28-29_Jennien Rutter.qxp_Grid 02/12/2025 12:20 Page 1
IN CONVERSATION WITH… JENNIE RUTTER
AN EMOTiONAL 30 YEARS
‘Sexy greeting card company seeks gods and megastars for long term relationship’ was the quirky heading of a job advert Emotional Rescue placed in the Autumn of 1995. Some 30 years on, Jennie Rutter, the successful applicant for the product administrator role is not only still with the company, now creative director, but is about to become half-owner and joint md of the business, alongside her longtime colleague David Greaves. PG enjoyed a catch up with Jennie about her Emo journey which has seen her go from Babybel to big cheese.
A “creative job” might have never been on the cards for Jennie Rutter, but she certainly came up trumps for Emotional Rescue. “I didn’t have a creative background and had never even seen an Apple Mac before, let alone used one, before I joined Emo. At the time when I saw the Emo advert for product administrator, I was working as a general office dogsbody for a small manufacturing business where I would also help in the factory when large orders came in,” revealed Jennie. However, there was something in that advert that chimed with the young Jen as it featured Jeff, the star of Emo’s The Odd Squad greeting card range that she knew very well. “I was always a big fan of humour cards. My friends and I would often stand in WHSmith’s in Cirencester laughing 28 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Above: The company marked Jennie’s 30th anniversary with a party.
out loud at all the humorous cards, I guess it was an 80s version of kids laughing at stuff on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube these days!! So, when I saw the advert for Emo, which featured Jeff from The Odd Squad, I knew I had to apply as I had literally seen and laughed at every card in The Odd Squad range.” Clinching the job and showing an immediate acumen, Jennie was sent on a course by the company to learn Quark Xpress, and then Photoshop.
Above: The original job advert. Left: A graphic the Emo team created for a special 30th anniversary brochure for Jennie.
“It all started from there,” recalled Jennie. “I was literally living the dream of scanning transparencies and reading jokes for a living – straight in at the deep end!!” On-The-Ceiling and Norbert were the first cards Jennie worked on at Emo, admitting that “The On-The-Ceiling cards were a little easier for me as they were quite templated in style.” Now 30 years on, Jennie still gets up close to the humour. “I still read jokes every week, only now I am responsible for what we buy and how we use the jokes. I must admit, the design side of things has never been my strong point, more the communication of the joke and the appropriateness of the send. Give me some words and I am happy; I have a brilliant team of designers who do a much better job than I ever did or could do on the design side!” While the Emo portfolio has evolved considerably over the years since Jennie joined the publishing company, she reveals that “there are a couple of jokes or the essence of those jokes that are still in the range today, although their styling is a little different these days, to what they were in 1995.”