mind candy

I'm on the mind{FULL} creative inspiration e-letter team at Hallmark. This month we teamed up with another creative inspiration e-letter Eyecandy to do a gallery showing of how Hallmark designers were inspired by us. We called it mind candy!


Our theme was candy and we had gumballs as take-aways and candy all over the room.




It was really nice to see all of the Hallmark product that was inspired by our e-letters.

Hilarity + Sweet Design = Great Book!

Check out this awesome find I spotted at Barnes and Noble last night. Were You Raised by Wolves: Clues to the Mysteries of Adulthood, by Christie Mellor is hilarious (not to mention incredibly well-written, full of experimental typography and hand lettering, brimming with fun line-work illustration, and is all wrapped up in a simple, flat-outcool color palette. Take it as a dose of mid-afternoon "I'm tired of working and I wanna go to happy hour" inspiration.

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

Oh, and also take a peek at Christie's blog on Mommytrackd.com. Christie's attitude surrounding motherhood is totally the type of mom-'tude that I want to have someday!

Green....

.... is not just a modern-day buzzword here at Hallmark. Throughout our company, we're doing all sorts of things to reduce our carbon footprint and decrease our impact on the environment. To prove it, I'll be posting examples of our green initiatives each week. Here's the first!



For one of our largest mass-channel retail partners, WalMart, we created this line of green cards. These sweet cards hit the end cap displays in the card section of most WalMart stores nationwide this summer.

From the back of each card: "These little cards are greener than most because they are made from half sugarcane by-products and half recycled paper. That means no new trees were cut down to make the. So not only are they fun to send, but they're extra good for the earth, too."

Not only are they earth-friendly, but they only cost $0.94 each, so they're good for your pocketbook too!

For more posts about green initiatives at Hallmark, look for our new logo, or click on the "green" label.

Get your creative juices flowing...

This is random, but oh-so-funny for your droopy-eyed Monday... Enjoy!

Pretty Illustration!

Here are some illustration styles from a group of Illustrators dubbed "Pink Sky" here at Hallmark. These four ladies are super-talented! I think you'll agree....

From KC to NYC

Hallmark recently had an exhibit at the New York Licensing Show, June 10th-12th at the Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Most people know that Hallmark has licensing relationships with places like Disney, Mattel, Marvel, Dreamworks, and many more (and we've got the cards, plates, cups, napkins, ornaments, and gifts to prove it!). However, most people don't know that we also have a group responsible for licensing out some of Hallmark's creative assets.

From the Hallmark Design Collections website. "For nearly 100 years, Hallmark has been creating images that people love. Each year, we add more than 23,000 new illustrations, designs, and photographs to our collection—a collection that spans every emotion, occasion, and season. Hundreds of thousands of images are waiting for you—created by Hallmark artists and photographers, or derived from Hallmark-owned collections. It's a treasure trove of creativity, one that will truly set your products apart."

So, below are some photos from the Hallmark Design Collections booth at the New York Licensing Show. Be sure to check out the Design Collections website to browse more of the collection and for information on how to tap into our unparalleled creative collections!

"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual."

-Arthur Koestler

"Creativity takes courage."

-Henri Matisse

Love these!

Going green... I spotted these earth-friendly cards while on a recruiting trip a few weeks back. Check out more of Compendium's cards, hang tags, invitations, books, and journals. Fun stuff with inspiring messages and reminders of the good things in life.

leave ripples.

In the bookstore at the San Jose Museum of Art, I bought the most inspiring book, The True and the Questions, written by the most inspiring artist/author, Sabrina Ward Harrison.

"Where do you place the questions you carry? and sadness and epiphanies? the quiet worries? where can you put down the truth, as messy and new and raw as it sometimes feels. where are your colors? I believe we must create what we most need to find. I make journals to understand, to vent to dream up and mostly to untangle. who I am becoming. I don't aim for pretty, I aim for release. We have to make room for our life in progress. I give you this journal to rest your life down softly and tangled between these pages. ..trust the mess. trust yourself. leave ripples." --sabrina ward harrison

Read Sabrina's story. It may appear to be a bit long, but you'll be drawn in, and hang on every word. Especially if you are trying to understand yourself. Your purpose. Your creativity. Your inspiration. Your fears. Your sorrows. Your dreams. Your life...and hey, aren't we all trying to figure it out?


The above images are pages from Sabrina's Book/Journal "The True and the Questions," available for sale here.

eye candy from shopscad

One last, but certainlynot least, tidbit from my SCAD trip: shopscad

A bit of background from the shopscad website:

"ShopSCAD is a unique gallery store that exclusively features the artwork and designs of students, faculty, staff and alumni of the Savannah College of Art and Design. The development of a more informal gallery space and retail store was the conception of SCAD President Paula Wallace. Her idea was placed in the hands of Managing Director Amy Zurcher (B.A. fashion design and merchandising, marketing alumna, Ball State University) and SCAD alumna Katie Runnels (M.F.A. painting, 2003) who put their backgrounds together for the creation of shopSCAD."

