By Maddie Orton
Arts Correspondent
Ron Kanfi doesn’t care if you call Mother’s Day a Hallmark holiday. He knows how meaningful a card can be. Comparing the creation of e-cards to the advent of silk flowers, he said: “The live rose…it is what it is. You cannot substitute that with a silk rose. I don’t envy that guy that tries.”
Kanfi worked his way up from painting lines onto greeting cards in the early ’80s at 2 cents a pop. He’s now the president and creative director of NobleWorks, Inc., that same greeting card company, based out of Union City. They used to produce primarily what Kanfi calls “pretty cards” until he faced a major life change.
“We got into humor mainly because I got MS,” he explained.
While Kanfi was struggling with his multiple sclerosis diagnosis, a friend turned him on to cartoonist John Callahan — a quadriplegic and recovering alcoholic with an unflinchingly dark sense of humor. Note his cartoon in which cowboys hunt for a man in the desert and find an empty wheelchair. “Don’t worry,” one says to the others. “He won’t get far on foot.”
“If you can find some humor in it, you’ll survive it,” said Kanfi.
He licensed some of Callahan’s images and built up the brand from there. Of course, not everyone shares Kanfi’s sense of humor, and he accounts for that.
“We have a diverse line that runs the spectrum of ‘Oh my God’ to ‘How cute!'” he said.
Artwork is constantly submitted by outside creatives, solicited by the company and developed in-house. Sometimes designs come with their own jokes, and sometimes Kanfi pairs images with his own.
“When I read a cartoon or look at an image, my mind is running all the different occasions that it could potentially work for,” Kanfi explained.
The result? Over 7,000 different designs in the NobleWorks humor line. The company prints cards as needed, so it can still sell wholesale to stores, but can also do online retail direct to the consumer. That all means NobleWorks can easily continue to add to its offerings — usually 700 to 900 new cards a year.
“Do you ever have moments where you think, ‘Every joke about Mother’s Day has already been made?'” I asked. “Every day,” Kanfi said smiling. “Every day.”
Staying current helps. LGBTQ wedding cards are a growing market, and the election provides fodder for all sorts of jokes. Kanfi says his MS symptoms have greatly improved since his diagnosis, but he says working in humor remains powerful.
“It’s the most fun thing we can do, right, is laugh,” he said.
Mother’s Day is no doubt a big event for the industry, but next weekend is even bigger. It’s the annual LOUIE Awards celebrating excellence in greeting card design.