Hallmark Channel Branding

Design firm Imaginary Forces just finished up the 2010 Network Branding for Hallmark Channel (The website got a facelift too).

Here is what they said about the concept:

"The new branding for the Hallmark Channel emphasizes the Network’s goal of “celebrating life’s moments.” Taking the design for the new branding a step further, we celebrated the brand itself. Using an embossed 3D logo, the design physically explores the ins and outs of the logo, and highlights the content of the network with changing color schemes and subtle cues to the programming it surrounds."

It is very very cool! Check out the video on their site.

Sourdough Bread

Every Tuesday of this year the Centennial Committee has been posting a video giving us a glimpse into Hallmark's history. I enjoyed this one a lot- one of our bakers tells the story of the sourdough bread recipe J.C. Hall brought back from San Francisco in the 1960s. Enjoy!


Watch other Crown Minutes on the Hallmark Youtube page

Cards Reflect Our Culture

I have never really thought of a greeting card as a sort of "time capsule", but when you think about it...they really can be a freeze frame of world events, slang, social norms and design styles. The Hallmark Centennial site has a really great section where they showcase cards from the past 10 decades, they are grouped in themes. With Valentine's right around the corner, the album up right now shows the different ways people used to say "I Love You", and how they say it today.

While you're there check out the past albums.
• Tough Times, Good Wishes
• Cards Are Groovy, Man

I'm Keeping Busy, and so is Hallmark.

I haven't been around for a while. But i finally got a break in my busy schedule, so, I thought I would give you an update on what I've been up to. Not that it would normally be interesting enough to mention, but i have had my hand in pretty much everything that has come out in the last few months.

1: DVD Cards - Wouldn't it be cool if you could have a customized movie with pictures of you, your family and/or your friends that can be played on your home's DVD player? Say no more. Hallmark's done it. Takes 10 minutes. Packaged conveniently into a card so you can send it out to your loved ones. Imagine Grandma's surprise when she sees that gem. It will blow her mind. Available at your local Hallmark Gold Crown.

2. Augmented Reality - The world has come one step closer to Holodecks with this innovation. Basically, when you buy specially marked Hallmark Cards (available at Walmart and Gold Crown this Valentine's Day) you get an "Online Surprise". It's a 3D, virtual reality movie, that moves around in your own world when you hold the card up to at webcam. Don't understand a lick of what i am saying? Go try out a free demo here or let Hoops and Yo-yo try and explain it! GO. QUICK!

3. Kids Encouragement - This may not seem terribly innovative, but in reality it is. Hallmark has found that kids need to be spoken to in a certain way. And that parents are starving for a way to talk to there kids. So Hallmark Gold Crown is currently (or will be very soon, depending on the store) sporting a brand new wall display featuring dozens of new products that help encourage kids in their everyday life. And not just cards, but TOYS, BOOKS, and GAMES!

The others are so top secret i can't talk about them. But i will. Oh, i will.

I know this is all pretty boring without many pictures, but maybe you will just have to go out to Hallmark and take a look. ;)
Seriously though, there has been a lot of hard work put into these cards and we'd love to know what you think when you see them!

Love, Josh

Centennial Colors

It's starting to look like a celebration wherever you look around here ! Loving these colors everywhere. 

This is a photo of the Visitor's Center and Kaleidoscope.

KCUR Covers Hallmark Centennial Celebration

I'm an avid NPR listener, especially while I design during the day. I like to listen to the local Kansas City Station KCUR. One of my favorite local shows is Up to Date with Steve Kraske of the Kansas City Star.

I wanted to give a heads up about tomorrow's show - Steve will be talking with Hallmark's Historian Lynley Farris about how the need for emotional connection has stayed consistent over the decades even while the means by which we connected - the images and editorial used in Hallmark's greeting cards - changed to reflect the times.

It sounds like an awesome show, if you're in the listening area you should tune in tomorrow Friday 15th 11am - Noon on 89.3 FM, and even if you're not you can still listen online.

