The Hallmark production center in Lawrence Kansas was first opened in 1958. With a facility of 650,000 square feet, it produces nearly 12 million cards during a busy production week. This facility is one of three manufacturing facilities in the United states. Besides cards, Hallmark also produces ribbon, bows, film-wrapped items, invites, and stickers. This facility accounts for nearly 40% of the Hallmark trade.
Materials commonly used by hallmark include paper, foil, film, corrugated cardboard, ribbon or bows (extracted mixture). One thing that is noteworthy about Hallmark is that they only throw out 2.5% of their garbage, making them a highly sustainable manufacturer.
The cards are laid out digitally on the computer, then they are die cut, sorted and boxed. All of the paper that is not utilized is to be recycled. Depending on the style of card, there are a lot of finishes that can be applied. Most of these finishes are heat applied, some of them use glue.
Finishing technologies:
- halftone hot foil
- cloisonne
- textured prism background
- halftone dot prism
- prism without background
- flitter/laser
- puff print
- gold bronze
- white lithography
- varnish
- flitter/flock
I found myself most impressed with how sustainable the company is. With all of the materials and scraps that are produced, I imagined that the production floor would be covered with paper and other things. Another aspect that impressed me was that nearly everything is produced in house! With less out-sourced manufacturing, Hallmark is a dominating force in the world of cards.
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