New Website Launch

After months of secret meetings and more than a few sleepless nights we are proud to launch our brand new websites for Paper Rose & The Art Group, as well as a brand new fully integrated Trade Shop. This will be the first time that all three brands will be sold under one roof.

We have designed both sites with our wonderful customer base in mind. Today, our range of over 2,500 cards includes styles to suit every taste, from quirky humour, to beautiful handmade designs, and all at the premium quality that our customers have come to expect. With the use of Tablets & Mobiles increasing we decided to redesign our websites to reflect this change. Our new website is multi-platform and with more cards being displayed than ever.

We hope you enjoy our new website, and stay tuned for all our new launches of the coming months.

Kate's 40th Birthday

At Paper Rose we love a good excuse for a party and no body encompasses this more than our Studio Manager Kate. After an epic birthday party the previous Saturday (with a live Karaoke band) today was finally the big 4-0. In Paper Rose tradition we created a special one off piece of artwork to celebrate the event, as well as a few comedy presents from the Paper Rose team. Below is a few photo's of the special day. Happy Birthday Kate!

Merry Christmas!!!

Time For Christmas

Happy December the 1st everyone!

On The Cards

Yesterday we presented our On The Cards winners with their prizes at this years Progressive Greetings Live. The On the Cards competition has had sponsors from all over the Greeting Card industry, G.F.Smith, Paperchase, Sherwood Press, Greeting Card Association, House of Illustration and Progressive Greetings Magazine.

The winners travelled down to London to be shown around PG Live, receive their prizes and also talk through the next stage of the development of their designs.

Here's Victoria from Nottingham Trent University receiving her award from Mark at G.F.Smith & Reggie at Paper Rose. She won the Design and Illustration category for her slightly rude pun cards.

 Here's Danielle from DeMontfort University receiving her award for the Technology category for her range of "Selfie" inspired cards.

And finally here is Lucy from Nottingham Trent University receiving her award for Format and Technology for her "Dot-to-Dot Stitch" inspired cards

And finally here are all of our winners with Paperchase, Paper Rose & G.F.Smith.

A massive thank you to G.F.Smith & Progressive Greetings for showcasing the designs in the Lounge.

Well done to all who took part and here's to next years competition! 

Helpcards

Our exclusive brand new range Helpcards is launching at PG Live, pop by our stand 325 to see all the excitement! 

For over 40 years, Helpcards has been giving their entire profits to UK charities. The 32 charities they donate to include many well-known nationwide organisations, as well as some smaller local projects responding to the needs of the people in their area and that really benefit from Helpcards’ support. These charities offer help to people with disabilities, the elderly, the terminally ill, rescue services, children at risk, the homeless, and people going through a crisis in their lives. By choosing Helpcards you will be improving the lives of very many people.

A contribution of 10p (plus VAT) is made to Helpcards for every card purchased. 
With Helpcards you don’t have to decide which is the most worthy good cause, 
you can help them all.

We are launching our exclusive new range Helpcards tomorrow at PG Live, in support of this Paper Rose and The Art Group will be holding a charity event on the stand, to find out more information watch our video below! #Helpcards #HelpCardsSelfie

Posted by Paper Rose on Monday, 1 June 2015

Designer Profile - JoJo Norris

We are currently rolling out our project "On the Cards" to several Universities around the country, this is in partnership with G.F.Smith, the Greeting Card Association, Sherwood Press and the House of Illustration. This is to promote the Greetings Card industry to young graduates who may not consider Greeting Cards as a viable career path. In house we are proud to have 3 fairly recent graduate working for us, over the next few weeks we will take a look into the world of our designers and have a conversation with them about entering into the industry and their thoughts on this career path.

JoJo Norris has been a designer with Paper Rose and The Art Group for nearly 4 years since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 2011, she moved to Nottingham after graduating and the rest, as they say, is history...

I wasn’t aware of the creative potential in greeting cards when I studied Illustration at University. When I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2011, I moved to Nottingham with a plan to be a full time freelance Illustrator. I'd only been in Nottingham for a week when I just happened to spot the Designer position availability at Paper Rose and thought ‘Wow, that job sounds like fun!’ and I just couldn’t believe it when I actually got the job! I learnt more about design and print production in one week of working at Paper Rose than I did in my 4 years at University.

Each day is different, and even after 3 years I still look forward to work in the morning (that’s definitely got to be a good sign!).I think when someone hears ‘Greeting Card Designer’ they think of literally JUST greeting cards, but in reality we actually work on all kinds of exciting projects from product design to exhibition curation. We're always working on developing something  

contemporary and innovative. It’s a brilliant career path that offers huge amounts of creative opportunity. 

I think the greeting card industry has been vastly underestimated by many universities- it  wasn't something that we were encouraged to pursue; I'd never even considered a career in this field. As a student I felt like I was constantly encouraged to 'develop a style', I often felt a bit pigeon holed and unable to express the variety of concepts and techniques I wanted.  However what I enjoy most about greeting card design is how variety is encouraged and versatility is supported. 

In the several years I've worked here, I've enjoyed developing and updating many of my own card ranges. One of my ranges Magpie even helped to win a Henries award in 2014 (the highest 

accolade in the industry!) which was a great confidence booster and also great confirmation that I made the right choice in choosing my career. 

I’ve also been fortunate enough to be able to maintain my freelance career too, which is very important to me. Since working at Paper Rose I’ve illustrated two children’s books, packing design, CD covers, all kinds of things!  I can balance my freelance illustration comfortably 

alongside the full time work, and I also really love working in the studio alongside amazing 

creative people. (I’d go a bit stir crazy being on my own all day!)