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Industry Initiative
Man Up On
Stamps Below: The Spirit of Christmas stamps.
actual Christmas card designs by leading greeting card publishers. Coinciding with the official start of the Isle of Man Post Office’s Christmas season, a great fanfare was arranged by the tenacious team on the island to launch the ‘Christmas Cards - The Spirit of Christmas collection’, and it’s not just the island’s population that are revved up about the festive stamp issue, but philatelists all over the world are pretty excited too. With their designs being among those to feature in the stamp collection, Rachel Hare (md of Belly Button, and president of the GCA), Marina Brook (founder of Marina B), John Partridge (director of Peartree Heybridge), Grace Elphinstone (marketing manager of Carte Blanche) and Amelia Strawson (marketing manager of Ling Design) flew across to the island for the
The Queen gave her official approval to ten Christmas card designs by Belly Button Designs, Cath Tate Cards, Carte Blanche Greetings, Ling Design, Marina B and Peartree Heybridge, which are now winging their way all over the world as they feature on this year’s Isle of Man’s Christmas stamps. PG joined the posse of card publishers, the GCA’s Amanda Fergusson and Tatty Teddy ’on tour’ in the Isle of Man for the jam-packed launch programme of The Spirit of Christmas stamp issue. Below: Outside Mantons with enlargements of some of the cards and the “I feel that the centre of the UK greeting card industry shifted to the Isle of Man this week!” Chris Beards, co-owner of award-winning independent card and gift shop, Mantons, based in Port Erin, confided to PG after a hectic twoday programme of events to launch the Isle of Man’s Christmas stamps recently. It might never have happened had Chris not appeared on the island’s leading radio station talking about the importance of sending cards. This sparked a chain of events that resulted in the Isle of Man Post working with the GCA to create a wonderful collection of stamps, based on 28
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
promotional material. (Left-right) John Partridge (Peartree Heybridge), Amelia Strawson (Ling), Maxine Cannon (Isle of Man Post Office), Chris Beards (Mantons), Amanda Fergusson (GCA), Rachel Hare (Belly Button), Marina Brook (Marina B), Grace Elphinstone (Carte Blanche) and Lisa Walster (Mantons). Right: Tatty Teddy and his stamp went down well with some of Mantons’ younger customers.
launch, as did the GCA’s ceo Amanda Fergusson and PG’s editor Jakki Brown. The launch involved radio broadcasts, TV filming, photocalls at Mantons and Isle of Man landmarks, a visit to a children’s hospital ward, a reception with a parliamentary member, a meeting with senior executives from the post office - and even the chance for the visiting publishers to post their own Christmas cards (timed to go out on Festive Friday), not only with their own stamp designs, but a specially created company postmark too. Also making the trip from Carte Blanche was Tatty Teddy