Owners Frank and Pennie put on the glamour at US awards ceremony
Tache Crafts’ owners Frank Nicholls and Pennie Bryant have a fabulous reason for feeling delicate today – they’re out in San Francisco celebrating winning one of the Louies Awards!
The Poole-based small publishers beat off hundreds of entries from companies of all sizes to lift the Best Blank Card ($5 & below) title in the contest run by the American Greeting Card Association, the US equivalent of The Henries awards.
“Holy Moly! We can’t believe it!” the glamorous pair crowed from California, “we’re absolutely over the moon to have won best blank greeting card!”
“Feeling just a little delicate today after a fabulous evening of celebrating winning an award. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for our foxy design in our newest Wild Moon collection.
“We met some fabulously talented individuals and we are so lucky to have raised a glass with you all in San Francisco.”
The Louies winners were announced at a glittering ceremony on Wednesday, 27 April, at Gallery 308 in San Francisco as the opener to the US GCA’s two-day *Noted: Greeting Card Expo which finishes today, Friday, April 29, where all finalists and winners were on display.
In the 51 categories, UK publishers Rosie Made A Thing, distributed by Calypso Cards; Paper D’Art distributed by Notes & Queries; The Art File distributed by Notes & Queries; and Santoro, were also finalists, with Tache the only British winners this year, having been a Celebrating Diversity & Inclusion finalist too.
However, IG Design Group company Niquea.D picked up four awards, as did Up With Paper/UWP Luxe who are distributed in the UK by Noel Tatt, while five trophies went to Hallmark, and three to UK Greetings’ parent company American Greetings.
“The Louies are the top honour in the greeting card industry,” said US GCA executive director Nora Weiser, “as the cards are judged anonymously in five distinct areas: originality, impact, design excellence, sendability, and value.”
“I was honoured to serve as chair for this year’s Louie Awards committee”, said Kate Murray, of Quick Brown Fox Letterpress. “It was amazing to get back to celebrating with an in-person awards ceremony, to recognize the creativity of this industry, and to have the energy and commitment of so many makers contribute to making the Louies such a success.”
The full list of 2022 Louie Award-winning cards can be found on the US GCA website here. Select Louies finalist cards are on sale this summer at Waterstones owners Barnes & Noble stores around the US, and people can also vote for their favourite cards as part of the Louies Consumer Choice Awards until 31 July, 2022, here. Winners of that public competition will be announced at next year’s awards ceremony
Top: Wonderful win – Tache’s design flew the flag at the US awards
