Ornament Spotlight: Fan Favorites

Making fan favorites happen
It’s a process, and our art directors are right in the middle of it all.

Did you ever wonder what goes into making all those Disney ornaments? Or Peanuts®, Star Wars™ or-any licensed character? We asked our Keepsake art directors, Kurt Gaulke and Charles Young, to walk you through the whole process.

Grogu’s Jetpack Adventure
Star Wars: The Mandalorian™

“Our planning teams start by looking at what’s trending, and then we brainstorm what stories our ornaments will tell. It can get really complicated because we’re working a couple years ahead and we might not know the latest story for a movie or character. Sometimes we can get a nugget of info and, luckily, we’re all fans ourselves, so we’re really tuned in to the pop culture scene.

“Then it’s time for our artists to create visuals that we can share with licensors. Once they give us the green light, we look at a ton of references for characters, poses, etc., so we know we’re going to get it right. That’s really all a preprocess that happens before ornament creation begins.

“When it comes to creating, we work closely with our artists, and we check in often to make sure things are looking good along the way. We have great partners inside Hallmark who serve as liaisons with the licensors. They work back and forth, giving us feedback and then taking revisions to licensors until we get final approvals.

“We know if the licensors are happy with how things look, our customers will be, too. And that’s what’s most important to us.”