The Stationery Awards are in their eighth year, but this year was a first for two new categories recognising Retailer and Designer contributions to the stationery industry.
The winners for this year's Awards, which aim to recognise and benchmark good practice and innovation in the retail stationery sector, were announced at an informal drinks evening held after the first day of Stationery Show London.
Representatives from Award sponsors AT Cross, GO Stationery, Craft Business, and The Giftware Association, along with a selection of the Supplier and Retailer judges all took part to help announce the winners.
Supplier Stationery Awards
Several suppliers had a good Awards evening, picking up a couple of wins each – Quadrille won both the Diaries, Organisers, Calendars and Licensed Stationery categories, whilst ExaClair's new gift wrap range by Clairefontaine also collected two awards, including the Judges' Choice. It was also great to see a LaunchPad winner, Makers Cabinet (formerly Brahman Design) winning the Desk Accessories category.
The judging panel this year included Katy Golden, head of gift at the Great British Card Company, Chris Lambert, founder of rapidly growing subscription box service Scrawlrbox, Sarah Laker, owner of Marple Stationery Supplies and figurehead for this year's National Stationery Week #StationeryShopSaturday campaign, Sidonie Warren, co-founder of Papersmiths, Mark Hayhurst, sponsor and editor of Craft Business, Debbie Wigglesworth, paper Passionist from consultancy The Paper Collaborative and Abigail Ball, deputy stationery buyer at Fenwick.
Designer Stationery Award
The Stationery Designer of the Year Award, sponsored by GO Stationery was won by Laura Jackson, of Laura Jackson Design. Inspired by her travels she now designs a range of homewares and interior products, all of which are made in the UK.
Retailer Stationery Awards
With the support of sponsor A T Cross, five new retailer categories were added to the Stationery Awards this year for the first time. It was a great evening for Sidonie Warren, co-founder of Papersmiths, which picked up two category awards. Sidonie was also part of this year's Supplier Award Judging Panel – which she 'enjoyed immensely'.
The judging panel for the Retailer Awards included Kerri Middleton, MD of Busy B, George Wilkinson, MD of Nuco International, Jane Reucroft, founder and Chloe Bayles, head of wholesale at A Gift From The Gods, Rebecca Saunders, independent retail and e-commerce consultant, Michael Owen, co-founder of Lime Stationery & Art and Gemma Bassett, marketing manager at Sinclairs and a Star Choice in the Thirty Under 30 stationery initiative.