The Imaging Centre are proud to be able to offer our own in-house seminars – free of charge- introducing you into The Wonderful World of Greeting Cards.

These kick off seminars focus on an introduction for new publishers. Watch your designs come to life, as you participate in a workshop to setup designs, and watch them come through our digital presses for you to take home!

Contact our customer success team for more details.

On Thursday 6th October, The Imaging Centre attended The Henries awards at the Royal Lancaster London Hotel, alongside some of our publishers.

The UK leads the world in greeting cards, both in design and per capita send – The Henries awards celebrate this pre-eminence. Named after Sir Henry Cole (who introduced the first commercially produced Christmas card in 1843), The Henries were introduced by Progressive Greetings Worldwide magazine in 1996 as annual awards to shine the spotlight on greeting card ranges.

The Henries Awards are the ultimate accolades in greeting card publishing, and each year some 14,000 cards are entered! The Henries award categories span the whole gamut of greeting card publishing, from humour to cute, art to children’s and everything in between.

The majority of the awards categories are for card ranges that have either been launched in the preceding year or for new designs to an existing range. The Henries awards are open to all publishers (or UK distributors), from the largest multi-national to the smallest one-man band. Entry is totally free of charge.

The judging panel, as ever, comprised top retail buyers from right across the retail spectrum including specialist multiples, design-led independents, small groups, department store selectors, supermarket buyers etc. 

A great evening of celebrating the greeting card industry was had by all!

Last Friday we had an all staff training session at our HQ, encouraging motivation, performance, new skills and teamwork.
We are so fortunate to have such a fantastic team, and look forward to supporting their ongoing progression.

It was great to see so many of you at this year’s PG Live, we are already seeing some major success stories from the show and look forward to working with more of you as your follow ups continue. It was so nice seeing everyone in person again, and feel the positivity in the industry that has been lacking over the past few months. We are already working with organisers on next year’s show, which we hope will be even better. We are also attending other major trade shows on the calendar and hope to see many more of you throughout the rest of the year.  Imaging Centre InPress Seminars Launched: The Imaging Centre are pleased to announce that we will be holding our first InPress Seminar. These seminars, created to help designers on their path to becoming successful greeting card publishers, will be held on site at The Imaging Centre in Kent. Attendees will hear from experts across the industry including The GCA, PG, Greeting cards Suppliers, Existing publisher and Retailers with top tips on how to become a successful publisher, as well as getting the chance to create their very own designs, see them produced and take home their very first printed cards. In Press seminars are free to attend for new and existing customer and will run from 9.00 – 15.30 September 15th 2022. For more details and to sign up please follow this link. Places will be offered on a first come first served basis, however depending on take up we will look to run further sessions.    Stock, Supply, Pricing & Turnaround Update: With extreme caution I am pleased to say that it does finally look like things are starting to settle down on the cost front, we are in constant communication with our suppliers who are also sounding more confident about not only pricing, but supply. At the Imaging Centre, as we detailed in our last update, we have been working extremely hard on overcoming these issues investing significantly in increasing our stock holding in order to provide a consistent supply to you our customers and we are now fully stocked on all fronts, along with processes in place to ensure that it stays that way. This has helped with maintain our turnaround times (detailed below) over the past few weeks, now everything is in place our major focus will be to start reducing.    Current turnarounds: Proofs: 4.5 Working Days Print: 4.5 Working Days Print & Packed: 6 Working Days Special Finishes: 9 Working Days Special Finish & Packed: 10 Working Days   I am also pleased to be able to share the news that INVERCOTE is back! Since October, when the supply of our most popular board was interrupted, we have been working on trying to re-stock it and have now found a way to re-stock the board have significant supply as well as back up in place to re-offer the board on a permanent basis. SYMBOL ECO 50 300gsm which has been used as a replacement will still be available for those currently using it. However, if you do wish to revert back to Invercote then please let us know and we will update your specification accordingly.    July Proof Code: To receive you free set of 30 proofs for July 2022 please use voucher code JULY2230 when checking out.    New Machinery: In a continued attempt to reduce our lead times I can confirm that in addition to increasing our stock holding, The Imaging Centre has invested heavily into developing and improving its machinery. In the past month we have confirmed the purchase of a new Block Finishing Machine arriving July 2022, which will triple our current capacity for special finishes, We have also purchased a new Digi Foiler – arriving August/September 2022 helping speed up our turnaround times on cards with a Digi foil finish. Finally, we are one of the first companies in the UK to purchase a Duplo B2 Cutter Creaser – Arriving August/September 2022. This will help us increase our capacity and speed up our larger orders which will in turn reduce turnaround times across the board. This has been a significant investment – over £250,000 for The Imaging Centre and one that we feel shows our commitment to you our customers and the greeting card industry.    For anyone wanting to come and visit the Imaging Centre and see these machines in action and see how your cards are produced please do let us know, we would love to have you.

Our new informational video has just launched! Click here to watch, and find out more about how we can support you in your journey to become a publisher.

Created in partnership with Publisher Lanther Black.

Our rapidly growing Print and Production team is expanding, and needs new members to train in all areas and gain new skills as part of our TIC Grow initiative here at The Imaging Centre.
We are searching for motivated individuals who are looking for a career in Print and Production – full training and support will be provided to enhance and grow your abilities.

Please email all enquiries to vacancies@theimagingcentre.co.uk

The TIC Grow initiative is designed to support and progress all of our staff, to enable them to learn new skills and abilities throughout their area. We are promoting from within, to secure career progression for all of our highly valued teams.

We hope this year’s PG Live was a great success for you all

We enjoyed meeting current and new publishers, and seeing how all of your fantastic designs were presented on your stalls.

The Imaging Centre’s team of Customer Success Managers were there both days to meet the publishers, and hear all of the feedback. If you have any further feedback we would love to hear it – please don’t hesitate to get in touch – info@theimagingcentre.co.uk.

The Imaging Centre are here to support you, from thought to finish. Our aim is to to champion and evolve the greeting card industry. We are now launching our regular -free- seminars at our HQ in Marden, based around a variety of hot topics in the greeting card industry.

The first of our seminars focuses on an a welcome into the wonderful world of greetings – an introduction for new publishers.

Subjects at this event include: 

The Environment
The trials and tribulations of a Greeting Card Publisher 
What the retailer wants 
Getting to know your suppliers 
How to Utilise technology to free up your design time 
Making the Dream a Reality

During the seminar there will be chances to network with fellow publishers, and our expert team will stay on hand for any additional queries.

At the end of the seminar, you will watch your greeting cards get produced ready for you to take home. 

For full itinerary and to register your interest please see more details here

ONE day left of ordering to guarantee delivery for the PG Live 2022 show in London. To ensure delivery, please add PG to your PO number when placing your order.
We are sponsoring the Springboard Lounge this year, and can’t wait to see you all there!