ISU College of Design Career Day

Hey from San Jose, CA! I'm on the road this week in sunny, warm California at San Jose State University. It's much warmer here (72 today!) than Iowa was last week (15!), but I wanted to give a shout out to all of the ISU students and faculty who stopped by to chat with Hallmark and/or came to our presentation at the College of Design Career Day last week. Here are a few photos from the event of our (Hallmark)RED booth. Thanks for coming to see what we're up to at Hallmark, and remember: the Hallmark Creative Summer Internship deadline is only 14 days away (March 17th)!

Left side of the booth. See the black and white books in the front of the photo? Those were all the goods we handed out! White books: Award-winning (A4, Kansas City AIGA Awards Show 2007), stitched booklet with an embossed cover chock full of info on Hallmark Creative and Kansas City (plus some of the top-selling cards from our RED line. Black books: Award-winning (Communication Arts annual, 2006) spiral bound book focused on typography and various paper stocks, all about Hallmark's Design Studios.

Right side of the booth, "See How Far a Card Can Go" posters designed by our Environmental Graphic Design Studio for Hallmark Gold Crown front-of-store (Jan-Feb 08). Similar signage was on a billboard in Times Square, NYC in December 07 and January 08!

Gift Presentation product (bags, tissue, boxes, gift wrap, hang tags) and a few cards and stationery (boxed cards)

Some of the RED cards and some print collateral from the Marketing Design Studio, our internal ad agency.

Me and Meg B., a Hallmark Designer (check out her blog, so fun! link under "Hallmarkers Who Blog" on the right)

(Hallmark)RED booth in full

Bess = Guest Blogger

Hello to all the readers of Erin's great recruiting blog. I'm going to pop in randomly and dust a few tidbits of knowledge, random thoughts, mindless what-nots and whatever else I feel like sprinkling over here at cre•a•tiv•i•ty.

First and foremost, let me introduce myself. My name is Bess and I have been a greetings designer at Hallmark since October of 2004. I received my BFA in graphic design from Iowa State University and studied abroad in Rome while I was a student there.

In my free time I enjoy long walks on the beach... ha ha. Not really. Well, a beach does sound pretty good right now. I have traveled with Erin from time to time, Iowa State University, the AIGA conference in Denver, and most recently to John Brown University. Recruiting trips, while a ton of work, are really rewarding as well. Hopefully I will have more opportunities to do that in the future. (*Ahem, Erin.)

So that's that. I'll try and spice things up a bit when I post. And I'll try to be pretty regular about it... because I welcome any opportunity to do things a bit off task. (This is work related though, right!?) And a big PS- it's my BIRTHDAY today!

Run with it.

Isn't it amazing when people take their creative passion and run with it? My fellow Iowa State University Graphic Design classmate ('04 grad) Sara Jayne Weitzel has done just that by launching her own photography business, Sara Jayne Photographic Artistry.

Although Sara was a graphic design major, her passion for photography was always apparent in her work, which was always oogled by fellow design classmates who saw the gleam in her eye when she presented her design work that utilized her own photography. A photography major was not offered at ISU, and Sara got her degree in Graphic Design, she continued to follow her passion for photography after she graduated.

While the rest of our graduating class was beating the streets for design jobs and sending our tons of resumes and portfolio sample books, Sara was working for a small photography studio in Minneapolis while shooting weddings, senior photos, and engagement photos on the weekends. As she built her portfolio with her wedding work from summer, winter hit hard in Minneapolis, causing her weekend wedding business slow (and mostly stop) because of the frigid cold Minnesota winter. So, following her passion, Sara quit working her weekday job at the photo studio and suprised us all by moving to Phoenix, AZ to continue shooting weddings during the winter months. She now lives half of the year in Phoenix, and half in Minneapolis to continue to grow her portfolio -- and her new business.

Sara's portfolio isn't just made up of the photography she shoots "on the job." Her passion for travel, animals, pets, and just having fun with friends are also evidenced by her skilled creative eye for the perfect shot. Often taking "a day of play" with her camera, Sara spends time dressing up friends for shoots and walking around Phoenix or Minneapolis taking photos of architecture or the local farmer's market. She also recently traveled to Greece and Croatia, capturing the diverse culture of these lands through the lens of her camera.

Some of Sara's work is below. If you like it, she has a "fans, friends, and clients" group on Facebook (just search Sara Jayne Photography) that you could join to show your support. I suppose the moral of the story is, find your passion. Seek it out, embrace it, and run with it, no matter what it takes, and make it yours.