Many thanks to Amy and Kyle, who allowed me to snap some pics of their amazing space to share with my readers (oh, and friends, you can browse the inspiring product offering online, and purchase what you love online too)! Check it out:

crazy travel schedule = hard to blog x LOTS to share = long post (or a couple of mid-sized ones)

I'll keep the writing to a minimum -- a big step for me!

First and foremost, beautiful Savannah scenery from my trip to Savannah College of Art and Design fondly known to most as SCAD. This beautiful "campus" is located, well, throughout all of the historic district of Savannah, GA, so, it's not really a "campus" in the traditional sense. Very cool story how it all came to be, to learn more, check out these history tidbits.

Some eye candy for you (man do I miss the beautiful weather in the South):

The graphic design building, one of the first buildings that SCAD bought to restore and start the college.

Architectural color-so many unique and bold buildings!

Any literature buffs out there? I loved this book

Bill, my travel companion to SCAD and a studio manager in Animation here at Hallmark, enjoys blacksmithing -- he was impressed!

The Gryphon Tea Room on campus -- wish I had interior photos of the bright orange furniture -- so cool!

Love this

Shady front porches on which to drink sweet Southern tea all summer long...ah how I long for summer...

Yet another example of this old city's architectural charms


Well, there you have it -- the city was inspiring to me -- I felt so fortunate to be there for almost a week.

It wasn't just the city either... it was the many unique people I met within Savannah and within SCAD that really made my visit inspiring, memorable, and certainly worthwhile. Well, that and I stayed in a haunted hotel. Makes for a unique visit...

“.”

Some inspiration & wisdom from the halls of JBU....



"He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his head is a craftsman. He who works with his his hands and his head and his heart is an artist." -St. Francis of Assisi

"Without aesthetic, design is either the humdrum repetition of familiar cliches or a wild scramble for novelty. Without aesthetic, the computer is but a mindless machine, producing effects without substance. Form without relevant content, or content without meaningful form." -Paul Rand

"Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking." -Milton Glaser

"There is nothing worse than a brilliant image in a fuzzy concept." -Ansel Adams

And finally...

Hallmark on Campus! John Brown University

Art Building entryway overlooking gallery

Art Building Gallery (great exhibit choice, Joel!)

Professor Neal Ward shaping the minds of young web design talent

Bess and I with some of our rad student hosts and Professor Ward

Bess and I rockin' out our new JBU diggs-thanks Todd, et. al!

Our parting dinner at Pollards-such a beautiful frosty day, wonderful food, and a great parting meal with our friends at JBU. See you all in April!

Tour de Hallmark

Here's a shout out to all of the KU Graphic Design students who toured Hallmark today, and welcome to cre.a.tiv.i.ty! We are so glad you were able to come and visit Hallmark. I know that time is tight when you are in the middle of a busy semester, but I'm so glad that you all made the time. Keep in touch!

After the student group left today, I was thinking ... Do Accounting majors tour accounting firms when they are in school to learn about what it's like to work in the accounting industry? Do Engineering majors? What about Ag Business majors? I would wager a guess: they probably don't. My sister was a Child Psychology major, and she did some visits to local schools, but it was for class credit. A friend of mine was an Entrepreneurial Studies major, and he interviewed various local entrepreneurs about their journeys to start their own businesses, but again, it was required for his class.

That being said, what is it that we creatives hope to learn by visiting studios? Why do we choose to plan these visits and take time (that could be spent working on our projects) to attend these extracurricular events?

As a design student at ISU, we went to Minneapolis, MN and toured firms like Orange Seed, Franke+Fiorella, and Baker Associates. At the time, I am not sure that I realized what we would learn that day. It was a blur: we rode on a bus in the rain from studio to studio, wiping our feet as we went in, walking through the halls, our shoes squeaking on the polished floors, designers turned toward computer screens, their faces aglow. We would stand with our mouths agape while the Creative Director or Art Director proudly showed us the latest work created by the amazing talent within, their latest AIGA or Addy awards displayed on shelves behind them. Our eyes danced about, catching glimpses of people celebrating a project completed, someone pitching an idea to a new client, the receptionist with a sweet smile and kind telephone voice.

As I look back on that experience, I am not able to pinpoint the major lessons that I learned that day, but I do take with me the experience. Maybe we learned that we had a long way to go as designers. Perhaps we realized that an agency wasn't the right fit for us or that we knew that upon graduation, we would apply to the firms we had visited. Or perhpas we realized that one day, we would be a part of it all. But did we realize how big of a part we would play or where we would end up? If nothing else, the studio visits inspired us to create, and to keep creating. Inspired us to innovate and to grow. Inspired us to have the drive to get to where we are today.

That is my hope for you, KU, that you are inspired and ready to create whatever is next. The design world awaits...

It's in the Details

In the midst of the majesty of the Teton Mountain Range, I spent a lot of time photographing the tall snowy peaks. But as we walked the 10 mile trail around Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park, I started to realize that though the peaks were indeed beautiful, powerful, and full of intrigue, there was inspiration in even the smallest details along the trail.