Calgary greeting card designer wins Louie Award

A Calgary greeting card designer has won a major international award for one of her designs.

Emily Skinner, owner of Pedaller Designs, received the Louis Award for Best Children's Birthday Card Under $5.50 at the annual awards ceremony in San Francisco in April.

“We like to think of the Louis Awards as the Oscars of the greeting card industry,” said Skinner.

“There's an amazing pool of talent, so to be recognized by my peers for my artwork was very humbling.”

The Louie Awards are an annual event hosted by the Greeting Card Association. Alison O'Connor, chairman of the awards committee, said more than 100 card manufacturers took part in the annual celebration.

From single artist studios like Skinner's Pedaller Designs to greeting card giants like Carlton and Hallmark, card makers compete for the industry's top honors.

“It's exciting to be a finalist against a big company,” O'Connor said.

“When you enter your cards into Louis Rewards, you have to hide all the branding. So when people are looking at cards, they don't know who the maker is, they don't know if it's from Hallmark or Pedaller Designs. You're really being judged on content.”

“I hope your birthday screams”

Skinner's winning design featured a trio of playful monsters celebrating the party with the slogan 'We hope your birthday screams'.

“It was really fun to paint them. “I thought about my boys when they were young,” says Skinner.

“I am a mother of four children, so the experience of a son and a mother will always be in my mind. Sometimes it's a bit of a hoot to celebrate with a house full of little kids eating cake, I just learned something playful like cute monsters.”

Hope Your Birthday Scream Card by Pedaller Designs. (Louise Awards/Greeting Card Association)

According to Skinner, designing cards for holidays like Easter, Halloween or Christmas requires some lateral thinking because of the industry's buying schedule. In early May, she is drawing reindeer for cards to celebrate the upcoming Christmas season.

“The greeting card industry is always a season or two ahead in terms of the buying cycle. So many of my shareholders are buying their holiday shares. You know, we design Christmas in the spring and Halloween in the spring,” he said.

Skinner designs his cards on a tablet computer in his home studio and sends the files to a commercial printer for production.

“I work with a local printer in Calgary, so I don't do a lot of series production,” Skinner said.

“I work with very small editions for a lot of quality control and to make sure everything is perfect.”

The greeting card industry surpassed $6 billion in sales last year, and O'Connor said sales of traditional greeting cards are growing despite online competition from e-mail, e-cards and social media.

“I don't think anything can ever replace the beauty of a handwritten note,” O'Connor said.

“As long as there is a postal service to deliver it, there will always be value in being able to connect with someone through something as tactile as a card.”

Skinner cards are available for purchase through his Pedaller Designs website.