The premier awards for the greeting card industry
What the Dickens is going on?! It's the sumptuous Victorian-themed Henries Awards 2010!
The UK leads the world in greeting cards, both in design and per capita send - The Henries awards celebrate this pre-eminence.
Named after Sir Henry Cole (who introduced the first commercially produced Christmas card over 160 years ago), The Henries were introduced by Progressive Greetings Worldwide magazine in 1996 as annual awards to shine the spotlight on greeting card ranges. The Henries Awards are the ultimate accolades in greeting card publishing, and each year some 15,000 cards are entered!(See Finalists 2010).
Who Judged The Henries 2010?
The entire responsibility of judging the entries to this year's Henries lay in the collective hands of the judging panel. As ever, the judging panel comprised leading greeting card retail buyers, from right across the retail spectrum. The panel included buyers from large specialist chains, medium-sized groups, independent card shops, supermarkets, department stores, garden centres, bookshops and even an online shop.
The Henries 2010 Judging Panel
Suzie Abel, buyer of Jarrolds, Norwich
Sara Allbright, assistant buyer for stationery of John Lewis - 28 department stores
Tina Botterill, owner of Cool! - three shops in Oswaldtwistle Mills
Sarah Chew, card buyer of WHSmith - 565 shops nationwide
Sam Conway, product manager of the Crown-owned Post Office branches - 376 of which stock cards
Henri Davis, card and stationery buyer for The National Trust - 200 shops nationwide
Jane Eyres, owner of Paper Mosaic, Putney, London
Madeline Fletcher, buyer of related products for Waterstone’s - 330 store
Ruth Foster, store manager of Card Bar, Sherbourne - 18 shops in the south-west
Graham Fraser, owner of Alba, Oban
Siobhan Freel, assistant card buyer of Paperchase - 120+ standalone stores and concessions
John Hall, director of Write Here, Shrewsbury
Eliot James, buyer of Scribbler - 18 shops nationwide
David Jones, owner of Greetings Galore, Bristol and Gloucester
Gillian Jones, director/owner of Expressions, Northampton
Gemma Koo, seasonal buyer of Asda – 370 shops nationwide
Michael Laybourn, assistant buyer for Hoopers Department Store - five department stores nationwide
Tish Mehmet, buyer of Paperchase - 120+ standalone shops and concessions
Branca Neto, ‘card champion’ of John Lewis - Oxford Street, London
Libby Skinner, merchandiser and assistant buyer, Calendar Club - 280-300 shops and kiosks
Dax Smyth, product manager of gifts and leisure for Squires Garden Centre - 11 garden centres
Tim Travis, curator of prints and greeting cards at the V&A museum, London
Haley Turner, sales advisor of the Card Bar, Sherbourne – 18 shops in the south-west
Jennifer Watson, buyer of Fenwick, Brent Cross, London
Tim Walker, managing director of Walkers Bookshop - six shops in Rutland and Leicestershire
Nigel Williamson, partner in House of Cards - seven shops in the Home Counties
Angela Young, director of www.thepaperie.co.uk - an online card shop
The Judging Process
The judging for all the product categories, as well as Most Promising Young Designer or Artist took place on a single day, at The Woodstore, a bar and restaurant adjacent to PG's London offices (where they used to make London buses!).
The criteria for judging were:
- Quality of Design
- Quality of print, production and manufacture
- Appropriateness for the market sector at which it is aimed
- Value for money
Each member of the judging panel considered each entry, not on what the individual buyer would sell in their shop(s), but against the above criteria.
So what happened on the judging day? Each judge was provided with a clipboard containing a judging form for each category. All entries were put on display category by category. The judges considered all entries in each category, individually selected the five entries they deemed the best in that category. They completed their judging form by writing the corresponding entry numbers (which appeared at the top of each board) in order of merit in the relevant boxes on the form. Points were awarded accordingly; five points were assigned to those entries judges felt were the best in the category down to 1 point for their fifth choices. The points from all the judges' forms were then correlated to arrive at the winner and the four other finalists.
The Henries winners are unveiled at THE big night in the greeting card industry calendar attended by 1,000 people from all walks of the card trade, including a myriad of publishers, retailers, artists, overseas distributors, and suppliers. (This year The Henries 2010 extravaganza is on Thursday October 7 at The Lancaster London Hotel in London). (See Tickets)