Calgary greeting card designer takes home international award

A Calgary greeting card designer has won a major international award for one of her designs.

Emily Skinner, owner of Pedaller Designs, took home a coveted Louie Award for best children’s birthday card under $5.50 USD at the annual awards ceremony held in San Francisco in April.

“We like to think of the Louie Awards as the Oscars of the greeting card industry,” said Skinner.

“There's just an amazing pool of talent, so it was just incredibly humbling to be recognized by my peers for my artwork.”

The Louie Awards are an annual event held by the Greeting Cards Association. According to Alyson O’Connor, chair of the awards committee, over 100 card manufacturers entered into the annual celebration.

Card makers, ranging from single-artist studios like Skinner’s Pedaller Designs to greeting card giants like Carlton and Hallmark, compete for top honours in the field.

“It's an exciting thing when you become a finalist up against a larger company,” said O’Connor.

“When you enter your cards into the Louie awards, you have to cover up all the branding. So, when people are looking at cards, they don't know who the maker is, they don't know if it came from, you know, a Hallmark or a Pedaller Designs. You’re really being judged on content.”

'Hope Your Birthday is a Scream'

Skinner’s winning design features a trio of playful monsters celebrating a party with the slogan, “Hope Your Birthday is a Scream.”

“They were just super fun to draw. I was thinking of my own boys when they were young,” said Skinner.

“I’m a mother of four boys so that boy-mom experience always is sort of in the back of my mind. Sometimes celebrating with a house full of little boys eating cake is a little bit of a scream, and I just knew something playful like those cute little monsters and stuff that would have made them smile.”

"Hope Your Birthday is a Scream" card designed by Pedaller Designs. (Louie Awards/Greeting Card Assocation)

Skinner says designing cards for holidays like Easter, Halloween or Christmas requires some lateral thinking because of the industry’s purchasing schedule. In early May, she is already drawing reindeer for cards celebrating the coming Christmas season.

“The greeting card industry is always a season or two ahead in terms of the buying cycle. So a lot of my stockists are buying their holiday stock already. So you know, we're designing Christmas in spring and spring at Halloween,” she said.

Skinner designs her cards on a tablet computer in her home studio and sends her files to a commercial printer for production.

“I work with a local printer here in Calgary, so I don't do a lot of mass production,” said Skinner.

“I run in pretty small print runs, just so that I have a lot of control over the quality and to make sure that everything is perfect.”

The greeting card industry topped $6 billion in sales last year, and according to O'Connor, despite online competition from email, e-cards and social media, the sale of traditional greeting cards is growing.

“There really isn't anything that's ever, I don't think, going to replace the beauty of a handwritten note,” said O’Connor.

“As long as there is a postal service to deliver it, there will always be value to just connecting with someone through something as tactile as a card.”

In Calgary, Skinner’s cards can be found at Thistle and Clover in Bonavista and a selection is available at Crave Cupcake locations.

Her complete collection can be purchased through her Pedaller Designs website.