Website is up and running – let’s see all those fabulous award-worthy cards!
Hooray! The Henries website is back in business after a wee wobble so we’re looking forward to seeing all those lovely entries to the Oscars of the greeting card industry.
The full list of categories, sponsors, and entry criteria can be found on the website, where a new account needs to be made for this year’s entries and nominations, and it should be fully working again – although some of the web browsers, particularly Safari, do have capability issues so we’d recommend trying Chrome.
“It’s been a little dicey over the past few days,” said Jakki Brown, managing director of Max Publishing, which owns and organises the awards, “but our clever technical team have been working their magic and it’s up and running again.
“If you’ve been struggling to upload your fabulous entries, please do try again, we’d really hate for you to miss out because of a technical glitch.
“It’s a great site because it gives the best and easiest experience for all our lovely retailer judges in the first online judging section which has become so important and an integral part of The Henries as they have time to carefully consider the entries at their leisure, then get together for an enjoyable in-person judging day viewing the shortlisted ranges in the flesh with many of their retailing pals.”
The ultimate accolade in greeting cards, each year over 14,000 cards are entered, covering the whole gamut of styles and occasions and, for 2024, the awards have been expanded to acknowledge the rise in licensing collaborations from publishers of all sizes, now with two categories covering entertainment and character, and heritage, lifestyle, art and design licensed ranges.
As previously, The Lynn Tait Best Young Designer Or Artist category, sponsored by Postmark, will only be judged physically, with all designers and artists encouraged to submit their entry boards showing their creative prowess and inspirations by Thursday, 25 July. The boards should be sent to The Henries, Max Publishing, United House, North Road, London, N7 9DP.
And there’s a full roster of generous sponsors, without whom The Henries Awards would not be such a fabulous event for the industry, this year’s list includes Alpha Colour Printers, Autumn Fair, Cardgains, Cardfactory, Designer Greetings, EBB Paper, Fedrigoni UK, Fujifilm, G.F Smith, Gould Paper Sales, Graphite Creative, The Imaging Centre, Loxleys, PG Live, Postmark, Scribbler, Sherwood Group, Skylight Media, Spring Fair/Autumn Fair, UK Envelope Centre and Windles Group.
Taking place at The Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on Thursday, 3 October, 2024, The Henries 2024 awards will be an all-singing all-dancing event, with a colourful and vibrant ancient Rome theme! To book tickets for the champagne drinks reception, sumptuous three-course meal, celebrity host, awards ceremony and after-party fun, click here.
For all product categories, submissions should be for card ranges that have been launched at retail between 15 June, 2023, and 14 June, 2024, or for new designs to an existing range launched within that period.
Entries for the Best Spring Seasons Range category should be event-specific, submit a separate entry for Valentine’s Day, a separate entry for Mother’s Day, etc.
It’s the third year running of the two-stage judging process for the main product categories – Best Diversity & Inclusion Range; Best Humorous Range; Best Licensed Entertainment Or Character Brand Range; Best Licensed Heritage, Lifestyle, Art Or Design Brand Range; Best Christmas Counter Range; Best Christmas Box Or Pack Collection; Best Cute Range; Best Contemporary Words & Sentiments Range; Best Traditional Words & Sentiments Range; Best Art Range; Best Photographic Range; Best Children’s Range; Best Contemporary Trend Range; Best 3D, Pop-Up, Hand-finished Or Handmade Range; Best Male Range; Best Relations &/Or Occasions Range; Best Spring Seasons Range; Best Wholesale Range; Best Giftwrappings Range; and The Henry Cole Classic Award.
Entries for the Best Spring Seasons Range category should be event-specific, submit a separate entry for Valentine’s Day, a separate entry for Mother’s Day, etc.
And, of course, there’s the coveted Henry Cole Classic Award, open to all greeting card ranges that have stood the test of time, having been published for at least the past eight years, and still for sale.
With retailers being a major element in the process of getting the card from the drawing board to the mantlepiece, how they are treated by publishers is so important, making the Best Service To The Independent Retailer one of the most highly-prized awards.
Sponsored by buying group Cardgains, this award has three winners – gold, silver and bronze – and Jakki added: “Nominations are invited from indie retailers to tell us which card publishers and giftwrap suppliers you feel have excelled on the service front in the past year.”
There’s also the Honorary Achievement Award, presented each year to an individual in recognition of the contribution they have made to the greeting card industry. Nominees can come from any aspect of the industry – retailer, publisher, designer or supplier – and all nominations will be treated in the strictest of confidence. The deadline for Service and Achievement nominations is Thursday, 24 July, 2024.
The initial judging stage will take place entirely online through the www.thehenriesawards.co.uk website, thanks to an extensive panel of retail buyers who will be invited to judge at least six categories each.
As a result of the judges’ online votes, a shortlist of contenders will be drawn up and announced in mid-July to go forward to the live judging round, again judged entirely by retailers, where publishers will be asked to supply physical card samples to be put on display at special session at the end of July for the panel to examine in person where their votes are counted to decide the finalists and winner in all product categories.
