(click for larger view)

Mike Keiser (on left) of sprout greetings with the Boynton product, chats with our Canadian distributor at the show!

Hard at work at the Meri Meri stand

Meredith & Jeff the creative team at Meri Meri!

How exciting to see! One design has already sold out!

More news from the show coming up!

Q. You’ve been designing greeting cards since the mid-70s. How has the card industry changed in the years since you started? What have been some of the challenges and highlights in the process of winning customers’ hearts?

A. I don’t really know. I’m remarkably oblivious to change. Come to think of it, I’m oblivious to the status quo as well. It’s part of my infuriating natural charm.

Q. How would you describe your personal evolution as a card designer? How have your characters changed and evolved?

A. Hmmm…Well, I can draw better now than I could before, so I suppose my characters have a less awkward appeal than in days of yore.

Q. You have designed 4000-6000 different cards, written/illustrated many books, and written/produced music. Of these, what’s your favourite type of project? Who is your favourite created character?

A. I love to draw and design, now that I’ve finally pretty much figured out how that works. Yet I am most smitten by writing and producing music. I don’t have a favourite character. My characters tend to be somewhat fluid and chimerical so it would be hard to identify any of them that has fully solidified into a consistent someone. It’s sentences like that that make you wonder how I ever got an English degree from Yale.

Q. You have said, “I only ‘license’ what I can develop and design myself, rather than letting companies adapt my characters according to their own sense and sensibility.” How has this stance influenced your business?

A. So far so good.

Q. You are about to begin distributing through Spirit Publishing in Australia. Why did you choose Spirit, and what are your hopes for the Australian market?

A. Spirit is the soul mate of my original U.S. greeting card publisher, Recycled Paper Greetings. That original company was swallowed whole by another company. When Michael Keiser, the son of my friend and RPG founder Mike Keiser, proposed a contrarian start-up (or upstart) I was delighted to re-begin. That new U.S. company is called Sprout, and the Spirit connection was immediately forged. My hopes for the Australian market are that there will be such an unprecedented up swelling of adoration for my cards (and, by association, for me) that the populace will, with one voice and in that exceedingly cool Australian accent, demand that I come for a visit. Maybe even present me with a wallaby of my own, whom I will inexplicably name Edward Hopper.

Q. What has been the best thing about your career, and what excites you about the future?

A. The best thing about my career is that I can work in my flannel pyjamas. I hope to be able to do so, perhaps adding fuzzy slippers, well into the future.

Thanks very much for your time, Sandra! We very much look forward to featuring you in the pages of Greetings & Gifts.

Front and back cover of the Greetings & Gifts Magazine

National News Agency