Snowtap appoints Renaissance Licensing for North America

Renaissance Licensing to manage design and illustration brand in US and Canada

Graphic design and illustration brand Snowtap, and KJG Ltd, which manages the Snowtap consumer products programme, have announced the appointment of Renaissance Licensing as sub-licensing agent to look after the Snowtap brand in the North American market.

Headquartered in New York, Renaissance Licensing is an exciting new arrival on the licensing scene, a bespoke licensing agency that focuses on bringing globally recognised IP to the marketplace through innovative partnerships with best-in-class licensees across its client portfolio.

Its two founding partners are respected names with deep connections to the North American retailer and licensee landscaped, forged over decades in the industry.

Liz Van Denburg Cohen’s licensing career began in 2006 at the Walt Disney Company, followed by time at Beanstalk and a long tenure at Greenlight/BENlabs, where she was instrumental in leading the development of the Steve McQueen and Albert Einstein global product programmes. Her areas of expertise include health & beauty, tech, and men’s apparel, as well as motorsports and automotive accessories.

Ryan Kernan has over 15 years of licensing experience with celebrity and home furnishings brands, including Nautica, DwellStudio, Ernest Hemingway, Marlon Brando, Charlie Chaplin, and many others. His areas of expertise include men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel and accessories, home furnishings and hospitality.

Both partners have extensive experience in international markets and strong networks of industry contacts, in addition to deep knowledge of the North American retail environment, all of which will be leveraged to bring Snowtap to new audiences across the country.

This is the perfect time to expand the market reach of the Snowtap brand, whose consumer products programme has been managed by KJG since 2021, when KJG signed a deal for Snowtap to appoint The Art File, a leading independent publisher of greeting cards, stationery and gifts, as its leading greeting card publisher. The greetings cards, based on Snowtap’s natural-world-inspired designs, have been a big success, with over 230,000 cards sold to date and plans well under way on new Christmas cards for 2024.

Since 2021 retail and licensing activity for this distinctive and delightful brand has grown in the UK across social stationery, gifts, toys, games and puzzles, and calendars, leading to growing interest from other regions. Indeed, Snowtap already has a foothold in the US, where Portico Designs sells Snowtap cards and 2023 calendars to Barnes & Noble.

All licences highlight Snowtap’s signature beautiful artwork, which includes illustrations in watercolour and line drawing with hand-drawn typography highlighting witty and motivational wordplay.

Ryan Kernan, Founding Partner at Renaissance, says: “We are delighted to have been chosen by Snowtap to represent the brand in the North American market and are excited to bring the team’s distinctive style to new consumers across a range of categories in our home market.”

Snowtap founders Susy Snow and Gracie Tapner add: “Following the growth of the Snowtap brand in so many licensing categories in the UK, we’re absolutely thrilled to be bringing the brand to the US and Canada. We feel this will be a very exciting new phase for Snowtap and, with the expertise and vast experience of Renaissance behind the brand, a very successful one.”

Kirsty Guthrie, KJG Ltd, adds: “Snowtap has enjoyed strong growth since 2021 and, with international interest growing in this enormously appealing brand, this is a perfect time to bring Snowtap to a wider global audience. And where better to start than in one of the world’s biggest markets with the support of two respected licensing figures? We’re delighted to be working with Ryan and Liz and are certain that Renaissance will repeat Snowtap’s UK success in this important market.”