City in Sound; No-Art Cards

but presenting for your reflective consideration, the city and sound. Tonight is sound that while it continues the year round, it's hardly heard until this time of year. Now it becomes a mighty chorus. What are you doing? Making Christmas cards. Yes, he's making Christmas cards. One vital cog in the efficient human machinery of the new Arden Graving Company. A Chicago organization that works the year round to turn out just one product, Christmas cards. An infinite variety of you will tie greeting cards, but nothing else. Presumably the largest company in the world that deals exclusively in Christmas greetings. Every one of us in the next few weeks will handle at least one and probably several of the artful cards created by the new Arden Graving Company in the big plant on Chicago's north side. It's a big business and an interesting

one. You are Mr. C. Robert Bob Peckham. That's right. Executive Vice President of the new Arden Graving Company. Yes, sir. You know, it seems to me that most people worry about Christmas cards about one month out of the year. But you worry about Christmas cards 12 months of year. Well, I always say 13 months out of the year. Actually, we were working two years in advance. And your total business at the new Arden Graving Company is the business of producing Christmas cards for the nation. That's right. We make nothing else but Christmas cards. That's our entire business. When did new Arden get started in the business of making Christmas cards? It was around 1917. Did it come from a general line of printing and engraving down to this specialized field? It started from engraving. Strictly steel, dye, and copper plate engraving. And new Arden specializing then has made Chicago the Christmas card cap for the world almost. Well, not alone new Arden, there are good many other

Christmas card manufacturers in the city of Chicago. I think that the city of Chicago and surrounding area could be called the center of the Christmas card manufacturing of the world. Did you talk about planning Christmas card production two years ahead, you speak of it as being a 13 -month a year of business? Then I gather that Christmas card production is a big business. It is a big business. Much more so than the average man on the street realizes. Could you give me some facts to illustrate that? Well, a Christmas card originally starts by an art director conceiving an idea that he wants to make a certain design. And then he has to go through all the processes of developing that, which takes the best part of a year before he has come up with something that we can produce in our plan to sell.

Then from there on, what happens? Well, our business is what we call PG business or personalized greetings. We put these books out into retail outlets such as department stores, card shops, printing plants, and types of business that are legitimate greeting card outlets that is retail outlets. We manufacture the books and sample our cards in them. And they put them on the counter. And we don't sell our merchandise until the public goes in and looks at those books, makes their selection, and then the order is sent to us. And we process it. These are the books that we see on the counters in our stores. When we go in, we leave through the many pages of beautiful cards. We select the one that attracts our eye.

And that's where we've come into the pictures. That is correct. And our merchandise is sold almost 100 % by the public selection, not the buyer of the department store or a greeting card shop, but by the public themselves. In other words, we haven't got an order until you've gone into the store and selected your cards, and then the store sends it to us, which in turn creates a service problem. And that problem is to get that order back to you as soon as possible. Who handles that service problem? We handle it here in our own plant. Is that the production man's problem? That's right. It's a production problem. So the first person who faces a problem in creating cards then is the art director who designs the card. Then we go into a production area in which the actual production of the volume of cards is concerned and

also the personalizing of the cards. That is correct. And I should think that I should talk now to an art director who can tell me something of the problem is that he has in the Christmas card business. You're Mr. Don Stoner. That's right, Jim. And you're an art director. I'm an art director. You're also something more than that, I guess. Well, I have charge of the sales for the concern also. I wish you put your art director hat on now, because that's the particular thing I wanted to talk to you about. What the problems are of an art director in a Christmas card business. Where do you start? Well, the problems are many. We start with actually a lineup of the types of designs that we want. We build about 225 numbers in our line. And we decide on what types of designs that we want.

Now, there are three different lines produced by new artists. That's right. The new art deluxe, the etchcraft and the contemporary lines. And is there an art director for each of those lines? There's an art director for each of the three lines. That's right. What is the one that you were talking about? I have the etchcraft line. Well, let's talk about etchcraft then for this moment at least. And you say there are 225 cards in the line. Approximately that. In the three lines. That's every year. Every year. Every year we put out approximately that number of designs. And every year those designs have to be new. Now, going through your etchcraft book. And this is actually, it's a catalog with the actual cards. That's right. This is the book that goes on the dealer's counters and from which the public picks their cards. There's a great variety of cards in the book. And how do you develop the individual and different designs? Because here's a picture of

rough growls. That's right. That's right. Well, we know that the big section of the public wants a card that a design that deals with birds, game birds. So every year we will have in our line one or two designs that feature fesins, grouse, quail, or some such. Now, suppose that I was one who liked game birds and two years ago. I had a card from New Art that showed ring neck fesins. Could I then come back to you this year and say I want that card to the ring neck fesins? No, that card at the end of the season becomes obsolete. But we figure that of course this year we have a better design for them to select. So this year I will go to rough growls. That is, that is right. And that's true then in other designs, just not just the game birds. That is true. So of course we're very limited. Christmas

