janey and Will Apps, co-owners of Paper Turtle, Lewes:
“PG Live is definitely one of our favourite shows – it’s a great location and although a decent size, you can see it all in a day. We especially loved the Springboard area, which was buzzing with creativity and where we spent our Sunshine Ticket with the lovely Pearl of a Girl. We also loved the very colourful stand of Angela Chick – we have been following Angela on Instagram for a while, so she was on our checklist. Angela’s designs are bright, cheerful and very quirky. If a display really stands out when you walk by, you know it will make a great in-store display!
We also checked in with Jessica Hogarth, as we love her punchy style and the detail in her architecturally illustrations. The coastal range will make a great window presentation for us over the summer months. “
Ros Jones, owner of the Celtic Company, Welshpool:
“I had a really good day and thoroughly enjoyed spending my vouchers – my Golden Ticket with Hammond Gower on its new Quirky and Love Letter ranges (not to mention its candles), my Greats and Cardgains vouchers with Widdop and Co on its Amore and Studio Oh! ranges – Andrew Illingworth’s [director] perseverance has paid off – after all these years I am now a Widdop customer!
Foiling and colour were everywhere and the quality (and price point) of product is improving all the time, which is good to see as well as helping my margins. Scented cards were a new one on me (Cherry Orchard) and some of the card ‘engineering’ on the various makes of pop-up cards were impressive.”
Pictured at top: Serge Sumerling, co-owner of NOR in Norwood, London
