As a must-attend and vibrant sector, Greetings & Stationery at Autumn Fair is going to be packed full of the most sensational collections of every kind of greetings and stationery products, bringing together creative, fun and colourful greeting cards, wrapping papers, stationery, accompanying gifts and paper decorations. Autumn Fair continues its partnership with the Greetings Card Association (GCA) and wholeheartedly supports its two campaigns Thinking Of You Week and #Cardmitment to help champion and celebrate the joy of writing, sending and receiving cards.
From the 3rd – 6th September at NEC Birmingham, Hall 6 will come to life, celebrating the latest Greetings and Stationery collections from a host of favourite and new brands. The Art File, Emotional Rescue, Paper Salad, The Little Dog Laughed, Early Bird Designs, By Molly & Izzy, Five Dollar Shake, Emma Ball, Cardology, Penguin Ink, The Seed Card Company, Letterbox Love, Jumble, Twizler, Dean Morris Cards, Alljoy Design, Jane Buurman Handmade, Lola Design, Holy Mackerel, Brainbox Candy, Perfect Planner Company, Natural Partners, Print Circus, Wish Strings, Louise Tiler, Emma Ball, MoonGazer Cards, Morrigan, and many more will showcase their new collections.
The popular GCA Debut area returns, spotlighting the industry’s exciting up and coming new designers including Hazel Bee, Fox Under the Moon, Angie’s Folk Art, Dixons Doodles, Coach House Partners, Richart Designs, Susel & Co, and Nicole Elders. Situated next to the GCA Debut area, visitors will be able to find out all about the GCA’s Thinking of You Week and #Cardmitment campaigns designed to encourage people to send greetings cards.
Daniel Mayhew, Event Director, Autumn Fair says, “The Greetings & Stationery sector, without fail, makes me smile and this year’s show will offer visitors an awe-inspiring and heartwarming collection of beautifully designed and thoughtful cards alongside stationery, wrapping and accompanying gifts. We are also delighted to continue our partnership with the GCA and support both Thinking of You Week and the new #Cardmitment campaigns. We are totally committed to helping harness the emotional power and positive impact of greeting cards and look forward to welcoming visitors to engage with our specially created pop-up spaces next to the GCA Debut area.”
At the show, the Spring & Autumn Fair teams will also share videos for social channels of themselves holding their most treasured greetings card revealing why it means the world to them, and explaining why they’ve kept it.
On the show floor, Gift of the Year winners famous for their signature pop-up cards, Cardology return to their front-of-hall location with an even wider range of fresh new launches, officially licensed, and own-brand, premium stationery products, perfect for adding to your final top-up orders to make your Christmas 2023 sales fly. Look out for the new Harry Potter range.
Now in its third year, The Seed Card Company return to showcase more of their sustainable, eco-friendly seed card stationery. Cemented as one of the leading companies providing seed card, that actually grow (no gimmicks here), from greeting cards to notecards and gift tags they also offer not only wildflower seed cards but carrot, lettuce, basil and parsley seed card options. The show will also see the launch of new gift tag and notecard designs with additions to the popular Christmas card collections.
Joining the line-up for the first time is Manuscript, which distributes its own brand calligraphy and pen products across the world, an extensive collection of pens and craft products from leading brands, and children’s stationery range The Lionheart Tales, as well as luxury ribbon brand Ribbonly with its unique and popular range of ribbons for decorating.
New and exclusive to Autumn Fair, Marina B Designs is a design-led greeting card company nestled in the heart of rural Leicestershire, capturing emotions and connecting hearts with its thoughtfully crafted greeting cards. And, Citrus Bunn debuts, bridging the gap between luxury and fun with its silly animals on gorgeous textured card, ready for the fanciest of occasions.
Other newcomers include Tomcat Cards, dedicated to cat lovers and featuring ranges from some of the finest feline artists in the world; newly launched greetings card publisher Last Lemon offering contemporary humour ranges; and Perfect Planner Company an award-winning stationery company specialising in luxurious planners, journals, and notebooks featuring or biodegradable materials.