designs would be religious, the Madonna, the wise men, the Santa Claus, Holly, Missalto, and so forth. So our big problem is in using those subjects that are permissible and changing them to such an extent that they are new each year. Now, I noticed that you mentioned that one of the lines is the religious line and the activity line. And has that a separate field in itself for a particular reason? Well, in the last few years religious cards have increased tremendously in popularity. I think probably that is due to the fact that in the last decade we've gone through such unsettled conditions throughout the world, the wars and all. And people are striving for peace and the religious motive has come up most in their minds. They have gone more to religion. I think it's more important than a

flip type of reading. I definitely think it is. I think our top selling designs today are religious designs. You have different types of problems to consider in the creation of the card, not just the design, not just the colors that you use, but such things as even the paper stock and the medium you use, you don't just have printed cards, do you? No, that is true. I think the public has very little realization of the problems that are involved in the designing of a greeting card. It isn't just the design itself, but the paper stock enters into a very great extent. We use parchment papers, we use antique stocks, vellum stocks, enamel stocks. We use various colored stocks. In designs themselves, we use so many techniques. We use pastel,

work oil, watercolor, crayon, photography, any number of different mediums in order to take the few possible subjects that we have and keep them different each year. Then you use several different methods of reproduction. What are the methods that you use? We use three methods, generally speaking. We use steel -dion graving, which incidentally is probably the top method of reproduction in the graphic cards. And we use offset lithography and we use relief printing or letterpress. I suppose from the art department, the card design actually goes into the production department. That goes to the production department. That's right, when we have all the designs made up and the layouts, the plates, and so forth, we send all of that down to the production department. Of course, we work about

two years in advance. We're working now on our 1960 line. How do the cards look for 1960? Oh, we're going to have a wonderful line. In 59 and in 60, a better line than we've ever had. I can hardly wait to 1960 to find out myself. Well, you will. You're Miro Vandlich. Yes, sir. You're the plant superintendent here. Yes, sir. We're standing looking up from your office out on the press room floor, right? Yes, sir. There's a lot going on out there. First of, how many people are working out on the floor there? On the floor, we have about 65 right now. Is this a peak period of the year? Yes, it is. And looking across the floor, I see what appears to my lay eye to be a number of different types of printing presses. But true? Yes, it is. We have offset presses, also melee verticals, which are lettering, plus. And we also have gardens and... What are the gardener and price?

Gardens are hand -feet presses for imprinting of personalized cards. Oh, and that's a big part of the activity, right? Yes, it is. But we do most of that on our melee verticals. All our special things are being run on the gardens and fed. What is the most difficult type of work technically that goes on out here? Most difficult would be on the carvers. What are the carvers? They're steel -dying graving presses. They work off of steel dies and they do our embossing work. Now, some of your color work, in fact, a great deal of it. I gather is four color process work. Yes, it is. That's being run on the offset presses. Do you have problems there as such things as registered things like that? All we do in the weather is pretty damped, paper stretches and shrinks depending on the weather. Of course, when you've been in the business for 40 years or so, I... You could do it. Tell me some more about the operation here on the press room floor.

I suppose you turn out thousands of cards every day from the shop here. Oh, yes, we do. We have as high as 400 ,000 impressions a day off of our melee verticals alone. And what they do is print three colors on there and embossing presses pick up the last color which is a steel die to give it more or less the third dimension. You see a lot of cards yourself. Is there any particular card that you think is the best point you've ever seen? Come out of the shop here. Well, that'll be pretty hard to say. I mean, I like most of them, but there are some that I can't see how they're sell, but they seem to be our best sellers. Of course, there are great many tastes. Oh, yes, there are. There are very many. If we knew just what the people wanted in taste, we wouldn't have to work so hard. Your name is Ed Escher, right? That's right, Tim. And you're the controller of Newark. That is right. And you have your finger on the statistics of the company. That is true. A statistic that I'm interested in is how you anticipate the demand for the cards

that you turn out. How can you tell, for instance, in the Christmas season of 1958, what the demand for a particular type of card or a particular card is going to be in 1960? Well, there's actually a double problem involved in these statistics. Because actually sales figures in sizeable enough quantities to give us a pattern of sales, do not come in until approximately October of a year. So therefore, what the company does is to pick a basic figure, say, 50 ,000 of a card, just to pick a figure at random, and proceed to manufacture that number of cards as a base stock for each and every card in the line. Now, although we do have a small quantity relatively of early sales to our dealers, the dealers are not necessarily a criterion of what the general public will buy. So therefore, approximately in October when the personalized cards come in from the customers around the United States,

