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Face To Face
Tate
That
“When I think back to 40 years ago, what I really wanted to do when I started was to change the world and I thought cards were as good a place to start as any,” said Cath Tate, founder of Cath Tate Cards in her inspiring acceptance speech, having been presented with The Henries 2020 Honorary Achievement award last month. PG takes a trip back through the decades with Cath while her daughter/codirector Rosie shares current plans that demonstrate that ‘world changing’ is still high up on the company’s agenda. “I was absolutely as green as grass,” admits Cath Tate, thinking back to the origins of what has gone on to become one of the bastions of greeting card publishing brands. “I knew nothing about the card business, nothing about business and to be quite honest I’ve spent the last 40 years learning by the seat of my pants! But it just goes to show that if you do have something that you feel is important, you just have to sit down at the kitchen table and just get on with it. You will make mistakes, sometimes terrible mistakes, but without those mistakes you’ll never get anywhere,” said Cath, sharing her experiences and business philosophy at the recent virtual Henries awards event. It was back in the early 1980s, at a photomontage night school class that the teacher, impressed with a design Cath had created, that featured Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pinching someone’s purse from their handbag, 52
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
remarked that would make a decent greeting card. That was it, the ‘card seed’ was firmly planted which saw Cath’s kitchen table become the hub of Cath Tate Cards. “There I was cutting up old photographs and pasting them down, trying to work out what would make a good card or not,” recalls Cath.
Above: Cath Tate with her Henries’ Honorary Achievement trophy. Middle left: The image that started it all - a photomontage Cath created at a night school class. Left: A design from the Loose Knits range based on retro knitting patterns. Below left: Cath and Rosie Tate at The Retas in 2019.
Back then, as well as creating the ranges (some her own designs, others the work of under-represented women cartoonists) Cath also undertook the selling. In the early days the designs she published (many championing social issues) as postcards and posters were best suited to the alternative bookshops, though as time went on and the portfolio expanded, the retail base grew in tandem, anchored by independent retailers with some selected multiples coming on board along the way. With a willingness to take creative risks, Cath Tate Cards has, over the last four decades, trailblazed countless greeting card concepts - from Loose Knits (based on retro knitting patterns) to Photocaptions (an early pioneer of combining vintage photographs with witty quips) - that has seen the publisher earn its stripes and expand its customer base in many corners of the globe.