Celebrating 30 years of Hotchpotch!
It all began for Hotchpotch in 1995, from the kitchen table of Lauren White. Lauren was a designer and illustrator, she loved creating tiny scenes in fine pen and adding colour with pencils. All her cards were limited editions, she signed each one and used beautiful, high quality papers for her designs. Lauren also headed up a tree planting scheme - a cause very close to her heart, and you’ll see acorns and oak leaves featuring in the original Hotchpotch logo.
One of the first Hotchpotch Christmas cards, by Lauren White, 1995
Hotchpotch’s best selling ‘Pop’ design, by Joanna Kidney, 2001
Evolution of the Hotchpotch logo
It wasn’t long before Lauren’s designs caught the eye of Paul Steele, a businessman, entrepreneur and talent spotter based in South West London. Hotchpotch became Paul’s next venture, and he committed to building upon Lauren’s portfolio of designs, working with a number of talented young artists, often straight from art school, to grow and expand the business. During the 16 years which followed, Paul built Hotchpotch into a major publishing force, with many hugely successful card ranges - notably ‘Pearlies’ (designed by talented Dublin-based artist Joanna Kidney) which scored a prestigious Henries award in 2001.
Supplying independent gift shops local to the then Hotchpotch studio in Hampton (Middlesex), London and throughout the UK, was always a key part of the business, and still is today. Supplying designs to Paperchase, John Lewis and grocers in the 2000’s was also a demonstration of the talent within Hotchpotch, as well as Paul’s commercial drive and love for the industry.
After some illness, Paul decided to hang up his greetings card hat with Hotchpotch, which was then snapped up by the equally long-standing Carte Blanche Greetings in 2011. Over the last 14 years Hotchpotch has grown and evolved, with beautiful creative studio spaces in Richmond-upon-Thames and Teddington and the team of talented artists and designers within them, into the trend-led brand you see today. Since 2014 Anna Price has headed up the design team at Hotchpotch; where innovation, the print process and quality materials are the main drivers for creativity. Pushing the boundaries with neon inks and winning a Henries award for ‘Flair’ - an original collection of cards which featured enamel pin badges - lead to Hotchpotch being stocked in Selfridges and Oliver Bonas in 2017. Hotchpotch designs are sold world-wide and we are so proud of how far we’ve come.
Now 30 years on, Hotchpotch has gone full circle, with the designers working from home at their kitchen tables, as Lauren White did back in 1995, but this time around Hotchpotch is leading the way in progressive flexible working, which is so vital in 2025. Lauren loved to apply the proverb to Hotchpotch, saying “from little acorns, great oaks really DO grow”, and she was right!
Take a trip down memory lane with us…
Finally, we’re so grateful to all our amazing customers and retailers who have supported us over the last 30 years, thank you for being part of the incredible Hotchpotch story.... so far, and here’s to the next 30 years!