About Me and Design Rocks!

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Hello and welcome. Here's a bit about me: I've spent my childhood and a lot of my life traveling. Places, colour and pattern are my biggest inspiration. I've surfed & lived in a tent in Cornwall. Sketched my way round Morocco. Designed from an antique textile archive in Manhattan (dream job!). Styled and written for an interiors magazine on the sleepy island of Malta. Now I live in Manchester, UK, where I run Design Rocks greetings cards. Whilst in Manhattan I amassed a large collection of vintage textiles. These were used as inspiration for my first card range, Vintage Rocks! We sell wholesale so if you'd like a brochure visit the website or get in touch. Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday 23 July 2009

Happy Harrogate!




My God, people in the greetings card industry are SO lovely. I went to check out Harrogate Home and Gift to get an idea of trade fair set ups and a fresh feel for the market, before I take the plunge in Jan at Top Drawer. I chatted to a few of my competitors and I couldn't believe how friendly they were.

My two best show pals were: Iain from Hello! Lucky, here's their stuff. I've always loved the Letterpress stylie and these guys are definately one of the best so there was much scribbling and chin stroking whilst talking to my mini mentor Iain.

My other mini mentor/verbal sponsor is the lovely Alison from Aliroo. Not only is she always so generous with her time and knowledge, she does all this with a 10 week old baby in tow!

I think what I like the most is that these great people have the same outlook as me. I love helping people and sharing what I've learnt, I'm not guarded or defensive (or naive!). Supporting people on the way up is a two way street.

I believe there's a market out there big enough to support all these diverse companies so the best thing we can do is to support each other to make British design the strongest in the global marketplace. And I believe it is. Right. I'll get down off my soap box now.

2 comments:

Dolly Cool Clare said...

Here here! Well said Cheryl! I LOVE the monkey card, its fab. It reminds me of one of my fave Etsy sellers, I have quite a few of their prints around my house:
http://www.etsy.com/profile.php?user_id=41307
Glad you enjoyed the show. I always feel so inspired after going to events like that :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Cheryl, it is lovely when people will help point you in the right direction and I always appreciate the advice on your blog. Kate x