Did anyone else find this the most absurd part of the whole movie?
Writing one sentence greeting card slogans for a living?
Could there be any more clunky of a metaphor for a guy who wears a heart on a sleeve?
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He very well may have written longer cards too and we just didn't see it.
I would have thought he'd have more responsibilities than that. I've never worked in that type of place but I assume he'd have to choose the design or layout as well. Probably would have to do research and background checks to make sure it's not already being used or they're not infringing on copyright.
But I think the job parallels the relationship with Summer perfectly. The job is not challenging and it's a nice pleasant thing that pays the bills - but it's not what he wants to do. Just like Summer's relationship with Tom is nice and comfortable - but she's not happy. The two are both choosing comfort over happiness, and picking the safe option rather than putting themselves out there. This is reflected in the character development: Summer breaks it off with Tom and eventually falls in love and marries someone who does make her happy, despite her speech about how she doesn't believe in love. Tom meanwhile quits his job and pursues his dream of becoming an architect.
Have you never heard of Hallmark? You know, that $4 billion company...
This actually exists in real life.
I know someone who does freelance graphic design for a greeting card company and it is most definitely not a 9-5 job. They work from home, and it is purely contractual. Sometimes they get royalties if they have an original character in a series. The designers work for various companies, not just greeting cards. A company like Hallmark could contract a graphic design company to commission various cards under a certain category (birthday, best wishes, etc). They don't usually have complete creative control, as the company will be explicit about themes, size, etc.
A card that is humorous could have several different people working on the layout, the message, the graphics, etc. And each component could be outsourced to various parts of the world. A lot of the messages, if the card has one, is stock and the greeting card company could have a copyright on them. There arent enough combinations of greeting card messages in existence to give someone a 9 to 5 workload writing messages all day, unfortunately. Greeting cards are just not as expressive or artistic as this movie makes it out to be.