Louie Awards for Paper Salad, Pigeon Loft, Rosie Made A Thing, Ohh Deer, Roger La Borde and The Art File
Coo! Pigeon Loft led the charge for the British contingent as the first of a magnificent seven UK publishers to pick up a trophy at last night’s Louie Awards in San Francisco.
Followed by a double triumph for Paper Salad, Rosie Made A Thing, Ohh Deer, Roger La Borde and The Art File, it was a good night at the event which kicks off the US Greeting Card Association’[s two-day Noted expo alongside the Gifted creative gift and home fair.
“I can’t quite believe it but I won a Louie!” Pigeon Loft chief operating officer John Morse-Brown told PG Buzz as the celebrations finished around 7.30am this morning, 17 April, UK time. “It was such a great awards ceremony – I flew over for four days to be here and I’m so glad I did!”
Pigeon Loft won the Paper Engineering & Production category, while Roger La Borde picked up the Print & Production trophy, sponsored by The Imaging Centre, with the US GCA noting: “Roger La Borde was bestowed with the Card Of The Year Above $5.50 award for their outstanding Print & Production Excellence card entry.”
On the design side of things the other British winners are:
Paper Salad, distributed by Notes & Queries, Birthday General Above $5.50
Paper Salad, distributed by Notes & Queries, Thank You Above $5.50
Ohh Deer, Birthday Humorous $5.50 & Below
Rosie Made A Thing, distributed by Calypso Cards, Christmas/Seasonal Humorous $5.50 & Below
The Art File, Blank Card $5.50 & Below
“Wow! We’ve just found out that we won two out of the three ranges that were shortlisted for a Louies award!” a very chuffed Claire Williams, co-owner at Paper Salad, told PG Buzz.
“We’re absolutely delighted! We were unable to visit San Francisco this year to attend the awards but will certainly by celebrating from afar. A huge thank you to our fabulous distributor, Notes & Queries, for sending in the entries.”
And Ohh Deer co-founder and md Mark Callaby was very pleased with his wake-up call this morning: “Sadly we couldn’t make the awards this year but I woke up to the news as Rosie – you know, the one who made a thing – kindly collected it on our behalf and let me know. She’s also been out celebrating for us!
“We’re very pleased to have won in a humour category again at the Louie Awards. Our laptop cat card from Ken The Cat is currently our bestselling card across the business. It’s definitely helped brighten the day after all the bad weather we keep having!”
And from ’Frisco Rosie Made A Thing’s Rosie Harrison ’fessed up: “Lovely night at the Louies – I’m a little bit worse for wear but having a lovely little jolly over here with the UK gang. Made all the more fun with tonight’s news!
“I have also been engaged as Mark’s awards mule and will be chucking their trophy in my suitcase for the return journey. There’s a 50/50 chance of it making it home safely!”
For Ged Mace, md and co-founder at The Art File, it’s the publisher’s first Louie, and he added: “We’re are over the moon that our friends in the USA have recognised our Pollen collection by Ally Gore as the Best Blank Card for $5.50 & below.
“This collection performs well for retailers everywhere and each card is beautifully finished with embossed detail on a matt textured board. Special thanks should also go to our US distributor, Notes & Queries, for helping us promote Pollen in America.”
With the awards as the opener for Noted, it’s now a busy couple of days for Redback Cards, which was nominated twice in the Children’s Card Above $5.50 category, as owner Chris Stanley is exhibiting, as is The Imaging Centre’s md Adam Short.
It was the 35th annual Louie Awards, which had 87 publishers across the 57 categories, with entries judged by a panel of 78 card publishers, retailers, sales representatives, and stationery industry leaders at seven regional hubs across America to select 171 cards as finalists.
The US GCA has continued its partnership with book retail giant Barnes & Noble for the third year with select Louie Award finalist cards available in over 700 Barnes & Noble and 120 Paper Source stores nationwide this summer.
And it has also partnered with online marketplace Faire to create a Community Page featuring all of this year’s Louie Award-winning brands. The full list of winners is available here.
