Advertising
New (old) Work: Hallmark Turns 100!
On 20, Jan 2010 | No Comments | In Advertising, Design, New Work, Web Design | By Lorraine
If you’ve been a long-time reader of this blog, you may have noticed me hinting here and there about getting to work on exciting projects that I’m not able to post about until they go live. This past week, Kansas City’s own Hallmark Cards kicked off their year-long centennial celebration: something I have been bursting at the seams to share with you since 2008! Erin and the gang over at cre-a-tiv-i-ty have all of the news over a series of several posts starting here (be sure to look for the employee-customized crowns: they’re really awesome).
In any case, back in 2008, our clients over at Hallmark approached us for ideas on how to brand their entire celebration. At that time, they had the logo (see top), taglines, colors, and custom script, but were struggling to find a cohesive look and feel that could be applied both internally and consumer-facing across a wide variety of signage, media, and occasions. They wanted to tap into our department’s brainstorming power to help jump-start their internal team, and I was the lucky designer chosen to man the project. Head over to the Centennial Site if you want to check out their actual solution (which I just saw myself for the first time last week).
Although we presented several options, this one was my favorite. Hallmark wanted to look to the future rather than focus on their past, so I tried to keep the design fresh while epitomizing what Hallmark has done best since their start in the early 1900′s: bringing people together through the art of communication. Consisting of both solid and outlined speech bubbles, the branding system could be customized depending on media or use. Through the addition of color and photography, it could have been expanded for use across their entire product line. (For example, highlighting the more somber colors with the word “Care” for their sympathy line.) Below was just one application example that I gave them: a sample magazine ad for their general birthday line.
I absolutely loved getting to work on this project. Everyone at Hallmark was so great to work with, and I also enjoyed the tour of their headquarters I got to take as a part of my research. So Happy Birthday to everyone over there: I hope you enjoy the celebrations!
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Hallmark? That’s a big name, cool. Awesome job.
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Thanks! Yeah, they were one of my main clients while I worked in KC, but unfortunately (for blogging purposes), most of the work I did for them was confidential. This is only the second thing I could finally share, and I’ve been counting down!
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