Brand Licensing Europe is launching a Discovery & Design accelerator zone to support entry level licensing entrepreneurs.

The zone houses 14 entrepreneurs and is sold out for 2024. Exhibiting entrepreneurs includes:

• Mea Mouse
• Sophie Jonas-Hill
• Vicki Thomas Associates
• Jelly Armchair
• Aniballers
• Kate Merritt
• Middle Mouse
• Ginger Betty
• Greg & Company
• Pictufy
• Afro Entertainment Studios
• This is Iris
• Plus, two final exhibiting entrepreneurs to be announced shortly

“Discovery & Design is a springboard for small businesses with emerging brands eager to explore the world of brand licensing,” said BLE event director Ella Haynes.

“It’s a brilliant showcase for BLE’s global audience of licensors, retailers and industry professionals to discover and partner with untapped creativity, talent and unique offerings before they go mainstream.”

Sophie Jonas-Hill, an independent artist and illustrator – and winner of BLE’s License This! competition in 2022 – added: “I will be bringing an onslaught of colour and detail; a world of images and imagination that will give Discovery & Design visitors a taste of my versatility and talent. They will get to see something they’ve not seen before, and which bucks the trend of uniformity!

“From darkly gothic and intriguing, to bright and bold with tones of humour and joy, it’s a collection of images and concepts which could spawn a myriad of product lines and campaigns!”

Jenn Cash – founder of Mea Mouse – said: “Mea Mouse is a vibrant and exciting new brand and we’re exhibiting at BLE because I want to grow Mea Mouse from an Irish known brand to a global brand like Peppa Pig. We have Mea Mouse toys and clothing to inspire STEM subjects in young children and, at BLE, we will be launching STEM books for younger children.”

To register for Brand Licensing Europe 2024 for free – simply follow this link.

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The winners of the 2021 Kelvyn Gardner License This! competition have been revealed at last week’s Brand Licensing Europe show.

In the Brand & Design category, Sophie Jonas-Hill’s Tea for Tea saw off Pencil & TIE and Aline Bea to win. Tea for Tattoo is a series of hand-drawn motifs which bring together the colour palette and style of traditional blue and white ceramics, with the aesthetic and cheeky edge of old school tattoos.

Joel Mercer’s SeedFolk – a range of characters who care for our native habitats and wildflower seeds – won in the Character & Animation category, which also included Eat Dirt and Els Doodles.

The final category was Product Design, hosted in partnership with Mojo Nation. This category saw designers create a desktop concept for Aardman’s Morph brand, and the winning design came from Imaginnovation’s Wayne Lindsay.

“Congratulations to the finalists who presented very strong, well thought through and commercially mindful concepts,” said Ian Downes, chair of the judges and director of Start Licensing.

“Lots of thought had gone into where the brands fit the market and the licensing potential of them.”

Of the Product Design category presentations, Downes added: “It was genuinely a very close call. The spirit of friendship between the designers – all three are sitting together – is a real credit to them and to design and creative people. It was a really good set of presentations, products and ideas and Aardman and Start Licensing would love to talk to all three designers afterwards about developing their ideas in the future and talk about how we can bring them to life.”

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