Field Trip: Hallmark

http://www.hallmark.com/

INDD 508 Materials & Processes 

Field Trip Notes
Who is/ what is Hallmark?

• Hallmark is a chain retailer for greeting cards, gift wrap and collectibles, ornaments and other seasonal items. Hallmark started in 1910 and was founded by Joyce Hall who began the company by buying cards from print houses and selling them to retail stores.

Products & Services: What do they do/ what do they make?

• Hallmark produces many seasonal products, but their main focuses are greeting cards, gift wraps, and ornaments. They sell approximately one billion cards per year. 

Materials:

• Hallmark's primary resource is paper which comes in rolls, then guillotined, sent to Georgia where the paper is printed, then processed back in the Hallmark plant here in Lawrence. The paper is sourced from Shrilanka and comes from a sustainable forrest in Asia. They also have their own unique materials for cards and other items such as Plastisol, Flock, Flitter, Virko, and Iridesence. Other materials include race foil, and flat foil.

Forming Technologies:

•  Hallmark will primarily use magnesium and brass dies. magnesium dies are not as durable and can only form about 25000 prints. Brass dies are more expensive but are capable of producing over 25000 prints since they tend to last longer. It is also important to note that Hallmark is currently in the process of moving away from hand printing, and towards digital printing.

Cutting Technologies:

• A large guillotine is used to cut masses of cards. Various machines also run on AutoCad to cut specific shapes out.
  

Joining Technologies:

• Hallmark will use what is called Plastisol which is a special glue that stays wet until a temperature of two hundred degrees Fahrenheit is reached.

Finishing Technologies:

• Other special finishes that Hallmark produces include Flock which is a fuzzy material that undergoes an electrostatic process in order to orient the fuzz to a particular direction. Flitter is a reflective material which is produced by taking a reflective color and printing over aluminum. Virko is a thermal graphic powder, or powdered nylon. For the printing process, and application of these special materials, 2D and 3D machines are used to spray materials onto the cards such as Flitter. At the end of some of the printing machines are silk screens which are used to apply various shapes and colors onto specific cards.

 Overall Impressions/ Epiphanes/ Aha Moments?

• I think the biggest surprise for me when going into Hallmark's facility was seeing how educated the staff giving the tour were. A lot of them seemed very old, but remained relevant in their knowledge of current technologies. I also found it surprising to see that the cards weren't nearly as "mass-produced" as I had thought. For example, when watching the silk-screening process, I expected to see hundreds of cards flow through the assembly line, but was surprised to see that the cards were being individually printed out. It makes the cards seem more special now.