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An American, and a long-time fixture in the greeting card industry, has been honored with a Henry award at the 2022 awards event on Oct. 6 in London. Organized by Progressive Greetings, The Henries are accepted as the ultimate accolades in the U.K. greeting card industry.

The highly coveted Honorary Achievement Award was presented to Alan Harnik, founder and president of Notes & Queries, the U.S. distributor of UK publishers,  who travelled from Baltimore unaware that his 42 years of service would be crowned by the industry.

“Tonight’s winner has not only championed British greeting card design and creativity but has been passionate in their support of young designers and emerging publishers, forever willing to share their wealth of knowledge and experience, while yet never losing their sense of wonderment and enthusiasm for new winning concepts, finishes and design styles,” said Jakki Brown, managing director of Max Publishing.

“He is a larger than life character, delighting in his affectionate nickname of Big Al and with an even larger heart,” she added.

The industry’s ‘Oscars of the greeting card sector’ event, now in its 25^th year, took on a colorful and soulful 1950s theme this year and was attended by over 500 members of the UK greeting card community who shared in the joy as the publishers of the UK’s most innovative greeting card ranges and suppliers who made their way to the stage to be crowned as winners.

“This year saw a record number of entries, submitted by 283 publishers and we had more retailer judges than we have ever had before involved in the judging process,” Warren Lomax, director of Max Publishing, said.