A Look into Our Die-Cut State Postcards

 
We’re big fans of snail mail—shocking news coming from a stationery brand, we know. And one of our favorite ways to send some mail is with our very own die-cut postcards. We have a wide range of options; various animals, outdoorsy motifs, regional locations, you name it! We’re especially proud to announce we have officially (and finally) designed and printed all 50 states as die-cut postcards! Read on to learn more about the creation process behind our state postcard collection. 

 
It all began with our Greetings from Montana Postcard. This was the first state postcard we’d ever designed, intended to be used as a fun inclusion in our show mailer for the National Stationery Show in 2015. The following year, Noteworthy had a few more state postcards in tow.

 
As we progressed, the order in which we designed each state was determined by vendors in various states sending us requests to make postcards for them to sell in their shops. But states aren’t the only postcard request. We’ve now expanded into making postcards for national parks and for other regional areas, like specific cities and islands. 

For each state postcard, our wholesale designer Adrienne researches the physical outline of the state, as well as various state symbols and any significant geographic markers to add to the postcard. Every postcard also gets the state name hand lettered by Adrienne, as opposed to using a computer font! When the design is completed and then approved by our wholesale department’s creative director & Noteworthy co-owner Taylor Valliant, it’s time to move on to the printing process.

Printed on our Original Heidelberg presses, our state postcards are one-color letterpress printed and, fun fact, each state gets its own unique ink color! Some states will be similar, but each state’s color is chosen based on various factors, whether it’s the state’s flag, nature, or even a sports team’s colors. Scenic postcards will usually end up with a two or three-color print job. We print anywhere from 300 to 600 postcards per run, and we usually end up doing 1,000+ postcards per run for our very own state of Montana! 

After the postcards are printed, they are then die-cut on another one of the presses. Each die creates the state shape, making it easy to then punch the postcard out of its outline afterward. 

Coming into 2024, we only had a few state postcards left to make! The final three: Hawaii, Kansas, and Mississippi. Adrienne whipped out the remaining designs, and before we knew it, our state die-cut postcard collection was complete.  

So, what now? Well, Adrienne plans to go back over state postcards with older designs and give them a facelift to match the rest of the collection. And we’ll continue to expand the regional and scenic postcard collections as well. 

You can take a look at the whole postcard collection, including all 50 states, right here! What should we add next?