COLOR WEEK 2008

The final Color Week presentation was by Kansas City’s own Peggy Noland.

The 26-year-old is internationally recognized for her work in clothing design. She just returned, last night, from MAGIC, the world's largest clothing conference in Las Vegas.

Peggy is known for bold designs that walk the line of fashion and art. She introduced her new line through a fun and whimsical fashion show. The theme was baby and the models had lavender and white cotton candy hair. Here are the models and hair/make-up stylists.


She has a little 35 foot shop on the corner of 18th and Wyandotte (124 West 18TH Street Kansas City, MO ). Peggy said she liked the small space to be able to inexpensively change the store environment to coordinate with her line every four to six months.

Peggy showed some videos during her presentation. One of them is a tongue and cheek music video. She did the women’s clothing.


Peggy’s work has been seen in Woman's Wear Daily, Worth Global Style Network, NY Times, Glamour, British Elle, Brazilian Vogue, to name a few. You can also find out more about her on her MySpace page.

After the fashion show there was a reception colorful cupcakes by Laura J. - oh for heaven cakes. Oh for heaven's "cakes" Laura they were so pretty! Laura uses a special food coloring to get her icing nice and bright.


That puts a close to Color Week (sniff, sniff). Now back to work!

COLOR WEEK 2008

Today, Sean Adams, partner of AdamsMorioka and the national president of AIGA came to Hallmark to do a presentation on "There Is No Such Thing As Too Bright."

Sean follows these three principals:
1. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO BRIGHT
"Fluorescents are the heroin of the color world," he said. At AdamsMorioka they run lots of fluorescent magenta and yellow on the print process to get bright and intense color.

2. THE DESIGN OF REASSURANCE
Colors are cheerful or could trick the audience into viewing something that could be controversial. Sean says, "it's better to seduce than to repulse."

3. COLOR AS A BRAND
An example is that Tiffany's has made their brand with a shade of blue that everyone refers to as Tiffany blue.

In addition Sean says, "it's okay to like what you like." That is what makes you unique. You don't have to like the hottest trend that is out there. What you like may bring something different or a new view to the table.

And... "don't be timid." Use color!

Sean is also the co-author of Logo Design Workbook, Color Design Workbook and Masters of Design.

COLOR WEEK 2008

Today, Andy Cruz, owner and art director of House Industries did a presentation on how to bring your hobbies to work.

Andy Cruz has always tried to bring his hobbies to work with him be it hot rods or modern architecture... personal interests have always supplied bottomless inspiration for numerous House projects.

After graduating from a vo-tech high school with "shop certification" in commercial art, Andy opted to pass on art school and went straight to work at a local design studio. After meeting Rich Roat, the two decided to take a vow of poverty and start House Industries in 1993. The two quickly learned that they needed to cook up a design product instead of a design service... and that product became House fonts.

House type fonts and design work is known the world over for maintaining a healthy obsession with authenticity and stubbornly sticking to traditional commercial art techniques.

COLOR WEEK 2008

Hallmark's very own trends officianto Scott Butterfield kicked off COLOR WEEK with his 2010 Color Forcast.

2010 is one of the vibrant color forcasts.

Reds include colors like redrum, merry gold and sweetness.

Blues include soap bubble and blue slate.

Greens include turf.

My favorite is a purple color called juicebox (hey, can that possibly be the new Hallmark purple?).

And yellows include olympic and lemony lickit.

Blue is the new green, chocolate brown is now carmel, and silver is pewter and brassy gold.

Handwork is the trend and anything with a glossy/wet look adds to the power of these colors.

FLASHFORWARD > SAN FRANCISCO

I just got back from the Flashforward Conference in San Francisco. Lots of talented Flash designers out there! The Film Festival was held Thursday night and we got to see some amazing finalists. One film festival finalist was Barkley, an agency located right here in Kansas City. Their work for March of Dimes, What Are You Wondering, was nominated in the Typography category.

Check out all the finalists here.

Uptown Theatre Green Festival

The Uptown Theater is organizing its first annual Uptown Green Festival for the weekend of August 23-24, 2008.

This festival will be held on the grounds of the Uptown Theatre and the Uptown Shoppes (formerly the Valentine Shopping Center), and will feature local and national businesses and organizations that are devoted to promoting a green and eco-friendly lifestyle, as well as food and beverage vendors, and live music entertainment.

>>> click on the flyer to view the details <<<

more info...

Green :: Kaleidoscope

Located just across the sidewalk from Hallmark's World Headquarters in the Crown Center area of Kansas City, is a child's creative wonderland, Kaleidoscope.

Since 1969, school-age youngsters have been turning scraps from Hallmark's manufacturing processes into anything their minds desire. Shiny papers, foils, die-cut shapes, cardboard, zigs and zags, ribbons, bows, and lots of other "jazzy junk" become costumes, crowns, piggy banks, masks, and more within this creative experience for children -- no parents allowed!

Other features include family art classes, independent art classes, summer workshops, Earth Day activities, themed programming that changes every few weeks, a Hallmark Illustrators and Writers series, special programs for art educators, and rock-bottom prices on tons of awesome art supplies for art classrooms.

I don't know about you, but it makes me want to be a kid again!

DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT

Editor's Note: This is something new that I'm going to try to do regularly. We have such a wonderful mix of creative professionals here at Hallmark, so I'd like to introduce them to you on the blog. This is the first of many. -Bess

I spent a Saturday morning with Liz at The River Market City Market in Kansas City:



Name:
Liz

What do you do at hallmark?
Greetings Designer on the Socially Aware Connecting team.
We design the (RED) cards and the environmentally conscious GREEN cards.

