LICENSING NEWS

Entries for Kelvyn Gardner License This! competition now open

Published on: 19th July 2022

In partnership with Aardman, this year’s returning Product Design category asks entrants to design a Wallace & Gromit branded toy with an emphasis on STEM.

Wallce & Gromit

This year’s Product Design category asks entrants to channel their inner Wallce & Gromit as they design a STEM-focused licensed toy.

Entries are now open for Brand Licensing Europe’s Kelvyn Gardner License This! competition, which boosts the profile of new brands, illustrators, inventors and product designers and helps them to successfully break into the $300b global licensing market.

Entrants are invited to enter one of three categories. The first two are aimed at unlicensed brands and properties – often with a focus on illustration, publishing or animation – keen to secure a licensing deal or agency representation. They are:

  • Kelvyn Gardner License This! Character & Animation
  • Kelvyn Gardner License This! Brand & Design

When judging, the panel looks for new creative concepts with the potential to inspire multiple product categories. The winners receive a free exhibition stand at BLE 2023.

This year, 2021 winners Sophie Jonas-Hill with Tea for Tattoo, and Joel Mercer with SeedFolk, will return to the show as exhibitors. Sophie commented: “Winning License This! has been literally life changing for me and my business – it’s amazing. I had just graduated from an MA and was starting from scratch in a new career, and I’d never really considered licensing or how it worked: now I’ve met industry heavyweights and already signed a deal with Trademark Products Ltd and HMV. I’ve had the best advice and guidance you really couldn’t buy from all the panel, who have introduced me to so many new contacts and opportunities I wouldn’t have had a clue about otherwise. If you’re nervous about entering, don’t be. It might take you further than you could imagine.”

Additionally, student designers and inventors are invited to enter a third award category, which made its successful debut in 2021: Product Design in partnership with Mojo Nation. From 2022, the Product Design category will open to students from further education or university level. Working alongside local universities and schools, students will be competing with one another to showcase innovation in toy design.

BLE has partnered with the award-winning animation studio Aardman once again for this category. Students will be asked to use the studio’s world-renowned Wallace & Gromit IP as inspiration. Applicants will be asked to submit concepts based around the following entry guidelines:

  • Concept must be a Wallace & Gromit branded toy with an emphasis on STEM Learning
  • Entry must focus on technology and engineering, which are strong themes from the Wallace & Gromit adventures
  • Careful consideration must be given to sustainable materials and manufacturing processes
  • The toy must have an RRP below £30

“We are so excited to be able to open to doors to students, not only to highlight the best in innovation and fresh concepts but also to give a platform to new talent into the licensing industry,”  Anna Knight, SVP, Licensing, Informa Markets.

Last year, entrants to this category were asked to design concepts for desk accessories based around Aardman’s Morph IP. The winner was Wayne Lindsay from Imaginnovation.

All three categories are also asked to take sustainability into consideration and the finalists will pitch to the judges in a live final at BLE on Thursday 22nd September.

To find out more and to enter, click here.

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