Jessica Huie is the founder of Britain’s award-winning multi-racial greeting card and gift company, Color blind Cards. Launched in 2007, it is credited with having made history as the first company to secure a presence for a black card range on the UK high street with the range being stocked in Clinton Cards and Moonpig only six months post-launch. Named as one of the UK’s most “inspiring entrepreneurs” by the Evening Standard, and winner of the Enterprising Young Brit award, Huie has teamed up with Words of Colour Productions to engage with the UK’s most talented writers, poets and speakers in our Search for a Verse competition.
With the brand set to debut in major supermarkets in 2014, Color blind Cards is looking for three writers to collaborate with to create beautiful greeting cards for sale in the UK & USA. Huie tells Joy Francis why her daughter inspired her to set up Color blind Cards, how unimpressed she is with the lack of diversity on our high street shelves, and why the brand is ready to work with writers for the first time.
Why did you set up Color blind Cards and how did you come by the name?
I set up Color blind Cards when I was in the middle of a really successful media career. My daughter was seven at the time. She has beautiful afro hair but was being teased by the boys and girls at school who said that her hair was too big and they couldn’t see the blackboard. She went through a stage of wishing she was someone other than she was, and wanted to have blue eyes because of the limited images of beauty she was surrounded by. I went to Oxford Street to find a card with an image that represented her but soon realised there was nothing to illustrate how diverse our society is, which seemed crazy to me. If I was having this dilemma as a mother then others would being feeling the same. I wanted to make a contribution so I started this mission to put black faces on British high street greeting card shelves in places like Oxford Street.
How important are the verses to your cards’ success?
The words are as important, if not more important than the images. I come from a writing background. My degree is in journalism. I love words and like lots of women I particularly love quotes that sum up a mindset at a particular point in your life, and quotes that let you know that you are not isolated in an experience. Ultimately we are all human beings, but the black community’s experiences of life will also differ in many ways, for a variety of reasons. As a mother of black children and a son in particular, there are lessons and messages that I want to impart that are specific to our culture. In my children’s case, their grandfather came to this country pre-Windrush and the legacy of his experience, the strength, resilience and pride he illustrated despite the alienation of being thrust into a white country which was far from welcoming, has been passed down to me. The words on our cards must speak to us. It’s about more than just sticking an image on a card.
How do you currently work with writers and what are your selection criteria for the verses?
We share the words of very well known iconic people. Some of the verses are done in-house by me and my team, but I’m aware of the importance of versing so being able to outsource this opportunity is brand new for us.
You have decided to run a ‘Search for a Verse’ competition with Words of Colour to find writers to contribute verses for a new series of cards. What has made you decide to do this?
To ensure we are meeting a need within the community globally, versing has to take centre stage because I don’t feel this need is being met in the industry, and my business needs to move in that direction. I want to improve and enhance versing and make it a focal point of our brand. I also want to provide a platform to showcase the incredibly talented writers we have here, and offer them a commercial opportunity that allows us to grow and thrive together.
Who are your writing inspirations?
Maya Angelou. People who are brilliant wordsmiths like Marcus Garvey, Nelson Mandela, Iyanla Vanzant and Eckhart Tolle who wrote The Power of Now. There’s a beautiful poem called The Invitation, which was life changing for me. Words are powerful in an age where we communicate more through technology and social media rather than and face to face. Greeting cards allow someone to receive something physically to show you are thinking of them, and can tell them what they need to hear at the time they need to hear it.
What advice would you give writers looking to branch out into the field of versing for greeting cards?
Stay true to the brief, whatever that might be. Be authentic. People see through superficiality. Write from the heart. Do you and put your spin on the brief. If it resonates, success will come easily.