In 1988, the Greeting Card Association (GCA) launched the first Annual International Greeting Card Awards competition to recognize the best designs in the industry. Since its inception, the competition has drawn more than 16,000 entries from more than 800 U.S. and International publishers. The LOUIE Awards include over 70 categories and are decided by a volunteer panel of judges including creative and marketing personnel from GCA member and non-member publishing companies as well as local, regional, and national retail buyers.

The LOUIE Awards, are named in honor of Louis Prang, the "Father of the American Christmas Card."

Louis Prang was born in 1824 in Prussia and emigrated to Boston in 1850. He opened his first printing shop in 1856 and perfected chromolithography, a process by which images are printed in color with a series of lithographic stones. Prang's extraordinary craft led to the successful reproduction of the richness of oil paintings on greeting cards. Within five years of introducing Christmas cards in America, Prang was turning out 5 million cards each year for sale in the U.S.