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Industry Issue
Educating
Inset: The students of today are the card publishers and designers of tomorrow.
Greeters “New designers and publishers are the lifeblood of our industry, bringing in fresh ideas and approaches, yet so many talented illustration students out there have little idea of the opportunities that are open to them within our sector,” a view Chris Bryan, joint general manager of Second Nature (and vice president of the GCA) knows to be true, as his own son Thomas is in his final year of an Illustration & Graphic Design degree at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire. So, last month PG joined Herts Uni students in a virtual ‘lecture theatre’ as they were treated to not only a smorgasbord of insights on the greeting card industry, but also an engaging design brief which could well result in the next budding publisher being discovered. And this is just the start…
“For over the last hundred years, the GCA has represented, protected and promoted the ever evolving greeting card industry, and part of our responsibility to help safeguard its continued successful evolution is to engage with the next generation of card senders, designers and publishers,” stated Amanda Fergusson, ceo of the GCA, explaining the association’s avowed mission to forge links with schools, colleges and universities. And if the recent ‘lecture’ experience with the Hertfordshire Uni is anything to go by, there will be some top marks scored all round.
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Below left: Second Narure’s Chris Bryan (right) and his son Thomas. Bottom left: (left-right, top to bottom) Dr Thomas Cuschieri (University of Hertfordshire), Amanda Fergusson (GCA), Chris Bryan (Second Nature), Adriana Lovesy (Mrs Lovesy) and Grace Elphinstone (Carte Blanche) on the Zoom lecture. (The students were not visible). Below: The School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire embraced the approach from the GCA to set up a lecture and issue a design brief to its second and final year students.
While the GCA has been involved with schools and colleges over the years (the Hurrah for Ra lesson plan on gratitude for primary schools being a case in point) - it is undergraduates that are arguably in greatest need right now, especially as the restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic have made it nigh on impossible for creative students to secure work placements nor have the usual physical ‘degree shows’ to showcase their talent to potential employers. “I knew from talking to my son Thomas, that so many of his peers are at a loss of how to turn their creativity into a career, gain some relevant experience or generate some money using their talents. He put me in contact with Dr Thomas Cuschieri, the senior lecturer of Thomas’ illustration course who immediately saw merit in the idea of a presentation about