All images Copyright 2007, Sara Jayne Photography

Department of Tourism

Shout out to ISU Graphic Designers who visited Hallmark last week! Thank you all for taking the time to come to Kansas City, and for spending a few hours here at Hallmark. It was fun to hear about your studio visits, and to show you around Hallmark. I hope you enjoyed your night on the Plaza -- and I hope you didn't spend too much time with your laptops at the hotel!

Welcome to cre.a.tiv.i.ty!

You know, I was thinking...I think Hallmark needs a Department of Tourism, and I want to be the Tourism Manager! I get so energized when I have student groups visit -- it's so much fun! I also love to talk (in case you couldn't tell), so I think I'd be the ideal person for the job! Thanks again for coming.

Be aware, Be absorbent, Be alive.

Today I have been distracted by all of my to-do's during these three short days in the office before my long vacation. I am feeling burdened by my work -- completing my to-do's with an uninspired and unenthusiastic mindset, mindlessly checking off tasks on my list as I complete them.

While taking a short break before hitting "the list" hard again, I was reminded of some advice I once heard: "Be an observer of the things around you. Inspiration can come in small doses from unexpected sources, so be aware, be absorbent, be alive."

When I was at Iowa State University working toward my BFA in Graphic Design, my classmates and I put in long, late hours to finish projects and papers. Many of us worked part-time jobs, putting ourselves through school, so we were booked to the max. We would be on our last leg, only one night left before the big crit, running on little or no sleep, fighting through problems with the printers, banging our fists when the famed "spinning wheel of death" appeared on our screen, even shedding a few tears when we'd drop a bunch a cash on laser prints only to find out that our crop marks were off by an 1/8 inch.

It was in those moments of futility, even despair, that the smallest things would make a difference. Someone would crank a funny song on their iTunes and we'd sing along; we'd take a quick walk to get Chinese food; we'd put all of our rejected designs and printing errors up on a wall and create a collage; we'd have a waterfight in the hallway outside the restrooms.

There were even times when the most unexpected things happened that got us through yet another crazy-late night. The most memorable for me was the time when we found an unlocked maintenance door leading to the roof of the design building. We felt somewhat rebellious climbing up the metal staircase to the top, but as we stood, overlooking Ames, IA, we felt like we had achieved, like we had conquered. Maybe it was because of our lack of sleep, or because we were almost done with another grueling semester, but I think it was because it was new. Standing on the roof, overlooking the sleeping town of Ames, IA, I remember feeling like I had gained perspective. Though I was only a small part of that town, I was conquering it. Though college at ISU was only a small part of my life, I was going to get through it -- and become better because of it. I had gotten into the design program, I was almost done with my last project of the semester, and in only one more year, I would have a BFA in graphic design.

We were on the roof for a short time that night, but those few, quiet, simple minutes would get us through the late night hours and into the morning. It only takes a few minutes, and some quiet observation, to find the inspiration you need to get you through. I look back on those minutes, and realize that I need to make time each day to absorb: to look to the little things, to be aware, be alive. [photo, top: Iowa State University College of Design interior at sunset]

Hermann Zapf - Part 2

Yesterday afternoon was crazy-busy, but now I have a few minutes to tell an unbelieveable story that I learned yesterday. Here we go!

You know how sometimes a day can be SO busy, and you'd rather just skip your class or meeting instead of taking time away from your "important work" to go? This happened to me yesterday. I was working on a few things that were due before I left work for the weekend -- I had two hours to get them done and it was not going well. I became even more frustrated when my calendar pinged me to tell me I had a meeting in 15 minutes. At 3PM on a Friday?! I begrudgingly grabbed my notebook and headed to the meeting, which was held in one of Hallmark's many gallery spaces.

My office is near this gallery, so I had already walked through the exhibit several times, but my manager had scheduled a tour of this exhibit for our team with one of the people in charge of this month's theme - typography. Now, as a designer myself, I was thinking, typography... yes, I am a designer, I know about typography...I sighed as I started to write a list of "to dos" for the rest of my day. A few minutes later, myself and one of my coworkers greeted our tour guide as he came in: Rick, a member of the Font Development Group at Hallmark.

Ok, focus... Get to Hermann Zapf, Erin!

Rick started by giving a brief history of typography at Hallmark: The Font Development Group started in the early 60s and at that time was called the Alphabet Design Group. Of course, back then, there were no G5 Macs and no Adobe CS3, so the group was working the old-school way. Rick went on to say that in the mid-sixties, Hermann Zapf became a consultant to the Alphabet Design Group at Hallmark ---- ERRRRRTTT! [insert record scratch here] ---- Hold up Rick, HERMANN ZAPF, the Hermann Zapf (the one I learned about in my History of Graphic Design class? the same Hermann Zapf that I wrote a paper about and designed a typographic book and poster series after?), was a consultant at Hallmark? You mean, he was here , in this building, hanging out and talking about type??

