Art and a garage. A cottage-industry is born.
That’s how this humble little company got its start. At age 57, Ardys Allport might have been an unlikely mother to a brand new company, but she had passion and a vision to spread art. In 1982, in true cottage-industry fashion, Ardys cleared out her garage in northern California and launched Allport Editions, a fine art poster company aimed at making art accessible.
Sophisticated. And Funny? A happy accident occurs.
After several years of successful poster publishing, blank note cards were added to the Allport line. At the last minute, Ardys’ son Michael threw a few humor greeting cards into the mix, almost as an afterthought. Little did he know the combination of art and humor would take Allport to the top.
Artful and Sharp. Intelligent and Funny.
Greeting cards have since become the success of the Allport story. Allport Editions makes cards that are artful and cards that are funny, and sometimes cards that are both at the same time. We are the distinct combination of unexpectedly corresponding ingredients picked up along our 30-year journey. Art and intelligence, beauty plus wit - that makes us who we are today.
Are you an artist? Go to our Join Us! page to submit artwork.
Mackenzie Jeans
Sensei in the Dojo of Cards.
Mackenzie hails from Reno, NV but also lived in New Orleans before returning to family and Portland. She has owned Allport Editions since 2013, after managing the company for 10 years.
What's your fave animal? I love hedgehogs. They're so sweet and adorable, but also are a little bit feisty - they've been known to scream into the nothingness for no apparent reason. (Sometimes I feel a kinship to that.)
Jared Pletz
Digital Wizard, Accounts Receivable.
Jared is 100% Oregonian, but as a USSF soccer referee has travelled all over Oregon, as well as to Arizona and Hawaii for games.
What's your fave animal? The beaver is my favorite animal because it’s the mascot of my alma mater, Oregon State University. Go Beavs!
Amy Chan
Art Appreciator, Graphics & Marketing.
Amy is 100% Oregonian! She hails from Hermiston, OR and has lived in Portland for ten years now. On her last vacation Amy went bear-watching in Alaska.
What's your fave animal? My favorite animal is the badger. I did a report on them in elementary school and learned how vicious they are, despite their short stature. Badgers also represent my Harry Potter house, Hufflepuff!
Robin Tasch
Woman of many talents, Sales.
Robin is an international world traveler and displaced New Yorker who has visited all 50 states and has lived in at least 8 (NY, MA, ME, FL, CA, NV, AZ and OR.)
What's your fave animal? I've always been partial to koalas. Fuzzy loners from the land down under, these sleepy, leaf-eating marsupials have always fascinated me. Did I mention they have opposable digits? What's cooler than that?
Teri Briggs
Merchandising Magician, Helping Hands.
Teri is originally from sunny Southern California and lived in several different places in CA before settling with her two daughters in Oregon.
What's your fave animal? My favorite animals are dogs because they love you no matter what!
Leland Bolger
Warehouse Wizard.
Leland was born and raised in a small town on the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale called Plantation, FL. He also lived in Austin and San Antonio, TX before landing in Portland, OR.
What's your fave animal? The Wolf. Whether it be their legendary howl or ability to adapt to nearly any habitat, wolves are fascinating creatures.
Marian Snowden
Printing Pro, Production Assistant.
Marian is from Moscow, Idaho and she now lives in Corbett, Oregon. Both are forested and beautiful. She is pictured here with her daughter, Sylee.
What's your fave animal? I love all sea creatures but particularly dolphins. I have always loved the water, I used to swim competitively when I was a kid, and I would love to someday swim with dolphins!
Jessica Harris
Production Assistant Extraordinaire.
Originally from California, Jessie has been living in Portland for 12 years. When not packaging lovely Allport cards, she works as a pastry chef — keeping us all in cookies! Like the rest of the Allport team, Jessie loves games - her favorite is Cribbage and she is a fierce competitor in her annual family tournaments.What's your fave animal?
My favorite animal is the raccoon because they always look like they'd be up for a good cuddle!
Todd Getty
Man of all trades.
Todd is a life-long Portlander, so he's used to dealing with rain. He keeps our roof from leaking and our walls from falling down. Plus, he can fix just about anything, so we find plenty of things to break, just to test him.
