Forever Friends is a brand of Hallmark Cards, based on a

Bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

design. The Forever Friends bear can be found in 40 countries and in 15 languages.The bear was designed by artist Deborah Jones.

History

In 1987, artist Deborah Jones drew the first ever Forever Friends bear in her sketchbook. She approached

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

based greeting cards publishers Andrew Brownsword, who agreed to release the bear design as a greeting card. The pair worked in a

flat Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

above a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

takeaway in Reading, Berkshire in the early 1980s:

"I wanted to develop a teddy bear that appealed to adults as well as children. I based Forever Friends specifically on the teddy bear that Sebastian Flyte carried around in Brideshead Revisited. It became the bear found in the attic."

In 1989, the design was registered under the trademark Forever Friends. In 1994 Andrew Brownsword Ltd was purchased by Hallmark Cards. Brownsword himself agreed to become the CEO of Hallmark Europe, while the new money allowed the whole of card design was updated to include a border. In 1997 new sub-brand ''Between Friends'' was issued, focusing on children's cards. This was followed in 2000 by ''Blanc,'' a plain pencil on whitecard design focused on older people. This was also the last design set Deborah Jones worked on, as she retired from what was now Hallmark's Bath design studio. In 2005, ''Forever Friends'' was relaunched with a water colour based look, textured paper on cards and a more modern font. By 2008, the range of cuddly toys had been supplemented by a range of digital downloads. In 2011 the "Forever Friends Naturals" range was launched by Grace Cole Limited, taking the lovable bears as the face of a cute and cuddly range of natural skincare products for babies and children. Some time around 2019-2020, production of Forever Friends plush bears ceased.

References

British brands Greeting cards Teddy bears Hallmark Cards {{Design-stub