We Won Two Louie Awards! Here's What That Means (and What We Won For)

We're still a little giddy. At this year's Greeting Card Association Louie Awards, Golden Peach Greetings took home not one but two honors:

• LatinX Maker of Note, YAY Esteban! 
• Christmas – Small Company, for our “Happy Flannel Season” card

If you've never heard of the Louies, think of them as the greeting card industry's version of the Oscars. They're voted on by a panel of judges, made up of buyers, retailers, members of the press, sales reps and others looking for the best new cards in the industry. Winning (especially as a two-person business going up against much bigger publishers) is a big deal to us.

 

LatinX Maker of Note

This one means a lot personally. Golden Peach is run by the two of us, Mackenzie (Co-founder and Creative Director) and Esteban (our Co-founder, writer, and CEO extrordinaire). Esteban's Chilean-American roots show up in our work more than people might realize at first glance. Art like "Cura Todo” and our “Sana Sana, Colita de Rana” card come straight from cultural references and phrases he grew up hearing. Being recognized as a LatinX Maker of Note felt like validation that leaning into that specific, personal voice, instead of smoothing it out to be more generic, was the right call.

Christmas – Small Company: “Happy Flannel Season”

Our flannel-clad, tattooed Santa (and his love for Mrs. Claus on display in a full sleeve) took the Small Company Christmas category. This card started as one of those “we just think this is funny” ideas, a Santa who looks like he chops his own firewood, and it turned into one of our best-selling holiday cards. Sometimes the cards that make us laugh in the studio are the ones that resonate most.

What the Night Looked Like

That week was genuinely chaos. We wrapped a two day market in San Diego, packed up the booth, and drove straight to the airport for a red eye to Kentucky. We landed the morning of the awards, worked all day out of our hotel room, then got dressed and headed to the ceremony that night, where we won both awards. 

From there we went to the after party at the Seelbach, this gorgeous Prohibition era hotel, in a speakeasy style basement bar that felt like something out of a movie.

We finally crashed, were back up at 4 a.m., and caught a flight home to California. We were in Kentucky for less than 24 hours. It was wild, but hearing our (barely one-year-old) company being called twice in a room full of industry peers we deeply respect, made every redeye fueled minute of it worth it.

We started Golden Peach as a greeting card company. We added stickers and bookish goods because that's genuinely what we're into. And somewhere along the way, the industry started to notice.

Thank you to everyone who's bought a card, stuck a sticker on their water bottle, or told a friend about us. This win is as much yours as it is ours.

Shop our winning and nominated cards →