Who Are the Best Wholesale Card Publishers in the UK?
Posted by Helen Edwards on 16th Feb 2022
EAST END PRINTS
About 5 years ago, my assistant asked me ‘Why don’t we publish cards? Why just prints?. It seemed churlish not to sell cards. After all, we sign up the artist, negotiate the onboarding process with them just to sell their prints? What a waste!
We launched our first 50 cards at Top Drawer London and got a great response. Now our catalogue has over 2000 cards with collections including type, feminism, animals, floral, humour, Christmas and the occasional Happy Birthday card. Our main USP however, is the beauty of these little bits of artwork.
We keep the inside blank as we feel the artwork speaks for itself. Our cards are literally printed on demand for our wholesale customers. We never hold stock as we want to keep the range fresh and moving forwards, printing only to order allows us to do this.
Everything is printed via the lovely people at The Imaging Centre (who now print for half of the Top Drawer trade show). For us, it was never about the high volumes but ensuring we could support our artists and really push and innovate the designs we put on cards.
Imaging Centre uses vegan inks and recycled envelopes and we are keen to go ‘naked’ getting rid of any single use plastic cello for 2022. Saving the planet is important to us and a percentage of our profits support the charity Cool Earth who work with deforestation. We love the quality of the printing and it really does the published artworks justice. Cards are sold in packs of 6 to wholesale customers only at this stage, alternatively you can pop down to our Brick Lane store to buy a single unit and see the quality for yourself.
To set up a trade account contact Jo and Alex on wholesale@eastendprints.co.uk. View our card catalogue here.
Ohh Deer
Celebrating the humour in cards and they beat us to a Bob Ross card range (one I won’t forget for a while!). Ohh Deer are specialists in Gemma Correll, neurotic, funny comic style cards and celebrating occasions in the best possible manner. They have a huge UK warehouse full of stock and a large collection ranging from wall planners to calendars (perfect for your stationery needs).
Art Press
We love these guys! In fact my old boss and dear friend Ann Viney runs the show. I love the Royal Academy museum collections and their tight style of illustrators and artists. I see this as a very feminine range, lots of cats and dogs! They are very established in the industry and have a really good reputation for delivering the goods. They also do lovely box sets of cards and always have beautiful looking stand designs at the trade shows.
Wrap Magazine
Fairly new on the trade fair scene, celebrating designs from illustrators and doing occasions really well in their own style. They have got a lovely collection of ‘art cards’ which are printed on a super matt paper. Similar size and price points to East End Prints.
ArtHouse Unlimited
I worked with this charity when they first started attending trade fairs and licensing products. They have since grown from strength to strength, delivering great products which feature the designs of adults with epilepsy and neuro-diverse disabilities. This charity has such a strong commercial look, its’ very hard to resist! There is a quirky edge to it, honesty and a bit cheeky, not for everyone but the cause outweighs everything. Who doesn’t love 100% back to the charity? Really good trade prices too.
Looking for a wholesale card stockist? Enquire with our team today.