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

Welcome to This Crazy World!

Many people probably have no idea, but Hallmark has a totally killer image archive that holds images spanning at least as far back as Hallmarks existence (almost 100 years). This archive is so cool in fact, that i hear Urban Outfitters has asked if they could partake in its splendor. Every so often, we have an artist here use The Archive in a fun, new way. This month Chris has floored me. The sheer awesomeness and [what some people might call] "unHallmarkness" of Welcome to This Crazy World, i think, makes people double-take on the images. It definitely has inspired me to reconsider my hesitance at using the archives and thinking, "i don't think i can do anything manly with lots of watercolor flowers." Nice work Chris. Click the image to the right to get a taste. I don't know what else to say, so i think i will let the pictures do the talking.

-Josh

Here are some pics from the reception: