Two well-respected greeting card brands, Wendy Jones-Blackett and Soul are collaborating to produce a beautiful stationery collection.
Having debuted at PG Live last week, Soul has gone into production on a range of 13 stationery items based on four designs the Abingdon-based company has been licensed from Wendy Jones-Blackett.
The products, based on designs from Wendy Jones-Blackett’s Hey Fresco card collection, will be available to retailers from July from Soul, but including Wendy Jones-Blackett branding too.
As to how it all came about, Wendy Jones-Blackett, co-owner of the business with her husband Steve, told PG Buzz: “Soul has such beautiful stationery and I had been wanting to produce top notch notebooks for some time so I asked David Hicks, owner of Really Good and Soul if he’d like to collaborate on a project as he has a great eye for product. Luckily for us he said yes!!”
While the new stationery products will only be offered through Soul’s salesforce, Wendy acknowledges that the collaboration offers great “dual marketing opportunities” for both companies. This builds on licensing relationships Wendy Jones-Blackett has forged with Glick on giftwrap and Widdop & Co on mugs.
While Really Good and Soul has signed countless licensing agreements with artists and designers this is the first time that it has formed a licensing relationship with another company within the industry.
“My biggest fear was buggering it up and offending such lovely people, but luckily it went well and we all love the results!” revealed David.
A specially designed counter display unit has been developed for the collection though the products will also be sold individually.
While delighted by the results of the collaboration on the stationery front that went down so well at PG Live, as well as the show itself, Steve Jones-Blackett was less enthusiastic about the results of a traditional PG Live wager with Alan Potter, one of the company’s long serving agents.
Every year at PG Live the two men have a bet that their beloved football team (Steve is a Leeds United fan, Alan a Charlton Athletic supporter) will beat the other’s on total points obtained over the entire season.
A very disappointed Steve handed over £20 to Alan as CAFC’s performance saw it being promoted from Division 1 to the Championship.
Over the 11 years of PG Live, the score is 6-5 to Alan!
Top: The Soul stand at PG Live at which the new Wendy Jones-Blackett licensed range debuted.