EDIT

Here's a Link of the show archive.

How is a greeting card born?

In this edition of "Glimpses," learn how a card comes to be, from writing to design/illustration, to printing, to distribution. As you can imaging, it's pretty difficult to narrate the greeting card development process in just 2 minutes, but at least you get a quick overview and behind-the-scenes look at one of the things we do best.



For more videos and information on Hallmark product development and on our Centennial, visit Hallmark 100 Years.

What does a 100th Birthday Party look like?

Here's a sneak peek behind-the-scenes at today's 100th Birthday Party in the Crown Room (cafeteria) here at Hallmark's headquarters... Keep in mind that this was only one of three groups to attend the party today-so you're looking at only 1/3 of Hallmark's employees!

Hallmark employees go cheer with pom poms and clappers, whistle, and cheer as Don Hall, Sr., Don Hall, Jr., and Dave Hall walk onto the stage.
A rare live presentation/speech by Don Hall, Sr. He spoke about what it means to be 100 years old, gave thanks for all Hallmarkers present, and expressed gratitude for Hallmarkers who have gone before. He also teared up as he said that he is so thankful for Dave and Don and he appreciates them "more than they'll ever know."
The crowd listens intently as Don Hall, Sr. addresses the crowd.
A smiling and enthusiastic Don Hall, Jr. takes the stage.
A group of Hallmark employees presented a "Living History" of Hallmark through storytelling, acting, music, and even a little rap song. A narrator told the story of how Hallmark came to be, new products we've introduced, and how we've contributed to the Kansas City community and the world. Between narrations, an actor/actress presented a vignette to illustrate the narrator's story. As for the rap song, you just really had to be there...
Hallmark's 100th Birthday cake is pictured on the left -- it is 100 inches tall and is wrapped in the entire 100-year history of Hallmark. Don Sr., Don Jr., and Dave presented the cake to the roaring crowd, and then we each got to take a cupcake of our own when the celebration ended (see below).
Happy Birthday, Hallmark!

Happy Birthday, Hallmark!

Yesterday, January 10th, 2010, Hallmark turned 100! The coverage of our Centennial in the Kansas City Star yesterday was excellent. You can browse several articles online: one giving a brief timeline of Hallmark, one entitled On Hallmark's 100th, a fond look back, (a Q&A with Don Hall, Jr., our President and CEO), and one discussing "greeting card keepers" and why they keep the cards they receive.

My favorite part of the coverage in the Star was the online slideshow of historic Hallmark photographs. It is amazing to look back at our rich history and the some of the people who made our company great! Looks like Marcos enjoyed the slideshow too, as he just posted about it as I was writing this post (great minds think alike I guess, huh friend?!) :O)

I'll be recapping the week's events at within Hallmark here on cre•a•tiv•i•ty, and it sounds like Marcos will also be giving inside sneak peeks (along with several other Hallmarkers) on the Signatures blog. There will be lots of good reading this week, so stay tuned!

Happy 100th!

Photo from: The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star has a wonderful photo gallery of Hallmark through the years. As well as timeline of Hallmark History.

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Along with our centennial website (as Erin mentioned), there's a Centennial blog called Signatures - it's a behind the scenes look at the year long celebration. The contributors are 11 Hallmarkers (I'm one of them!) Check it out!

Hallmark is Turning 100!

That's right, Hallmark's official 100th birthday is Sunday, January 10th, 2010! Next week, Hallmarkers here at headquarters will begin a week of events to celebrate our Centennial. I'll be posting about these events as they happen, starting with Monday's giant birthday party in the Crown Room. This event will feature remarks from the Hall family, a "living history" presentation about our last 100 years from Hallmark employees, and the unveiling of Hallmark's allegedly "huge" birthday cake! I can't wait to see it and enjoy one of the Centennial cupcakes!

