Capsule collection of publisher’s witty, absurd art will launch at Progressive Greetings Live.

Art licensing and design company The London Studio has announced the award of a licence for its partner Bewilderbeest, an exciting new publisher of illustrated cards, coasters, calendars, notecards and prints with a taste for the witty, the unexpected and, above all, the absurd.

The artist behind the brand is Iain Hamilton. His illustrations are finely crafted, meticulously drawn, and a unique blend of traditional subjects with contemporary ideas. They’re also slightly strange and very, very funny.

Bewilderbeest’s recent collection saw it become a finalist in three categories at the 2022 Henries Awards, the ultimate accolades in greeting card publishing. Hamilton himself won the coveted Henries Award for Most Promising Young Designer 2022.

Founder and director of The London Studio Soula Zavacopoulos was one of the judges for the 2022 Henries Awards – and was so impressed with Bewilderbeest that her company now represents the brand. After early success bringing existing Bewilderbeest designs to Funky Pigeon, the online home of unique personalised cards and gifts for every occasion, she has now announced plans for new content through a partnership with The Great British Card Company (GBCC).

The GBCC commissioned Bewilderbeest, through The London Studio to create a capsule collection of exclusive new designs. Soula worked with Lucy Ledger, Creative Director of the GBCC, to develop the brief for the new range.

The result is 12 extraordinarily funny and witty new designs from Iain Hamilton specially created for The Great British Card Company. The designs will launch on the GBCC stand at dedicated greeting card show Progressive Greetings Live in June. They will appear at retail soon after.

The exclusive range created for this agreement complements Bewilderbeest’s own card collections but enables the brand to reach new customers through GBCC’s wide network and distribution power both in the UK and overseas.

The Great British Card Company, based on the edge of the beautiful Cotswolds, is one the of UK’s leading publishers supplying its extensive greeting card offer to specialist card shops, garden centres and supermarkets within the UK and across nearly 30 countries worldwide.

Lucy Ledger, the Head of Creative at GBCC says: “The London Studio has a great reputation for its partnerships – and Bewilderbeest is a great example of this. We have admired Iain’s work for a while and so glad that The London Studio represents him. We have formed a great creative partnership as this humour fits our customer base exactly and this absurd brand has been a delight to work with. We are looking forward to more collaborations with Bewilderbeest in the near future.”

Iain Hamilton says “We were very excited to be asked by Soula to work with the GBCC. I was let loose to be my usual absurd self, and the first batch of daft ideas that I came up with are the ones that we agreed to go ahead with. We really look forward to seeing our nonsense on shelves very soon!”

Founder and director of The London Studio, Soula Zavacopoulos, says: “Iain has developed an incredible range of 12 designs for The Great British Card Company in a capsule collection that will allow Bewilderbeest’s delightful humour and distinctive art to reach an even wider audience. I’m thrilled to be helping Iain develop and grow his unique and witty brand through this partnership with The London Studio.”

Awareness of The London Studio and its work for both its own brands and brands that it represents is growing fast. Its success in greeting cards and gifts now extends to a fast-growing list of international retailers and licensed publishers. It has also launched a number of specially created lifestyle brands appropriate for apparel, gifts, homeware, stationery and more.