Spring Fair 2022 Preview
TRADE SHOW PREVIEW: SPRING FAIR 2022
Hall 3, Stand P11, NEC Birmingham, 6th – 9th February 2022
The Art File are gearing up for what will be our industry’s first trade show of 2022: Spring Fair! Taking place at the NEC in Birmingham from the 6th – 9th September, we’ll be at Spring Fair in Hall 3, Stand P11, launching our Everyday and Christmas 2022 collections as well as celebrating our 25th birthday. We’ll be marking our 25th anniversary with some very special new releases and spectacular events.
CHRISTMAS 2022
We are extremely excited to launch our Christmas 2022 collection at Spring Fair. Our new releases are high quality and design-rich festive celebrations of the most wonderful time of the year.
This year, the offering of Single Christmas cards is our best yet. Single Christmas cards have grown in popularity and are an important component of any successful festive season. We have worked alongside some of our best-selling licensees to give you our very first Christmas cards from Kate Heiss and Snowtap, as well as Alan Kitching, a brand-new partnership for us and someone we will be working with in the future, too.
Following on from the huge success of the Everyday collection that we launched last summer, we are also thrilled to launch the Parade Christmas collection. These clever Zig Zag cards by in-house designer Claire Mayes are full of originality and rich design content. Incidentally, we recently learnt that Parade has been shortlisted for the prestigious ‘Gift of the Year’!
We predict St Nicholas Street to be another stand-out collection this Christmas - hand painted by our in-house Lead Designer Lucie Cox, these beautifully crafted die-cut designs reflect the warmth of Christmas and celebrate local retailers and high streets throughout the land.
In 2019 and again in 2020 our Luxury Boxed Cards were awarded ‘Best Christmas Box in the Industry’, which we were really chuffed about. We were even more thrilled however to win the prestigious Henries Award for the third year running last October and many of our customers sold out of these boxes. So, of course, we’ve got some stunning new designs for you this year.
Our charity packs continue to be a favourite amongst customers, with 50p donated to our chosen charities for every pack sold. We are incredibly proud that this year, we will be supporting a fourth charity: The Motor Neurone Disease Association.
EVERYDAY 2022: SPRING & SUMMER
We can’t wait to launch our Everyday collections at Spring Fair, too. We’ll be launching 170 new card and wrap designs from some of the most talented designers in the UK. Ink & Shadow, Curio, You the Man, Modello, and Open Skies are the beautiful and varied new collections from our multi-award winning in-house design team. We are also launching brand new designs from our well-loved license collections Nature Trail and Sara Miller London, as well as many more occasions and relations cards.
In addition, we are delighted to announce two new licensed collections: a new collaboration with Ulla Klopf & Ute Baurecker called Pabuku, as well as a brand new look called ‘Bear’ from the amazing Robert Reader, creator of the hugely successful Ink Press.
Pabuku is a bold and unapologetic collection, perfect for anyone who is open-minded and loves a bit of fun. These talented artists have created a whimsical and distinctive collection full of colour and positive messages. You can read about the collaboration in more detail in PG Buzz’s article. Remember – normal is just an illusion. Bear is inspired by the brilliant response to our Roots & Wings Father’s Day collection launched earlier this year. Award-winning illustrator Robert Reader has combined loveable characters, charming words and a warm, earthy odour palette to create this unique collection that will have a wide appeal. These cards are finished with tasteful debossing and framed with ivory envelopes.
Our Ink & Shadow cards is expertly hand-drawn by Lucie Cox. Printed on Callisto, an uncoated textured board produced in the Lake District, this collection feels just as fabulous as it looks. The striking black and white images are set within and embossed edge and framed within a light grey envelope. These cards will have mass appeal and are sure to make an impact on display.
Curio is a magical collection full of illustrations fit for a fairy-tale. Our in-house designer Kate has skillfully treated surreal dreamscapes with oversized scenery and adventurous little characters that are dwarfed by flowers and sail on lily pads. The soft, pastel colour palette, elegant embossing, and delicate gold foils add further charm to the enchanting scenes and gives the cards a broad appeal.
SUSTAINABILITY
Every publisher has a responsibly to eliminate plastic from their products and packaging wherever they can. At The Art File we can announce that all our new Christmas 2022 gift bag designs will be produced free from laminate and so our new bags will be 100% recyclable - all you need to do is remove the ribbon handles. Of course, they still look and feel as amazing as ever! What’s more, we have also removed all the shrink-wrapped plastic from around our new roll wrap designs for Christmas 2022 – the rolls are still protected because they have an extra 10cm wrap around each roll and everything is held neatly in place with 3 paper bands. Still stylish but much healthier for our planet.
We are proud to announce that we offer all our greeting cards unwrapped and were one of the first publishers to offer his service over 4 ears ago. In addition, all our packaging for notecards also comes plastic free. During 2022, all our gift bas will be produced laminate-free, allowing for easier recycling of this popular product.
We’ll be updating our socials throughout the trade show. Keep up to date via our social media platforms through these links - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok – or just search The Art File! You can also follow Spring Fair’s socialshere: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Remember, everyone at Team Art File is here to help. As always, if you have any questions about our new products, or anything else, please send an email to sales@theartfile.com and we’ll be happy to help.
