NobleWorks Inc. is an American publisher of humorous

greeting cards A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthda ...

. It publishes and sells paper greeting cards, cards with detachable magnets, lapel-button cards, gift cards, free on-line electronic greeting cards, magnetic memo pads, and note pads. The company was founded in New York, and later moved to

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; ) is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's popula ...

, and is located in Union City, in northern

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. NobleWorks develops several lines and licenses properties to other greeting card companies, publishers, and manufacturers. NobleWorks also licenses artwork from various cartoonists and designers who are based in the United States as well as in other countries.

History

NobleWorks was founded in 1980 by Christopher Noble and Jay Purvis. They started the company at the 1980 National Stationery Show in New York City. Noble was the head of a company that painted homes, while Purvis had been a

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...

art director. Noble's mother gave them a $400 loan to establish NobleWorks. In Noble's Manhattan kitchen, they created and made available to buyers the company's inaugural batch of "black-and-white

graphic art A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional graphics, i.e. produced on a flat surface, Called "The 10 Best Jokes", the cards touched on subjects like sex and

Helen Keller Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when ...

and had questions on the exterior and

punch line A punch line (also punch-line or punchline) concludes a joke; it is intended to make people Laughter, laugh. It is the third and final part of the Joke#Telling jokes, typical joke structure. It follows the introductory framing of the joke and th ...

s on the interior. Ron Kanfi, who became an employee in 1983, was made a partner in 1987. Purvis left NobleWorks in 1986, and Kanfi and Noble purchased Purvis' ownership in NobleWorks. NobleWorks started its inaugural batch of "Talk Bubbles" cards, which had talk bubbles and humorous messages placed on top of vintage images, in 1985. It had 10 employees in 1992. When independent merchants began to be displaced by malls in the 1990s, NobleWorks changed its business focus by licensing its content to other products and starting an ecommerce platform to sell the products. In addition to greeting cards, NobleWorks creates and sells calendars, posters, and magnets. NobleWorks created a less risqué "Faux Art line" that is sold by

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s. The product line took famous paintings and embedded Christmas settings into them. Christopher Noble died in 2002, after which Ron Kanfi purchased the company. Kanfi became the president and creative director of NobleWorks. A couple years following Noble's death, NobleWorks was in debt and underwent a reorganization after it filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

. It shuttered its warehouse in 2010 and moved to "on-demand printing" of its cards, which led to a higher per card expense but saved the company money since it no longer needed storage space for when it printed more cards than there was demand for.

Products

According to Evie Nagyi of ''

The Jersey Journal ''The Jersey Journal'' was a daily newspaper, published from Monday through Saturday, covering news and events throughout Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Journal'' is a sister paper to ''The Star-Ledger'' of Newark, ''The Times'' of Trenton a ...

'', "NobleWorks is dedicated to spreading joy with cutting-edge art and irreverent humor" and its " rd messages range from political to plain silly". The company had 2,000 different cards in 2006. NobleWorks' cards commemorate various occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, and

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

. It commemorates even fake holidays like

Festivus Festivus () is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the perceived pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was mad ...

which became more widely known because of the ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...

'' TV series. NobleWorks has a collection of cards inspired by

Liberace Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer and actor. He was born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish Americans, Polish origin and enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, ...

. Its cards are also inspired by

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

s like "Bad Cat", a Jim Edgar book. It signed an agreement with

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

's estate to create cards spotlighting the singer that would become available in 2008.

