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.

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!

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?