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John Bower
On The Edge Manchester Conference
John BowerHead of Digital Innovation
A Brief HistoryOf Hallmark
A Brief History of Hallmark
In 1910, a teenage entrepreneur called
Joyce Clyde Hall (J.C. Hall) stepped off
a train in Kansas City, Missouri, with two
shoeboxes of postcards under his arm.
Hall quickly made a name for himself
with the picture postcards he sold.
Rollie Hall joined his brother in business,
and the company was named Hall
Brothers.
A Brief History of Hallmark
On Jan. 11, 1915, a fire destroyed their
office and inventory. Unfazed, they took
the only salvageable item – their safe –
and set up shop again.
Noticing a decline in postcard sales they
recognized a need for more privacy in
communication. They started offering
cards mailed in envelopes.
A Brief History of Hallmark
Having learned a hard lesson about
dependence upon third-party stock they
decided to print their own cards, and in
late 1915 they invested in a printing
press.
With the success of the Hall Brothers
greeting cards, J.C. and his brother
continued to innovate.
A Brief History of Hallmark
Their first foray into other product lines
came in 1917 when the Hall brothers
"invented" modern gift wrap.
When they ran out of solid-coloured gift
dressing, during the busy Christmas
season, they improvised by selling
French envelope liners as a replacement.
This proved so popular they decided to
start printing their own gift wrap.
A Brief History of Hallmark
In 1928, the company began marketing
its brand by using the Hallmark name on
the back of every card. JC Hall was
intrigued with the similarity between his
name and with the term for markings on
gold jewellery.
This was the same year that Hallmark
ran it’s first advertisement in Ladies’
Home Journal.
A Brief History of Hallmark
In 1932 Hallmark signed it’s first licensing agreement, with Walt Disney.
Disney and Hall became fast friends and there has been a close relationship between the companies to this day.
In the same year Hallmark created display stands that allowed customers to see all cards quickly and easily in stores.
A Brief History of Hallmark
In the 80’s Hallmark continued expanding and bought various companies in the process including Crayola.
The Hallmark Channel was launched on cable and satellite television, which showed family friendly movies and also produced Hallmark funded films.
With the rise of the World Wide Web, Hallmark saw the need for an e-commerce platform for finished goods, and a requirement for personalized cards and gifts.
A Brief History of Hallmark
With new technology around every corner, the future of the company is hard to predict, but we’re constantly poised and ready to lead and innovate. Whether it’s internet video streaming, social networking, or mobile applications.
As big as we’ve become, and as iconic as our brand is today, we’re still privately held, still based in Kansas City, and still led by the Hall family.
About Me
About Me
• Born in West London
• Moved to the South Coast
• Dad owned a PC Hardware
shop
• Mum was a Biology teacher
• Learned programming from
an early age
About Me
• Started building websites in the early/mid 90s
• Worked at a digital agency in London at 17 years old (1997)
• Co-founded a digital agency in Worthing,West Sussex in 1999
About Me
• At 21 decided to focus on 3D Computer Graphics and Animation research
• Developed an algorithm for real-time muscle deformation
• Gained a Masters degree from NCCA Bournemouth University
About Me
• Met Vicky in 2001.
• Moved to Saltaire,
West Yorkshire in 2009.
• Married in 2014.
About Me
• Did contract Flash/Web
development for regional
Digital Agencies.
• Started my own
freelance company.
About Me
• Took a job at Hallmark
UK & Ireland as the
Web Developer in their
e-comm team in 2012.
• Became Digital
Innovation Specialist in
2015.
DigitalInnovation
Digital Innovation at Hallmark
• To provide tools and applications that make workflow more efficient.
• To give advice and support on website architecture and emergent web technology.
• To understand the capabilities of hardware and infrastructure, from severs to handheld devices.
• To future-proof the company.
What is Digital Innovation?
• To be a nerd.
Internet Users by Device
29%
17%
22%
30%
2%
Devices (%)
Laptop
Desktop
Smartphone
Tablet
Other
Source Ofcom Research 2014
Internet Users by Device
• 900,000,000Tablet
• 870,000,000Laptop
• 660,000,000Smartphone
• 510,000,000Desktop
• 60,000,000Other
• 3,000,000,000Total
Source Ofcom Research 2014
Interesting Technology
Media CentersSmart Glasses Smart Watches
Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality
Web VR
Node.js HTML 5
NoSQL DB’s Angular JS
3D Printing
Interesting Technology
• Mobile Application development is only worth doing if it’s cross-platform.
• To do so requires web technologies such as JavaScript and CSS.
• Cross-platform Mobile Apps must be built responsively.
• Building Mobile Apps is exactly the same process as building web applications.
Smart Wear
Smart Wear
Smart Wear
Smart Wear
“SMART WEARABLES MARKET TO GENERATE $53BN HARDWARE REVENUES BY 2019”
juniperresearch.com – 9th September 2014
Smart Wear
• Screens are small, if there is one.
• Not connected directly to the Internet. Have to
go through another device.
• Only way to force a message to appear on the
watch is through a text message to the host
device, or via native application.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality
• Virtual Reality is not restricted to games
consoles and PC’s.
• Mobile devices will soon be powerful enough
to interface with VR headsets.
• The restricted vision will prevent people
moving too far from a single spot though.
Web VR
Web VR
• Using coding technologies (WebGL and Javascript) to display 3D content through a web browser.
• Uses two Virtual 3D cameras to create scenes for each eye.
• Interfaces with VR headsets.
• Allowing the user to navigate through content with full web page capabilities in the background.
Web VR
Web VR
Web VR
AugmentedReality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
Summary
Summary
• The future of the internet will be more immersive.
• Reality and digital information will blend together.
• There will still be a need for pages of information, but home entertainment will drive the development of more interactive 3D content.
Summary
• Designing websites may soon require people
with experience in 3D modelling and game
development.
• Designing themes for watches may be a good
way to promote a product.
• Glasses like Hololens would allow for virtual
billboards and other visual overlays using AR.
Roundtable Question
With the impending release of wearable devices and augmented reality, is traditional web design on the verge of extinction? Is responsive design the
least of our worries?
On The Edge Manchester Conference
