Last year paper company, Slater Harrison, sponsored the reception of The Henries, this year it is a sponsor for the Best Male Range category.
Paul Bowden, sales manager of Slater Harrison reveals all!
Why I sponsor The Henries? “Traditionally we have been really successful supplying our Centura Pearl premium coated pearlised paper stock, made up into envelopes for the greeting industry. As we are now developing more speciality papers and boards that dovetail perfectly with greeting card production, we now have a significant and bespoke offering for the greeting publisher so it makes perfect sense to us to support the industry by sponsoring The Henries.
We have been attending The Henries for many years (we have previously been a sponsor for the Most Promising Young Designer award). It’s wonderful to meet up with so many of our friends from across the industry and watch newcomers into the business grow and flourish, hopefully using our speciality products!”
What I most love about this industry? “We work with many industries and supply to over 80 countries worldwide yet the UK greetings industry does seem to have its very own specialness. We especially love the publishers’ desire to innovate, constantly looking for new and innovative ways to create and be different. As we are independent and based in the UK we can be light on our feet and very quickly create a unique solution for our creative clients, we are grateful for the UK greetings community for the innovation they seek and the opportunity that presents us to show off our own uniqueness. That is why we love this industry so much.”
What most concerns you about the industry’s future? “Quite possibly the single biggest concern for the industry’s future is the rise in digital correspondence and although it is progress and the world in which we all now communicate at a fast pace, it does not replace the act of giving and receiving a tactile beautifully produced greeting card.
May the act of giving and receiving a beautiful card on beautiful board in a beautiful envelope forever continue and be appreciated!”
Share a piece of your company’s latest good news! “Since launching our Centura Pearl at the new millennium we felt it fitting to mark its coming of age by elevating ‘Centura’ from a product into a brand and have had such innovative fun over the past few months working with Debbie Wigglesworth to develop several new products for the Centura collection.
Centura Pearl now sits proudly alongside newly launched Centura Metallic, Centura Neon, Centura Texture and our new Centura Matt with its distinctive matt chalk surface and available in any colour you choose with a different colour on reverse if you wish!”
In addition, Slater Harrison has also pledged its support to Letterspace, a celebration of letterform in everyday spaces, founded by designer and educator, Lucy Biggs, senior lecturer at Manchester School of Art.
Some 26 designers are currently working to create the inaugural Letterspace alphabet. The alphabet will be first presented both in Manchester city centre and at The Whitwort in April 2018.
The alphabet will form the basis of educational workshops with schools throughout the North West of England.
Slater Harrison, under its Centura brand is the sponsor of the Best Male Range category in The Henries 2017.
The finalists in this category are:
Bold As Brass from Abacus Cards
Country Gent from Toasted Crumpet Designs
Geronimo from The Art File
Just Josh from Cardmix
Mad Dots – Black Tie from Hearts Designs
And
Mr Sunshine from Ivory Mint
The Henries Awards take place on Thursday October 5 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. It is going to be fab night that brings together publishers, retailers and suppliers to the greeting card trade. For tickets contact Clare Davies of Createvents on clare@createvents.co.uk or 07769 905959.