Where did you go to school? What was your major?
undergrad: Appalachian State University -Boone, NC '02
major: advertising
grad: Portfolio Center Atlanta, GA '04
major: graphic design

Hometown:
Charlotte, NC

Your style in 3 words:
fresh, modern, naive

Sources of inspiration:
fashion, music, interior design, pattern, travel,
humor, emotion, colors everywhere, people everywhere

Most exciting Hallmark opportunity:
being able to back up my Art Director while she was on maternity leave.

Favorites in Kansas City:
Places:
Kemper Museum, Loose Park, The River Market, Scott Fitness
Eats:
Blue Koi, 1924 Main, The Mixx, Le Fou Frog, La Bodega, Room 39, Flea Market
Hangouts:
Velvet Dog, McCoy's, Tom Fooleries, Harry's Country Club, my front porch
Shops:
Curious Sofa, Architectural Salvage, Bon Bon Atelier, Hammerpress, Halls

Advice for someone looking to work at Hallmark:
Design Criteria:
good aesthetic judgement, strong conceptual skills, an eye for trend, range of styles, risk taking
Personality/Communication Skills:
able to express ideas clearly, can collaborate with others, goal-oriented, positive, and of course, friendly!

TrendPlant ACTIVITIES

Every year at Hallmark the Trends department has COLOR WEEK. It's a week full of inspirational presentations on color.

There is always a cool poster announcing the event. This year the members of TrendPlant were asked to make a poster and ALL of them would be posted. I was so happy and honored to be a part of this project and see my poster along with the other awesome designers in the group.

So here they are!

by Elizabeth



by Court



by Ralanna



by me, Jeanee



by Kristine



by Kim




by Dee

Green :: Ahead of the Curve

I found a very interesting article on our intranet site this week written by Hallmark's CEO, Don Hall, Jr.. In it, he talks about environmental responsibility at Hallmark as "nothing new." Don goes on to say,

"Hallmark was an early leader in practices that many companies have adopted more recently. We began recycling paper in 1943, started our van pool program in 1978, installed a solvent recovery system for gift wrap in 1981, moved to water-based ink in 1993 and began replacing the ballasts in our fluorescent lights in 1997 to increase energy efficiency."

As I visit college campuses throughout the U.S. each year, I am often asked, "How is a company known for paper-based products becoming more environmentally responsible?" Among the many green initiatives at Hallmark (click the label "green" to see more green entries), I found it fascinating that our company was on the forefront of recycling paper, way back in 1943.

It wasn't until 1970 that The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was formed by President Nixon, and finally, in 1989, the EPA set a 25% national waste reduction and recycling goal, resulting in 26 states adopting comprehensive laws making recycling an integral part of solid waste management (source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

I'm proud to work for a company that has been investing in a cleaner, greener Earth since 1943.

1st Thursday

Here's a photo from my set up at Thursday's WearHaus event.

I had a good time and the Velvet Dog happy hour was awesome! On September 4th there will be a whole new group of designers, so check it out!

Green :: Buy Fresh, Buy Local

Buying local has many earth-friendly benefits. For one, it reduces transportation costs and environment-destroying, energy-wasting long hauls. It also keeps money in the local economy, and cuts out the middle-man, leaving us with straight-from-the-garden, fresh produce.

Hallmark has partnered with Good Natured Family Farms, an alliance of over 100 family farms within 200 miles of Kansas City, to provide locally grown fruits and vegetables for Hallmark employees to purchase in The Café. There is a large wooden cart of veggies in The Café each week (I'll take a pic soon to add to this post) that contains fresh veggies for sale: squash, heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn, cucumbers, and much more. Also, every Wednesday during the lunch hour, representatives from the farms are there to answer questions and give out free samples! My fave: the heirloom tomatoes!

For more info on buying local in KC, check out Kansas City Food Circle, a grassroots organization created to promote the development of a permanently sustainable local food system, and Kansas City Community Gardens, a not-for-profit organization that provides self-help and educational assistance to low-income people, children and community groups in the metropolitan area to grow their own food from garden plots located in backyards, vacant lots, schoolyards and at community sites.

1st Thursday

Every month WearHaus hosts a shopping market and happy hour at the Martini Corner at Velvet Dog from 5-9:00pm.

Tomorrow, Thursday, August 7th, 2008 WearHaus will feature local designers, and me (dirty laundry).

Designers include:

• dirty laundry - Aprons & Belts
• The Bead Garden - Jewelry

• Lonibobonny - Reconstructed Clothing

• Lugnut Industries - T-Shirts and Clothing

• Illustrious - Clothing & Accessories

• Steilope - Clothing


Velvet Dog has super YUMMY and super cheap drinks and appetizers.
• 2 Domestics & Wells
• $3 Cosmos, Appletinis, Margaritas and House Wine
• 1/2 Price Appetizer menu available too!

Also...
HumaNature's Make-Overs
HumaNature presents "One-of-a-Kind Make-Overs" with give a ways and special offers. These personalized consultations with professional stylists help you discover what products and styles are best for you.

I'll be sure to take some photos at the event and post them on cre•a•tiv•i•ty!

OFFICIAL AD

Don't shop at the mall, buy LOCAL!

1st Friday

On the first Friday of each month, the Kansas City Crossroads Community's art galleries, studios, and restaurants open their doors to showcase local and national artists.

Tonight HAMMERPRESS (letterpress & design studio) is having a FUN event.

Snowcones from The Fresher than Fresh Sno-Cone trailer, antique furniture sale, and music by Sterling Holman.