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

wedding cards had increasing demand in 2016. Roughly 33% of the company's products are sold around

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

. In 2005, 70% of its cards had licensed photos, while 30% had photos produced by "in-house and freelance artists". NobleWorks commissions

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

s whose work has ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', '' Penthouse'' and '' Mad'' to create designs for the greeting cards. It then sends the cartoons to several dozen wordsmiths who come up with the text. NobleWorks had ceased making cards related to airplanes, bombs, and armaments after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

and needed to attract some of their cards like one that had "a cartoon of a pilot relaxing on a beach, using a walkie-talkie to contact a plane flying overhead. It said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking....'" One popular card showed

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

on his knees at the

funeral of Pope John Paul II On 2 April 2005, at 21:37 CET (UTC+1), Pope John Paul II died at the age of 85 in his private apartment at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. His funeral, held on 8 April, was one of the largest gatherings of Christianity's faithful in his ...

who is dressed in a

crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, '' Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red col ...

grown. Bush, who exudes perplexity, inquires, "What happened to Santa?" Another card depicted a wife who is in bed is retrieving an object from her nightstand, saying, "How dare he falls sound asleep on Valentine's Day. I'll just set his side of the electric blanket on roast!" The card received a Louie Award which ''

The Central New Jersey Home News The ''Central New Jersey Home News Tribune'' is a daily newspaper serving Middlesex County, New Jersey. The paper has an average daily weekday circulation of about 49,000. The newspaper is the result of the 1995 merger of ''The Home News'' of Ea ...

'' called "the greeting card industry's equivalent of an Oscar". NobleWorks had received four Louies by 1992. NobleWorks enlisted seven cartoonists to produce content for it in 1992, including the quadriplegic John Callahan. A Callahan card depicted a scene in the desert of three men who are riding horses and find an unoccupied

wheelchair A wheelchair is a mobilized form of chair using two or more wheels, a footrest, and an armrest usually cushioned. It is used when walking is difficult or impossible to do due to illnesses, injury, disabilities, or age-related health conditio ...

. A man says, "Don't worry, he won't get far on foot." NobleWorks created funny cards for interfaith families including one displaying two highway exits: the first has the label "Jews Who Buy Christmas Trees" and the second has the label "Christians Who Think Hanukkah Is a Major Holiday". A 2007 article noted that every year, the company ceases producing 500 of its card designs while at the same time making available 500 original designs. In the mid-2000s, the cards could be purchased at

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

Papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...

, and

Hot Topic Hot Topic, Inc. is an American fast-fashion company specializing in counterculture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music. The stores are aimed towards an audience interested in rock music and video gaming, and most of the ...

locations and on NobleWorks' website where buyers are permitted to personalize the cards. In 2016, the company had 7,000 designs and was producing between 700 and 900 original card designs per year.

Controversies

Writing in ''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' was the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. It is based in Newark, New Jersey. The newspaper ceased print publication on February 2, 2025, but continues to publish a digital edition. In 2007, ''The Star-Ledger''s ...

'', Greg Saitz said NobleWorks' cards have mocked "most ethnic, religious and alternative lifestyle groups, as well as some other species". The company has received numerous complaints about its cards for being offensive. The Catholic League advocacy group penned an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

criticizing NobleWorks for being "arguably the worst offender" in designing

greeting card A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthday ...

s that depict

in a profane context. NobleWorks framed the letter. Robert E. Ritchie, the executive director of the Catholic group America Needs Fatima, also criticized NobleWorks' religious cards, writing "Among other distasteful and scandalous offerings, NobleWorks has a Mother's Day card showing Jesus walking out of the house and Holy Mary warning him to wear clean undergarments in case He is crucified". In 2013,

Council on American-Islamic Relations A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nation ...

's Ahmed Rehab wrote that he found a NobleWorks greeting card in a Chicago store that featured a hijab-wearing doll and the captions "Hope your birthday is a blow out!", "She’ll Love You To Death” and "Pull string for message — if you dare!" The card, which was first released in 2011, parodies "Aamina, the Muslim Doll", which helps children learn how to say "Peace be unto you” and “If God wills it" in Arabic. Mic's Andrea Ayres-Deets criticized NobleWorks, writing, "It is interesting that the card depicts a white child holding the doll while simultaneously giving the impression that the doll is a suicide bomber. This all just furthers the false perception that white people are the primary victims of terrorism or suicide bombings."

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control 1980 establishments in New Jersey Companies based in Hudson County, New Jersey Greeting cards Union City, New Jersey