I was stunned. Rick went on to talk about how Mr. Zapf wrote a book specifically for Hallmark that has never been published (it is currently housed in Hallmark's Archive Collection), and also filmed a short instructional video for Hallmark that includes some of his personal tips & tricks and design philosophies. Rick himself is also a close friend to the Zapfs, Hermann and his wife Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. He has even been to their house in Germany and has been to Hermann's personal studio in his home (a small room just off of his personal typography library , hidden behind a door in the living room). Note: I'm sure my mouth was hanging open at this point.

I began to browse the gallery exhibit with new found energy and perspective. Browsing the beautiful hand-lettered prints and various handwriting style sheets that the font group was gradually turning into fonts for our proprietary collection (adding to our already 500+ fonts in the proprietary collection), I became humbled. First, I was humbled by the skill and creativity of our font group - knowing that I myself lacked the technique and the drive to do what they do. And second, I was humbled by my own attitude toward the meeting itself and how I had almost skipped it. I had learned so much in that 30-minute meeting: I learned about the innovative ideas and the huge strides happening in the typography group at Hallmark; I met and learned about Rick, a long-time Hallmarker who is humble, always learning, and incredibly talented; learned a little-known fact about Hermann Zapf and Hallmark...

And, probably the biggest thing I learned, is that you never know who you are going to meet and when and what you might learn from them. There is no way to tell how that person will inspire you, and what effect that will have on who you are now and who you will become. I returned to the pile of work in my office with new eyes and a fresh mind -- And I finished it all in time to head home for the weekend.



[Right: typographic designs/fonts created by Hermann Zapf. I took the photos shown in this post during my visit to the Bodoni Museum in Parma, Italy in 2003. The trip to the museum was part of the Iowa State University College of Design semester abroad program to Rome, Italy]

Growing up Creative?

I was home in Iowa this past weekend for a family reunion -- 75 people from my extended family converging on my parent's farm for a three-day-weekend of food, fun, and fellowship. While in the midst of four generations of my family, I came to a wonderful realization that I'd like to share. I'll get to it in a bit, but first, a little backgound...

When I came to Hallmark three years ago, I was immediately in awe of the amazing talent around me. A naturally curious person, I began to ask my co-workers about their creative backgrounds. Many people had gone to specialized art schools or private art colleges. Several people spoke about amazing internships or past career opportunities at top design firms in New York or LA. Almost all of my colleagues mentioned "growing up creative," which was a new and interesting concept to me: some designers here have famous artists in their families, some were influenced by their parents who were fine artists themselves, some even had one-on-one training by famous artists or designers. I started to become intimidated: Why had I decided to study design? How did I even get a job at Hallmark with the amazing talent already housed here?

My co-workers all spoke of something that, at the time, I didn't think I had: a creative upbringing. As a farm girl from Iowa who attended a state school (Iowa State University - Go Cyclones), I quickly began to feel that I was in the shadow of these life-long, specially-trained designers and artists.

It wasn't until my family reunion last weekend that I came to a conclusion: Could it be that I actually had grown up creative? As part of our family reunion activities, my dad had created a 5 ft x 16 ft wooden puzzle, cut into 80 pieces. Each family member was to take a piece of the puzzle and, starting with their name, design a piece that represented them. As I watched four generations of my family creating their pieces, I started to realize that even though none of my family members are classically trained artists, and none of them have gone to a specialized art school (and certainly none of them had a design internship in NYC) each of them in their own way is indeed creative. My dad drew an illustration of his favorite place on earth - the White Cliffs of Montanta, complete with him in his canoe! My 3rd cousin wrote and illustrated her story about being adopted and about her love for her grandparents. My 88 year old great-uncle drew a picture of the state of Iowa, and labeled all of the places he had lived during his life and memories from those places. My brother-in-law, who is probably the least "artistic" person I know, drew a history of his teaching career using the school colors of each school where he has taught.

It wasn't just the puzzle pieces designed that weekend that showed our creativity. It was the dinners that my mom cooked for 75 people each night, it was the hymn sing on our deck with my 2nd cousins making up harmonies to classic hymns, it was the storytelling around the campfire and looking at the rock formations on the river during the early morning canoe floats. And it was evident during Sunday morning church in the hayloft of my family's barn where we all gathered, 8 months old to 88 years old, to celebrate all of the joy we had been given because of each other and our individual personalities, woven together, to make our unique, and yes, our creative family.

I discovered last weekend that creativity is actually in all of us, in many ways, shapes, and forms. It is with us when we are young, and grows and changes as we do. We just have to know how to recognize it and draw it out of ourselves - and each other.