The Art File’s participation in The Henries 2019 goes far beyond the Nottingham card publisher clinching three spots in the finalists’ list this year with its stunning ranges, as the company’s creative prowess has extended into designing the official ticket to this year’s ‘big night’ on October 3 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel.
“The pressure was on as not only is the ‘100 years of greeting card history’ a rather broad theme for this year’s Henries, but also we are well aware that this will become a keepsake for the hundreds of guests, from our respected peers to retail customers and established trade suppliers,” said Ged Mace, managing director of The Art File when he and his team agreed to take up the design challenge for the event this year.
The result is a stunning celebration of both the past and the present, with the imagery, fonts, finishes and format celebrating the industry’s heritage while also demonstrating modern day treatments. The die-cut aperture of the gold foiled sleeve tantalises the recipient to draw out the main invitation, which is anchored by a hot air balloon with a very important passenger of Sir Henry Cole, the namesake of The Henries and inventor of the commercial Christmas card. Adding to the fun is a concertina ‘ticket’ which includes the details of the timings of the event.
The design was the brainchild of Lucie Whitehead, lead designer of The Art File. Sharing her inspiration for the ticket design, Lucie told PG Buzz: “Having been given the opportunity to design the ticket, I knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate nostalgic and classic design, but in a fun and modern way to represent both past and future. I then started to pull together inspiration from vintage Dover Books, retro funfair tickets, Alice in Wonderland Illustrations and imagery from the V&A’s Great Exhibition. These sparked the idea of a celebratory hot air balloon and of course having the main man himself, Sir Henry Cole, giving his approval on 100 years of the GCA.”
The mission of turning Lucie’s design into the actual ticket is now underway at specialist greeting card printers Windles, with paper company GF Smith more than happy to donate some of its Accent Calisto board to add to the quality tactility of the ticket.
For Windles this is not the only prestigious production challenge it has undertaken recently as it produced the cover of the much-talked about September edition of Vogue, that was guest edited by Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex and included a ‘wobbly mirror’ element.
If you have not booked your tickets for The Henries 2019 you can do so online via www.max-tickets.net or contact Clare Hollick, our awards manager on T: 01733 294524 M: 07769 905959 or via email: clare@createvents.co.uk
Top: There are three elements to The Henries ticket this year.
