Hi all,
As promised, here are a few snaps to help you get to know me and the rest of the team better.
Our office
First of all, here are two photographs of the Katies Cards office. The building with the bluey-grey 'Engravers House' sign above the window is the our office where all of our
ecards are created. The building is a converted butchers shop and is bright and airy. There are 3 companies in the building altogether as well as my ceramics studio which was built at the back of the office.
The Katies Cards office
The office is in Teddington, a small and pretty town in Middlesex in the south of England. Its right next to a gorgeous park called Bushy park, where we go at lunch time and where I walk Plum.
The team
We are a small, close-knit team who enjoy working together to create our
e cards in our lovely office in Teddington. We often listen to music in the office and because of Nick's wide taste, usually leave the selection up to him. There are a few pubs nearby where every now and then we go to have a lovely pub lunch.
Nick
My husband Nick works with me to come up with ideas for new e cards and helps bring my drawings and paintings to life on the computer screen. He helped me to create my first e card for my Mum and has been instrumental in getting Katies Cards where it is now.
Prior to Katies Cards, Nick studied animation at University. Once qualified, he embarked on a successful 8 years as an animator before deciding to go it alone and use his skills to work as a frelance animator for TV and film, which was how we met Barry.
Nick has an eclectic taste in music and enjoys food, cycling, films and spending time with friends and family.
I am very lucky to be able to work alongside my husband who is extremely talented and committed to producing such high quality cards for you!
Barry
Barry is a talented illustrator who has worked with us to create our
e-cards from a very early stage. He has made many of the backgrounds and characters you see in our collection and has also been instrumental in helping to shape the seeds of my ideas and come up with new ones!
He studied illustration at University and has since had a very successful 7 year career as an illustrator. When I asked him for some facts to write in the blog, he proudly told me that as a student, he designed the characters in a number 1 Playstation game called 'Prisoner of war' which is very impressive!
He is a keen follower of football and art and enjoys playing golf.
Racheal
Racheal is new to the team, having only joined us 1 month ago. She was brought on board to help us grow Katies Cards due to her 7 years experience in marketing for both large and small companies. Unusually for a marketer, Racheal actually studied Sculpture at University, but after completing the degree realised that she didn't want to follow the creative path and went on a search to find the right career. After joining a small publishing company as a customer service advisor, she was quickly moved over to the marketing department and rose up the ranks. Since then she has worked for another large publishing company and a disability organisation, planning and implementing marketing campaigns and developing marketing strategies.
Racheal is a keen cook and a lover of all things food, fashion and interiors.
Me
You may already feel like you know a lot about me so i'll try to keep it brief. I am Katie and I am the person who started this process 5 years ago. I am passionate about saving the environment and I am always on the look out for eco-friendly ideas, which is how I realised that there weren't any good quality e cards to send to people five years ago when I was looking for an
eco-friendly e card for my Mum's birthday. I decided then to make my own e card, taking some time to make sure it was really good quality and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to do more! I came up with some more ideas for Nick and I to get to work on and then planned how we could sell them to people on the internet. 18 months later we launched katiescards.com with just 25 cards and have steadily been adding more to the collection over the years - we now have over 160 in the collection for all sorts of occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's day, Mothers day, Fathers day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Independance day, St Patrick's day, engagement, wedding day, anniversary, new baby, new home, Canada day and many more!
Click on the link to see the first
birthday e card that I created for my Mum (you can send this card also if you like it).
I love what I do and that I am able to combine the things that I love in my job - art, environmental issues and working with Nick. Like Racheal, I also studied Sculpture at University and after leaving went onto become an art director for film and TV. After becoming a mother, I decided I wanted to take a step back from my career so that I could bring up our children Molly and Joe. Now that the children are older and turning into young adults, I have more time and thats another reason Katies Cards came along at just the right time for me.
I enjoy tennis, art, film, traveling and spending time with friends and family. I also enjoy taking long walks with our Jack Russell Plum (who you will hear more about later). I love making e cards and genuinely wish to make you and your loved ones feel special when one of our cards is sent.
Plum (the office dog)
Me and Plum in Bushy park
Plum is our Jack Russell but we bring her to the office every day so that she doesn't get lonely. We have a garden here that she enjoys running around (and terrorising next doors cats!) and because we are right next to the beautiful Bushy park, I can take her for good lunch time walks which she loves.
Plum
Plum is 5 years old, is great fun and a loving dog. She is, just as all Jack Russell's are, she's very stubborn and territorial and we often have moments when she goes completely crazy! But she is a great character and we love having her here in the office. She is also a brilliant source of inspiration and our walks together have been where alot of my ideas have formed. She got her name when, at only a few days old, we took her to meet my mum. My mum has a Plum tree in her garden which some Plums had fallen off, and the new puppy picked one up in her mouth and brought it to me, dropping it at my feet. Out son Joe said 'Plum's a good name!' and we all agreed!
Me and Plum in Bushy park
That's it for now. I will keep updating you on our team news and add some more pictures so that you know what is happening here but I hope you feel you know all of us a bit more now.
Hope you're all having a nice Wednesday,
Katie x
P.s. I have recently joined Facebook and would be delighted to become your friend. I am new to social media but will be using my Facebook profile to help keep you up-to-date with the Katies Cards news as well as posting interesting gift and lifestyle ideas and advice.
Click here to visit my Facebook page and request friendship with me.
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