You can celebrate our Centennial with us by visiting our special Centennial website Hallmark: 100 Years. One of coolest parts of this website are videos called "Glimpses," which are guided, behind the scenes looks at Hallmark. Here's the first one!

Hallmarker chicks rock out!

Softee is a band composed of four Hallmark Cards gals: Sarah, Steph, Mimi and Flora.




They made the cover of a local Kansas City magazine, HERLIFE.

Like a groupie I went around the office and got each gal to autograph my magazine. It's gonna be work some money one day!!!

Mayor's Christmas Tree

Did You Know?

The Mayor’s Christmas Tree in Crown Center is taller than the famous trees at the White House and Rockefeller Center in New York City? The Tree is 100 feet tall, making it one of the nation's tallest Christmas trees.

I sure did not know that! - Also after the holidays, the tree is cut into commemorative ornaments and sold to benefit the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund, which assists the city’s less fortunate.

Here is a fun FAQ about the tree.

Ripple Glass

Keeping with the theme of Jeanee's recent post on climate change, I'm excited to post about a new Kansas City company that is impacting local recycling efforts in a big way. Under what is being called "the nation’s first self-contained metropolitan recycling system," Ripple Glass, which launches starting on November 1st, will help shatter the reluctance of Kansas City residents to recycle glass containers.

The Kansas City metro area has a pretty solid curbside recycling program, but that program no longer includes the pick of glass bottles and jars (pickup of bottles and jars in ended in 2003 due to the hazards of sorting broken glass and the problems of separating broken glass from other recyclables). When curbside pickup of glass ended, there were very few locations to recycle glass, so accessibility became an issue, and participation in glass recycling dropped drastically -- KC residents currently recycle only 5% of their glass, compared to the US average of over 28% -- eeeek!

That's where Stacia Stelk, Mike Utz, John McDonald and Jeff Krum, who also work for Boulevard Brewery, came up with a plan. Mike and John actually came to Hallmark about a year ago to present the Ripple Glass idea to Hallmark's Eco Team, an internal interest group focused on Hallmark's green initiatives. I was fortunate to see them present at that time. Their plan was simple: KC metro residents would be able to recycle their household glass (bottles, jars, etc.) at multiple area locations, the glass would then be picked up by a local company, taken to two local companies (Owens Corning and CertainTeed Corp), and recycled into fiberglass insulation and other products. They had me at hello, so to speak.

It took a little time, but they've now got all the logistics figured out, financing (by several local businesses) secured, and are ready to launch! I'm very excited that Hallmark has agreed to participate in the Ripple Glass efforts by having a glass drop-off bin right outside out building!

Read the full Ripple Glass story here, and if you're a KC local, support this program! With over 60 glass drop-off locations, 95% of metro residents will have less than a 5-minute drive to a drop-off location -- you have not reason not to support Ripple Glass! Thanks to Stacia, Mike, John and Jeff for seeing an opportunity to making a difference -- and to taking it!

Hallmark 100th anniversary

We're doing a cool project here at Hallmark. For the 100th anniversary celebration there are 500 crowns for designers to design on. We can do whatever we want!

Here are the blank white crowns waiting for us to have our way with.

They will be displayed here in the Hallmark art gallery in January 2010. Cool huh?

Exciting News!

Hallmark Among “Best Places to Work”

on Latest Corporate Equality Index

I am a member of the Hallmark Employee Resource group called HERE: Hallmark Employees Reaching Equality, and in our meeting today we celebrated a great accomplishment in our company history! As of yesterday Hallmark became one of the 305 major U.S. businesses to achieve a perfect 100 score in the annual Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) survey.

Organizations receiving a score of 100 are recognized as one of the "Best Places to Work" for and support of equality for GLBT employees.

So congratulations to everyone who made this possible! Woohoo!!! News like this makes me proud to work here.

You can read the official press release
Also...Hallmark was featured in the GLBT News Magazine Advocate.

