This year has been entirely unexpected, and somewhat scary, for so many businesses. Initially when the chaos of suddenly closing happened, alongside many others, I’m happy to admit I had a moment of thinking “OMG, what are we going to do?!”.
A few months later I can honestly say that some good has come out of it. This year has given me the opportunity to dig into projects that previously, I hadn’t had time for. We remained positive and as always, continued to look for the next Meg Hawkins Art adventure!
Normally, I take the business on the road to various trade shows throughout the year. With all of these postponed or cancelled, I had the opportunity to look into a couple of shows that I have always wanted to get involved with, but for one reason or another haven’t been able to. A couple of them are in London and the timings have never worked for us before to be able to attend as they’ve always clashed with other events and commitments.
But…like everyone else, we have been adapting to a virtual way of living and have certainly been making the most of Zoom! We got into the swing of this pretty quickly; you’ve got to keep adapting and moving forwards or you’ll end up treading water and get stuck where you are!
I’ve been wanting to go to the Global Licensing Expo for the past four years! But believe it or not, have never been able to, which seems crazy! This year though, I was able to attend virtually. This meant filling in on their website lots of information about the business, which was then put out to worldwide licensing companies. This is so exciting because I wouldn’t normally be able to reach these.
‘PING’. I had an email! The email said that I had matched with a licensing company that was interested in my work.
The company was card.com and two lovely ladies, Linda and Heather, had a call with me to have a chat. They are based in the United States. I haven’t really had to adjust to different time zones before, so this was new…but we got there without too many accidental calls at unsociable hours!
Linda M. Castillon, the SVP of Licensing for Card.com, said, "We are thrilled to add the fantastic watercolor artwork of Meg Hawkins to our roster of card art. We feel that Meg's art adds an insiders' view of the charm of the English countryside and its wide variety of lovely wildlife in Meg's gorgeous style!"
Card.com essentially makes spending more stylish, by printing images onto payment cards and will be soon offering gift cards. One of the things I found tricky to decide, was which designs to use. Different countries have different tastes. I know what sells well here, but also know this might not be the case over in America.
We had a few catch ups, shared our thoughts and chatted about how well the virtual show had worked. For them also it was an opportunity for them to seek out designers that they wouldn’t typically come across (like myself!).
So, here we are! Ready to showcase the collection. We are so proud to say that you can now find Meg Hawkins designs on re-loadable, prepaid cards, backed by Visa and Mastercard. Amazing!
What I want to get across here really is…when a pandemic (or other unexpected situation) hits you in the face, try and adapt, stay positive and find a new direction. Explore all opportunities – some might not be right for you, but some will be! Take one day at a time and never take anything for granted.
I feel very excited for the future right now – my designs are now on a new product in new countries which is a huge positive. Let’s hope they love them!