The Art File will be showcasing a brand-new print range called Tall Boy Prints, and its award-winning Christmas 2023 collection will be on show for the last time. The new collection is packed with an eclectic mix of contemporary festive trends with a hint of traditional flare. Visitors will also discover a handpicked selection of their bestselling everyday greeting card, wrap and gift bag ranges.
Celebrating 25 years, The Little Dog Laughed will present its original animal-themed artwork on greeting cards, gifts, and homewares. Also celebrating 25 years of making people laugh, Dean Morris Cards showcases its outrageously funny cards and gift. An exciting new stationery brand from Collins Debden, Jumble & Co launches a new collection called Two Minds which features dual-tone products expressing ‘two facets of emotions. Jane Buurman Handmade will be showing their new range for the first time at Autumn Fair – beautiful, unique greeting cards printed from original free-motion embroidery artwork with stitching that looks so real you can almost feel it!
Get ready to be dazzled by the new Wildlife botanical range from Lola Design. Embracing a passion for all things flora and fauna, the designs make the perfect statement pieces or delightful gifts for that special someone.
Celebrating 30 years, The Eco-Friendly Card Co offer beautiful 100% recycled greeting cards, notecards and Christmas cards. With one of the largest, award-winning humour portfolios in the industry across birthday/blank, relations, occasions, age, spring seasons and Christmas, Emotional Rescue will be launching their new 2024 humour portfolio.
Paper Salad has been busy working away creating lots of lovely new designs for Autumn Fair. Using FSC board for both cards and envelopes, they always push the boundaries in print and finishing and this year’s collection focuses on lovely textures, embossing and foil whilst keeping an eye on the environmental impact.
Five Dollar Shake & Counting Stars will bring their usual bit of stardust to the show. From the first day they sat down to draw at their kitchen table in 1998, the aim was to create a little bit of love and magic for people to send to everybody they hold dear. All their cards are printed in Sussex (many small batch runs in the studio) and handmade using genuine crystals and exclusive FSC certified papers – some of which are made with real gold! Each card is a one off and a keep’s sake.
GCA Debut continues to offer a platform to new small publishers. This season, visitors will discover:
Nicole Elders, giftware and greetings card brand that specialises in creating beautiful and unique designs that combine the ancient art of calligraphy with contemporary design.
Angie’s Folk Art, a fresh new collection of images by artist Angie Jenkins who is based in Devon.
Susel & Co, a luxury stationery designer and manufacturer based in North Yorkshire. Recently, Susel & Co have begun working with UK-based fabric printers to expand their range into homewares, including tea towels, sitting alongside their Notecards, Writing Sets, Greeting Cards, Place Cards, Mini Prints, and Giclee Prints.
Richarts Designs produce greeting cards, prints, stationery and other homeware products, all hand designed by Amy, and guaranteed to make you smile.
Dixon Does Doodle creates greetings cards, art prints, giant colouring posters, split pin puppet craft packs, jigsaws, games featuring dinosaurs, animals, monsters, zombies and everything in-between!
Little Giorgo’s Designs offers cute hand drawn, design-led greeting cards, prints and wrapping paper using the couple’s six-year-old son Giorgo’s adorably amusing and charismatic illustrations.
Coach House Partners will showcase gifting designs including metal and wooden model kits, craft sets, jigsaw puzzles, books, notebooks, greetings cards and many other wonderful products.
Hazel Bee Cards homes in on the familiar and mundane moments of life! For cute, sarcastic humour for all occasions, make a beeline for its 100% recycled, compostable, FSC and UK made cards.
Fox Under The Moon, this year’s People’s Choice Gift Of The Year Winner, sets themselves apart with original artwork drawn by founder, Stacey McNeill, which is then turned into greeting cards, stationery and gifts.
With an exclusive edit of the most sought-after furniture, interior décor and accessories, gift, beauty, toys and fashion brands, and the launch of the game-changing programme Connect @ Autumn Fair, Autumn Fair is a buyer’s must-attend show for sourcing all next season’s bestsellers as it presents completely fresh and exclusive new looks, products, material innovations, and the latest trends. Autumn Fair opens this Sunday, go to www.autumnfair.com for the latest information.
