Mike's modeling debut

This is from our latest Birthday Wishes range - 12 new designs for 2007 and each one of them fabulous. Finding a model for this particular card was proving difficult - the photo library options were useless. And then Liz had a brainwave - and this is the result. These are being distrubted by Incognito in the UK - Phone 0161 929 6471.

Mike's first ever blog post.

Hi, I am the third person in the Stripey Jumper story, the sales guy. You know the one, never lets a 'no' worry him, always asking the question “shall I go ahead and order those cards for you", never gets offended and keeps calling and begging our clients to buy more cards.

I have been in media sales for 25 years and have heard pretty much all of the objections that anyone could throw at me. Whenever a client says 'no' to me I automatically think “know” - they want to know more and keep on going. When they say “what part of no do you not understand", then I know I have gone a little too far.

I must admit that the greetings card game is a whole new sales enviroment, and we have discovered that getting in front of distributors can be a challenge.

What I have learnt is that we had to go to them, and they were in the UK and around the world. We did and it seemed to have worked.

Enough of that sales speak for now and onto my favourite series of cards. My favourite range (of ours, anyway) is Birthday Wishes, specifically farting and Shopping. Keep an eye out for the new one on sports channels - that is me on the cover…

Dave's favourite cards

Cute pictures of cats? Pah! Badly drawn teddy bears? Pah! again. Unfunny funny cards? Yet another Pah! Whatever happened to IDEAS?
Try THESE. Love you long time. Their designs woke me up from my total lack of enthusiasm for any cards other than ours. The illustrations are fantastic - fresh and cute, without being cutesy-cute (if you know what I mean) and the lines are spot-on.
My favourites? Their astrology range. Look out for them - they're fab.
As for other publishers - hmmm. After flicking through the trade mags, I'm struggling. Pigment's Venus and Mars cards are ones I'd probably buy, while Edward Monkton are consistently good. And Cath Tate's cards always make me laugh (even the ones she licenses from Stripey Jumper).