Design a card for Black History Month in Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s teamed up with the GCA to find a range of designs for a special Black History Month display to feature in 108 large Sainsbury’s stores across the country in October 2021.

The team were delighted to receive 1,000 entries, making selection of the finalists very hard. The initiative received a lot of interest across social media and throughout the greeting card industry, see report in PGBuzz on 12th August, and a further trade press report on 17th September when the winners had been announced.

Exciting opportunity to feature in Sainsburys

This is part of the GCA’s on-going commitment to driving diversity and inclusion within the industry. Sainsbury’s were looking for 26 different designs to feature on a specially designed shipper (that’s a fancy name for a point of sale stand).

This opportunity was set up by GCA Council member and Lead for Diversity within the GCA, Mark Callaby (Managing Director of Ohh Deer) and was a fantastic opportunity especially for Black publishers and designers to have their designs within one of the UKs leading supermarkets.

We looked for a range of designs from everyday occasions (think Birthday, New Home, New Baby, New Job, Thank You, Sympathy etc) as well as cards that celebrate Black History Month. The final range is an eclectic mix of cards that celebrate Black History Month and the Black community.

The final 26 designs will be featured in these stores below:

What are the rules?

Remember the design(s) could end up on the shelves of Sainsbury’s stores around the country so we need to make sure they’re suitable. No full-frontal nudity, and any swearing must be censored to sh**.

We won’t accept any designs that demonstrate hate, prejudice or discrimination, and all designs will go through a copyright check to ensure originality.

Top tips: Sainsbury’s don’t want to limit the brief too much but obviously want to make sure that the designs are commercial. Historically cards that feature birthday cakes, balloons, presents and florals do particularly well for them.

Sainsbury’s have also asked us to let you know that their customers do not spend long perusing the bays (I mean, if they’re like us, they’ve probably only popped in a tub of ice cream… no judgement here please) so make sure that your designs will catch their customers eye at a glance – bright colours and easy to read fonts are recommended. We also suggest that the main message should be within the top half of the card so that other cards don’t block the main message on the rack.

Due to the tight turnaround time with this initiative we are unable to include any special finishes on these greeting cards.

Your designs can be illustrative, font based, photographic etc etc – whatever you think could work!

Please follow the below entry instructions.

What happens to the chosen designs?

The shortlisted 26 designs will be part of a specially designed shipper (Point of Sale Display) in 107 Sainsbury’s stores across the UK. Sainsbury’s plan to launch these in store from 20th September 2021.

Every selected design will be given a special licensing agreement with the GCA. While you are able to sell your design elsewhere, you will need to ensure that each design does not feature in any other supermarket in the UK until the end February 2022.

Your company name and/or designers name will appear on the back of the card along with your website.

Ohh Deer have kindly agreed to fulfil this entire deal with all profits being distributed back to the artist and the GCA. The licensee (the artist) will receive £0.15 per unit sold to Sainsbury’s with any additional profit being used to kickstart a new GCA Diversity and Inclusion Fund that can be used to drive future initiatives within the industry – more information will follow on this fund later in the year. We anticipate (but can’t guarantee) that Sainsbury’s will be buying a minimum of 1000 units per design.

A copy of the licencing agreement can be found below – we recommend reading through this prior to the final artwork delivery date and have it already signed to send with your final artwork.

Windles have kindly agreed to provide a special discount towards the printing and manufacturing costs of these cards which is allowing us to maximise the profits for this initiative.

While the Sainsbury’s buying team will be selecting the final 26 designs, a diverse shortlisting team will also be assisting which includes GCA Council Members’ Adriana Lovesy from Mrs Lovesy, Tineka Smith from HueTribe and a member from Sainsbury’s Internal Diversity team.

Who can submit?

Anyone can submit designs, including non-GCA members, and you’re able to enter as many designs as you like.

As this is the first initiative the GCA have done like this we want to make sure we’re reaching as many people as possible and also engaging with the prospective greeting card publishers of the future. Click these links to learn more about the benefits of joining the GCA and also  How to join the GCA? Note – the GCA Diversity Fund that we’re establishing will be used to benefit GCA members

Please note: that you must agree to the licencing agreement (which you’ll find attached at the bottom of this blog post).

When do submissions close?

Submissions close on Tuesday 3rd August 2021 – so be quick, we haven’t got long (the deadline also won’t be extended).

We unfortunately need to turn this whole collection around in a very short time frame, therefore please be prepared to deliver your final artwork immediately after the GCA / Ohh Deer have contacted you along with the signed licencing agreement.

If you do not deliver your artwork along with a signed licencing agreement on time then your design(s) will not be included.

The chosen designs will then be selected by Sainsbury’s shortly after and all final artwork will need to be delivered by the end of the day on Tuesday 3rd August 2021 along with the signed licencing agreement.

How do I submit?

1. Your final designs must be in a square format (148mm x 148mm with a small bleed). To be printable, designs need to be at least high resolution (300dpi) and ideally in CMYK format. Note: All artwork will need to be delivered as a High Resolution PSD, TIFF or Ai file at 300dpi and CMYK

2. Submissions need to be uploaded to Instagram via the main feed (unfortunately we can’t see entries that you have only shared via Stories due to them disappearing after 24 hours). You must include the hashtag #GCAsainsburys as well as tagging @gca_uk & @sainsburys that way we can keep track of all submissions!

3. There is no limit on how many designs you can enter. You will need to catch our eye though, so if you’re wanting to submit lots of work, we advise a new Instagram post per entry, so that each design stands out as the lead image.

4. Follow @gca_uk on instagram to keep updated on submissions and new information. Shortly after the submission end date of 03/08/2021 we will announce the designs that will be going into the stores and reach out directly to whoever made the entry.

Please note: Your designs can be existing designs provided they are not available via any other supermarket within the UK or impact any other licencing agreement you may have in place already. Alternatively your designs can be completely new.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

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Sainsburys-x-BHM-Licencing-Agreement.docx

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Sainsburys-stores-stocking-the-special-Black-History-Month-displays.xlsx

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