On 6th October 2022 Yvette Clarkson, co-owner of Heyyy Cards had two very big reasons to celebrate! Firstly reaching a milestone birthday (the big 4-0) and more importantly being invited alongside Heyyy's other founder Dan Clarkson to attend the Henries Awards 2022.
The prestigious awards are said to be "the Oscars of the greeting card world", organised each year by Jakki Brown and the team at Progressive Greetings to celebrate the very best of greeting card design in the U.K. This year, finalists and industry professionals were invited to get their kicks at a 1950's rockabilly themed presentation evening hosted by the lovely Patrick Kielty at the Royal Lancaster Hotel.
Owner Dan Clarkson was both delighted and humbled to be off to the awards in the company's very first year of trading "we never imagined after starting our business in January that we would be attending the awards this year and DEFINITELY did not anticipate that we would have not one, but two ranges shortlisted and one range making the final 6! It's like a dream come true".
Yvette Clarkson said they felt "very lucky" and "extremely proud" to see their cards lined up amongst such a high standard of entry from some of the best publishers in the industry.
"When we arrived at the awards and saw the presentation board with our Tiny & Terrific card on we just stood looking at eachother thinking... is this actually real??" - Yvette
Heyyy Cards I'mPressed range of premium letterpress style occasion cards were shortlisted in the Contemporay Trend category, making it to the top 15 ranges selected by a judging panel of respected industry experts including buyers from Waterstones, Sainsburys, Stationery Supplies, Red Card, Postmark, Austin's and House of Cards to name just a few.
Their nostalgic Tiny & Terrific range was both shortlisted and finalist, making it down to the final 6 from over 100 entries in the Best Children's range.
Although Tiny & Terrific didn't win this year, Dan & Yvette were incredibly grateful to have made the finals and had an absolute blast at the award ceremony, rocking the night away in the very best company of fellow publishers, artists and shop owners. Yvette even got to draw the charity raffle because it was her birthday!
Reflecting on the night Yvette was keen to express how fortunate they both felt to work in an industry filled with such friendly and encouraging people "As the new kids on the block, it's been an amazing first year for Heyyy cards but we could not have achieved any of this without the support of our retail customers, fellow publishers and industry gems like Jakki and the team at PG. We feel very lucky to ge part of such a creative industry, it's like a family".
Dan echoed Yvette's thoughts and added that they felt "excited for the future and inspired to get back to the office to design more new ranges for 2023".
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