The Drifting Creatives

Last week, we had the pleasure of touring the Drifting Creatives around Hallmark!

If you are not familiar, these 2 guys, Martin and Gavin, are recent design graduates from Texas A&M University. Rather than sit around and be jobless after their May graduation into this tough economy, they hit the road. Now they're "designing their way across the country:" living in their cars, showering at car washes, picking up design projects here and there, and rubbing elbows with some of the nation's top designers and creatives.

They spent last Monday-Thursday in KC getting to know some of our local design firms such as Willoughby, Barkley, and Reactor. Keep and eye on their blog as they are sure to talk about their visit to Kansas City soon (though, we hear that when one lives in their car for months on end, the internet connection is spotty at best).

In the meantime, you can read about all of their adventures by visiting their blog.

Thanks to Martin and Gavin for visiting Hallmark! We wish you guys the best of luck (and are kinda jealous of your spontaneity and admire your sense of adventure!)

The Edge of Motherhood

Recently, Hallmark launched a line of greeting cards called The Edge of Motherhood. The line is designed to help moms connect with other moms to show them support, give them a good laugh, and let them know "hey, I've been there." The line is hilarious (and I'm not even a mom!) and has been getting great reviews, like this one from our new blog-friend Angela:

"These cards were so much fun! They have wonderful messages for moms and the children that they love. So many times we as moms need encouragement while we are doing the day to day task of raising our families. We need to hear that it’s okay that the laundry is piled up sometimes and that others know and care the hard work we are putting into the most important job in the world! These cards do just that: They are perfect for that mom that you talked to on the phone today that is feeling like a failure or just needs some encouragement. They will bring a smile to someones face who wasn’t expecting a card just because."

You can read Angela's full review and see which card she picked as her favorite by clicking here.

Here are a few that I have sent to my friends who are moms -- so much fun!

Inside: "Welcome to the 'do as I say and not as I did' years."
Inside: "Hope your birthday is free of bad-mommy moments."
Inside: "Also, I'm excited about your baby. But c'mon, those boobs! Dang, girl!" -- Note that this card's cover is editable, so you can put in the name of your friend and mom-to-be!

New on "Hallmarkers Who Blog" List

We just added another fabulous person to the "Hallmarkers Who Blog" list: Teresa L.!

Teresa, from the East Coast, is a senior greetings editor and has been with Hallmark for four years.

Her blog is www.poetprocastinator.blogspot.com. Wait. Procrastinator is misspelled! Teresa says, “that's right. I'm a writer who can't spell, and it's been immortalized in my URL.”

Teresa started her blog in the summer of 2005. The blog is about mostly stuff and also things. “Truthfully, it's just my musings on any given topic. Lately, I've tried to start labeling posts to see if I seem to address certain topics more than others,” Teresa says.

Teresa says she started a blog because all of her friends were doing it. “Seriously, my awareness of blogging (technically as in "web + log" or online journal) coincided with my relocating to a new city for a job opportunity, so I thought it would be a great way to keep my family and friends informed about the goings-on in my life. As irony would have it, my family doesn't read my blog, to my knowledge - they're phone/text people, by and large.”

There is no blog schedule for Teresa. She blogs when she wants and hopes that if a person stumbles across her blog they will enjoy it. “I want people to get from my blog what I get from the blogs I read: the occasional inspiration, something to laugh at, a break from the task at hand, a slice of a life that isn't their own.”

week 6: Hallmark Employee Card Challenge

THIS IS THE LAST CHALLENGE!

For this week’s challenge (8/24), the challenge is to “Encourage a kid going back to school.”

Going back to school can be challenging, exciting or even nerve-racking time for kids, whether they’re riding the bus, finding their way around a new school or walking from the dorm. There’s no better time than now to tell the kids in your life how wonderful they are. It may just be the boost of confidence they need.



Send a card. It’s the biggest little thing you can do for kids going back to school!

Even though that the challenge is over... please, keep sending cards!