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WASHINGTON — The Greeting Card Association (GCA) and Blue Print are have announced the new partnership between Noted: The Greeting Card Expo and Blue Print beginning in May 2020 at the Festival Pavilion in San Francisco, Calif.
Noted is debuting this year in Brooklyn, May 18-20, as a first-of-its-kind event with the goal of bringing together the greeting card community and giving attendees a chance to connect with one another, discover new products, and celebrate the diversity of greeting cards and the people behind them. Noted is organized and led by volunteer members of the Greeting Card Association, which will also host the prestigious LOUIE Awards celebration, honoring the best cards in the industry from the previous year, during the event.
“Noted is an experience that is all about making meaningful, lasting connections between buyer and seller. And an experience that, frankly, is very much like the sending and receiving of cards,” said GCA executive director, Peter Doherty.
Blue Print is a surface print and design show, a community of artists, studios, buyers and visitors from all over the world. The show has been attracting buyers from multiple industries that have a need for topical artwork. It is a show that not only hosts well-established print studios and artists, but facilitates a more cost-effective event for young, up and coming artists. Blue Print began in May 2015 in New York with just 12 studios, and has now grown to around 140 exhibitors for this year’s show, which is on the May 20-23, 2019. This May show will be the 8, having also held an inaugural San Francisco event in October 2018. The relaxed atmosphere at a Blue Print show has encouraged a much better environment for both the exhibitors and visitors alike.
“This kind of collaboration never would have happened, had it not been for a number of courageous volunteers agreeing to pledge our resources in support of an effort that works to bring publishers, designers, artists and their retail and wholesale partners together for a truly new and exciting event experience,” added Doherty.
2020 will see the start of an annual “rotating” event that moves to a different city in the USA each year. The locations of the 2021 and 2022 shows will be determined based on feedback from both exhibitors and attendees. The rotating locations will give buyers and visitors the opportunity to experience the trends and lifestyles of consumers across the country and offer a fresh perspective from a new location each year.
