Hallmark Cards

Who:

With headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., privately-held Hallmark Cards, Inc. creates products sold in more than 40,000 retail stores across the U.S. and in 100 countries worldwide. Hallmark was founded more than a century ago by a teenage entrepreneur with a couple of shoeboxes of postcards under his arm and the American dream in his heart. Today’s Hallmark is a $4 billion business with greeting cards and other products sold in more than 40,000 retail stores across the U.S. (including top mass retailers and the network of Hallmark Gold Crown stores.)

Products & Services:

·         Personalized cards for any occasion

·         Gifts

o   Personalized Books

o   Stuffed animals

o   Décor

o   Books

o   Stuffed Animals

o   Memory Keeping

o   Jewelry

o   Kitchen & Entertaining

o   Movies

o   Games & Toys

o   Keepsake Ornaments

o   Apparel

o   Event Invitations

·         Event Announcements

Markets:

·         Grocery Stores

·         Department Stores

·         Hallmark approved retailers

Materials:

·         Plastisol (glue)

o   Remains wet until cured at ~200 degrees

·         Flock

o   Cellulose (made from trees)

o   0.0002” long

·         Flitter (looks similar to glitter)

·         Virko: Thermographic powder

o   Powdered nylon

o   When baked it looks like it was printed plastic

·         Iridescence

·         Foil

o   0.0005” thick

o   Made for Hallmark by API in Lawrence, Ks

Paper: 99 bright

o   Main source- Georgia

o   From a renewable forest

o   Secondary source- Shri Lanka

o   Purchases 1,000,000 lbs/order

o   Scrap is chipped, bailed and recycled

                                                               Forming:

·         Emboss: To stamp a design on (a surface) so that it stands out in relief.

o   Dies are made out of either magnesium or brass (magnesium is used for product runs of 25,000 or less to save money but will not hold their form as long as brass)

·         Production for items such as toys, stuffed animals or apparel is outsourced to other companies.

Cutting:

Die cut: The process of using a die to shear webs of low-strength materials, such as rubber, fiber, foil, cloth, paper, corrugated fiberboard, paperboard, plastics, pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes, foam and sheet metal.

Guillotine: A large horizontally mounted blade is actuated vertically down through paper stock up to ~6” thick. The blade is so sharp if you were to cut yourself on the blade you would not feel it.

Laser Die cut: The exact process is a closely guarded Hallmark secret, but the process uses a laser to precisely and consistently cut out an intricate design into each stock one at a time.

 

 

 

Joining:

To join additional items to the paper stock, Plastisol glue is used.

Finishing:

Silk screen: a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image. Ink is then pressed through the mesh to expose only the chosen area on  

the paper stock.

To make the flock stand on end, it is electrostatically charged with 35,000 volts causing the flock to stand on in as it sets into the glue. The end result is a material that feels similar to felt.