There’s now just three days left until Top Drawer opens at Olympia London on Sunday 14 January (with the show running until Tuesday 16 January). The SS18 edition of Top Drawer will present over 1,500 design-led brands across the curated worlds of Home, Gift, Fashion, Greetings and Craft.
On the greeting card front, the show will include a special installation organised in conjunction with the GCA, which will showcase hundreds of ‘Fresh for 2018’ new greeting cards from GCA members who are exhibiting at Top Drawer.
The three greeting card publisher winners of Top Drawer’s Paperawards have been announced. Sadler Jones won the Emotive Design award, The Curious Department scoped the Engaging Print gong and Hotchpotch was feted with the accolade for Exciting Use Of Colour.
In addition, three greeting card publishers have been shortlisted for the inaugural Spotted Awards. Spotted is Top Drawer’s launch pad for emerging brands, with 10 designers put forward to final judging on 14 January. Emerging publishers Hello Grimes, Keeler and Sidaway, and The Pattern Book were among those picked by the judges to join the other finalists in other product areas.
The ever-popular PaperFest returns to the Greetings & Stationery area at Top Drawer again, bringing a wealth of top speakers together to cover topics such as digital marketing, stationery trends, visual merchandising and a retail spotlight from Geraldine James, buying manager of Selfridges. Geraldine (who will speak on Tuesday 12.00-12.30) will share her views on how surviving at retail in 2018 will be all about creating ‘stories’ in store.
Independent retailers attending the show will also be able to pick up a free window vinyl to show their allegiance to the Just a Card campaign, which was conceived by artist and author Sarah Hamilton to encourage the public to support independent retailers and galleries.
It was hearing Sarah speak at the recent GCA AGM that led to Top Drawer joining the greeting card trade association in pledging its support to the initiative. Alejandra Campos, show director of Top Drawer added: “We are delighted to be supporting the Just a Card initiative. Our aim is to spread the word to our retail community, if we can increase consumer awareness by encouraging retailers to endorse and promote the initiative, it can make a huge difference to these businesses and, consequently, to the diversity of their town centres, which is in everyone’s interest.”
Top Drawer highlights what it believes will be the trends for the coming season, which include California Dreaming, Dark Lux, Easy Living, Geometrics, Modern Gothic, Patter Clash and Wanderlust.
