Hallmark Cards Tour

Who is Hallmark?
Hallmark is a popular greeting card manufacturer with factory operations based in Kansas (In Leavenworth and Lawrence). They create cards for all occasions, so in turn they target all demographics of consumer. They produce 3-5 million cards and envelopes a week from this one factory! The company was started in 1910 by Joyce Hall in Nebraska.

In terms of materials, they work in inks and papers, but they also use flitter (glitter), different types of foils, flock (feels like bumblebee fur, definitely IS NOT, and shouldn't be inhaled), Virko (thermographic powdered nylon printed in plastic), and iridescence. The dyes they use are Magnesium dyes or Brass dyes. Magnesium dyes are less expensive than brass, and don't last as long, so they are only used on orders of less than 25,000. All of their materials are outsourced and brought in, but their paper comes from sustainable forests, and they recycle as much of their materials and scraps as possible. The cards are even printed at another place and then brought in, because this factory specializes in the "effects" for the paper. They use a die cutting method to cut all of their cards, with specialized, custom die cutting sheets. Their finishes range from foil, embossing, silk screening, and repoussé, just to name a few, and they are added to the cards with pressure and ultra-thin adhesive. They can also add multiple effects to the same cards in various orders.

Honestly, I love greeting cards, I am in the habit of keeping every card I receive, and I think the industry is still very much alive. My grandfather worked at a Hallmark factory when he came over to America with my grandmother and their sons, and it was wonderful today to get to see the inner-workings of a place where he spent so much of his time. He worked their for 45 years as an engineer. Unlike the cups created by Berry plastics, I can see the social value of something like a greeting card. I know that might sound a little janky to some, but hear this--to give a greeting card to someone is an act of care, to throw away a cup after 5 minutes of use 2-5 times a week per person in the entire United States is careless.

-Randa