What's your fave animal? Zebras, hands down. They have the best paint job of the whole animal kingdom AND they have a "Z" in their name.
Erin Norris
Erin grew up in the great state of Maine before attending the University of Oklahoma, and eventually making her way to the beautiful Pacific Northwest and Portland, OR. She hopes to eventually visit all the national parks - currently at six and counting.
What's your fave animal?
While I love sloths (who doesn't love an animal that hangs around all day), I'd have to agree with Teri that dogs are the absolute best.
Michael Allport
Big Cheese.
Michael was born in Cleveland, OH but has lived most of his life in California, Maine, and Oregon (as well as four countries!) Allport Editions was Michael’s mother’s dream so we keep him around for advice and support.
What's your fave animal? Bobcats because they are cool and elusive feline hunters.
Megan Lucas
Customer Service Human.
Born in the Midwest, but raised in Oregon, Megan has also lived briefly in Colorado and Hawaii. She doesn't miss the former, but she does miss the island sun and sea. She would love to visit Asia or Europe next.
What's your fave animal? Much of my childhood was spent in the countryside, so I really like deer. They're beautiful, strong (they can be aggressive if they want), have amazing endurance, are the only animals to have antlers, and they've been around since man lived in caves - there are recorded artwork of them on cave walls!
And now for the rest of the story...
In 1982 Ardys Allport published a poster of some very large stones. The poster she published was a supplement to an art show she was having at her gallery in San Francisco. The artist she was exhibiting was renowned realist Alan Magee, whose paintings, even at that time, were out of the price range of most. Ardys firmly believed in educating people about fine art and making museum quality art accessible and affordable to all. She published the poster so that anyone who walked into the gallery could walk away with something elegant and inspirational to exhibit in their own home. The poster cost around $20. The original paintings were more like $5000.
The poster design was remarkably advanced for its time, complementing both the work of the artist and the subtlety of its graphic design. It was both dynamic and sophisticated. Powerful and soft. Not wanting to overextend herself, Ardys printed just a few of the stones posters, happily sold a dozen or so during the show, and tucked the rest away at the gallery. Life went on.
Strangely, a few weeks later she received an interesting phone call. Someone who had seen one of the few posters she had sold at the show was calling to ask if they could purchase 3000 of them to distribute to stores across the country. The correct answer seemed to be "Yes!" So that’s what she said. Then she cleaned out her little garage, ordered 5000 more posters, and Allport Editions was born.
The Allport line quickly grew from that one poster to over 30, providing gallery artists with a small but sustainable stream of income, which is often hard to come by in the fine art industry. Soon blank note cards were added to the mix, primarily featuring Maine and Bay Area artists, and then greeted cards and specialty cards. Each of these lines made its impact in the marketplace and each success propelled the burgeoning little company into uncharted territory.
Happy accident led to happy accident, posters led to greeting cards, greeting cards led to humor cards, and humor cards led to holiday cards. Within 10 years, Allport Editions became known as a world-class publisher of Christmas cards, and that is where they hit their stride. In the course of their journey Allport outgrew the tiny garage (and most of the living room, too!) They moved twice; once to a large storage unit in Novato, CA, and finally to hip and environmentally savvy Portland, OR in 1989. For 20 years Portland has been a most hospitable host to Allport Editions, a company that prides itself on local and conscientious manufacturing practices.
Over thirty years later, Allport Editions has evolved into a leading publisher that sells artful and intelligent social expression products nationwide and beyond. We have not lost sight of our initial business values. We are still a family-run company that continues to publish cards featuring the smart and beautiful hand-rendered artworkof artists across the country. We value environmentally sustainable and resourceful practices in our production process - making maximum use of minimal resources.
We print creatively to use entire paper sheets (reducing scrap) and we recycle 100% of production wastes. Our cards are printed with veggie-based inks on papers made from sustainable-harvest pulp and a minimum of 30% PCW, and are processed chlorine free. We give back to the community by donating a portion of our holiday card sales to local and national children’s charities. We support our products with customer service that treats each person with respect and accommodation – just like our family.
To those of you who have supported us over the many years, we send our heartfelt thanks. We wouldn’t be here without you. Thank you.