GCA members held an inspiring workshop with the Winston’s Wish team, kindly hosted by Moonpig.
Winston Wish’s enthusiastic young ambassadors shared their stories and provided valuable insight into the language and imagery suitable for greeting cards designed for bereaved children.
Background to this Workshop
Winston’s Wish contacted the GCA saying that their youth ambassadors felt that there was a gap in the market for cards suitable for bereaved children. The GCA reached out to members and asked who would like to join a project team to address this gap, the workshop was part of this work.
Greeting cards are very special things, sent when times are difficult as well as to celebrate, and in the UK we send more cards per person than any other nation. The UK card industry care deeply that our cards resonate with all communities, with the language and imagery customers need to connect with loved ones at all the key times in life.
We were pleased when Winston’s Wish got in touch, highlighting the importance of cards to bereaved children, and that they were keen to work with us to fill what they felt was a gap for cards suitable for children at times of bereavement.
Amanda Fergusson, GCA CEO
What happened on the day!
After initial introductions the Winston’s Wish young ambassador’s all shared their individual stories. Then Moonpig’s Global Design and Licensing Director, Sarah Jane Porter, shared some insight into designing greeting cards and the Winston’s Wish team and other GCA members attending split into teams to discuss in more detail. Other GCA members attending were Nicci Gower from Hammond Gower, Donna MacGregor from Hallmark Cards, Yvonne Caddell from Little Giorgo’s Designs, Rebecca Green from Raspberry Blossom, Jakki Brown from Progressive Greetings and GCA’s Amanda Fergusson and Adriana Lovesy.
The groups then shared their thoughts with the full group.
The event really showed the power of youth voice and how young people can work alongside professionals to make change. I’m excited to see the impact of the guidelines, and future projects for the Youth Team to be involved in.
Fenella Prior-Smith, Head of Youth Participation and Engagement Winston’s Wish
This work will result in a document that will be available to download from the GCA website, for all greeting card publishers keen to design cards appropriate for bereaved children.
GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson closed the meeting summing up the day
Listening to and working with the Winston’s Wish youth ambassadors at our workshop was really inspiring and insightful. Those of us from the card industry who attended really appreciated the frank critique of some of the cards currently available, and the youth ambassadors’ suggestions on imagery and messaging that would be appropriate.
We look forward to sharing the results of this collaboration, and providing connection and important keepsakes for children bereaved in the future.
Amanda Fergusson, GCA CEO
Further information
See our Children’s Bereavement cards blog for more information on this project
See PGBuzz for full report on the workshops