a pattern starts to be established. In other words, we find that card, for instance, 2833 begins to hit a percentage of all the incoming orders. And from this pattern of incoming orders and percentage of cards received, we project based on our sales estimated orders to be received from the year, a total manufacturing figure for each and every card in the line. Now, it has also another problem connected with it, and that is that the orders start from practically one a day, and then build up as the season progresses to literally thousands a day. We must handle these immediately. We attempt to process every order as far as the office section is concerned, and the day it comes in. We immediately set down and tabulate these orders in order to keep a running projection of the potential sales of

each and every card. Do you sometimes too, and this along the same vein, have sleepers, cards that are much more popular than you ever dreamed they'd be? Oh, that's true quite often. Do you think this is because some people get their cards out early the way that Postmaster asks them to do, and other people say, that's a beautiful card. Yes, Jim. Yes, Jim, I think that's very true. In other words, at the early part of the season, you probably have a certain character of person buying a Christmas card. And later in the season, you have a different type of character from a personal standpoint buying a Christmas card. And therefore, you get a different type of selection as the season progresses. And in the day before Christmas, you got fellows like me who forgot all about it. Oh, that is right. That always happens every year. That is not so much of a problem for your type of Christmas card operation, is it? Yes, yes. It really is because we attempt to service our customers right up until Christmas

Day. Is that right? For instance, you could walk into a large department store in Chicago here, and it could be, as an illustration, December 21st. And that store would take your order and would send it in here. And actually, we probably would ship it within a matter of hours, although it sounds fantastic, but it is true. It works that way. And talking with Mr. Peckum, I mentioned that, for most people, the Christmas card business is just a one month out of the year proposition. But for you, it's a 12 month out of the year. That is very true. It's a 12 month proposition for us, especially from a financial standpoint. How do you mean? Well, you see, we produce cards all year long. As I mentioned before, we at least produce a minimum stock of 50 ,000. We have to pay the overhead and the taxes and the payrolls of the company. And again, as I mentioned before, our sales do not actually start until

October. The money from those sales certainly does not come in until later than October, which means an effect that we have produced from December to October without having taken in any money, which to buy the paper and the inks and the gold leaf and pay the payrolls. I'm going to say, have you a terrible problem for me? It must be for you too. Well, it is a terrific problem. And I think it's more or less unique in a company that manufactures only Christmas cards. I would imagine the calendar people might be somewhat in the same position as we are. But you are specifically tied down to just one day of every year, right? That is right. Very much so. And the money, of course, comes in in large amounts in December, January and February of the following year. And after those months are over, then all the money starts going out again. Those are the golden days and these are the busy days. That is true. And you're really busy down on the production floor right now. Very much so. You probably can hear the presses through the partitions down here. And I can go down there and see this business and actual operation. That will

be very interesting for you, Jim. I'm sure. Are you making Christmas cards too? Well, I'm helping. What? What? Why do you play in turning out the grocery store? Well, I type the names that will be used to make the slugs. For the personalized fire of a greeting card. That's right. All right. Dell and Charles. Bill and Martha. Arnold. A variety of names for a great variety of cards. I see that you're working here with a

great many different names. Do these names sometimes make problems for you people in the Christmas card business? Well, once in a while we run into an amusing situation. The other day we had a remake. A family with five children had admitted Patrick from the list. And they've forgotten the names of one of the children. They admitted one of the children's names. What are some of the other odd ones you get in there? And another incident a lady wrote in that she had used the name Charles instead of Walter for husband's name. Got the wrong husband. She must have been thinking of an old boyfriend. Her next husband someplace back down the line. There's something like that. Do you ever get mixed up yourself in some of these names? Well, one thing I've noticed is it's unusual to find the same name. It's two of the same names. It's amazing the number of different names. Is that so you mean surnames the last names? Both first name, surnames and last names. Well now I'll ask you a question about a specific name. I didn't get your name. Helen Nelson.

You didn't forget that one. Thank you. Your name is Joseph Lapechec. That's right, sir. And you're the assistant plant superintendent right against it. And your particular problem right now at least is the business of personalizing the cards. That's right. Is that PG? Is that right? That's what they call it in the trade? Personalized reading. Personalized reading. And that's a very important part of the operation here with New Artist. Yes, sir. We have a tremendous amount of imprints to get out every year. And about this time of year we do about 1 ,400 orders which amounts to about 140 ,000 cards a day. They're moved out of the plant. And each of those involve a personal personalized reading, a name that's put on the individual card. That's right. I suppose that even though it's fast and efficient, it does take a tremendous part of the operation here at the plant. You have to actually convert it this season of the year, a lot of the plant operation just to this particular end. That's right, sir. Right now we have about 8 presses converted to this type of operation. When do you sit down and start to

relax the day after Christmas? Well, I'll tell you. Actually, there is no relaxation here. After Christmas, we start in with a bang all over again. That's true. And that's the sound of Christmas cards. Christmas cards designed, developed, distributed by a final Chicago company. The city and sound microphone held for you by Jim Herbert, modulated by Radio Engineer George Wilson. Next week, the sound of the steam whistle, Junior Grade. Yes, it is.