Play your cards right: Meet the people behind the Valentine's Day messages

Hours are spent poring over racks full of cards in the often-fruitless search for a message that perfectly encapsulates lovers’ deep-seated feelings for one another.

For some, mushy and romantic messages are a must, while cheekier sorts might want a profanity-laced number to leave their other half choking on their tea.

Dean Morris has built a reputation over the last 20 years for writing funny, wry, and often risque cards for all occasions, and some of his best-sellers are hardly awash with sentiment.

“I can’t believe I’m not sick of the sight of you yet,” reads one of his Valentine’s Day specials, while another reads “you’re so much nicer than everyone else on Tinder”.

“Some people are in relationships that aren’t sentimental,” says Dean, who owns Dean Morris Cards which is based in Wolverhampton.

He would know.

“When people see the language they use as a sign of affection in their relationship on a card they like to buy them.”

Dean has cornered a particularly fun part of the UK’s greeting cards market.

The British public spent a staggering £1.7 billion on greeting cards last year, and sent 864 million single cards, according to the UK Greeting Card Market Report.

Sales of Valentine’s Day cards alone increased 4.3 per cent in 2018 from 2017.

“When I was a kid I was always in to to buying cards,” adds Dean, 44.

“I did a degree in Fine Art at Wolverhampton University and when I left university I didn’t know what to do.

“I was working in a Paperchase at the time and thought ‘I can do this’.”

Dean always carries a notebook, or ensures he can make a note in his phone if he has an idea for a design.

“They’re full of ideas, most of them are probably rubbish that will never get used,” he laughs.

“It’s all about keeping on trend, seeing what’s popular and having ideas. This Christmas just gone our biggest selling card was one that had ‘Baby Shark Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do’ on the front for example.

“The one criticism I get is that sometimes my cards are seen as unnecessarily mean or cruel, but that is a very simplistic point of view.

“In terms of Valentine’s Day people like to laugh, and there are a lot of relationships where people can say the sort things I say in my cards as humour in their relationships.”

Not everybody wants to torment their Valentine’s date, though, and Emma Dryburgh from Shrewsbury has built a successful business on the basis of more artistic, hand-made greeting cards.

She found her niche after her daughter Izzy was tasked with potato printing as part of an art class at school, and now runs a business called Tatty Co.

“We started making cards and we stocked them in one shop in Shrewsbury town centre called Oberon,” says Emma. “It grew pretty quickly and we now have over 100 shops that sell our cards.”

When creating cards it is always the art that comes first, which is then accompanied by message.

“It’s difficult to come up with the wording, it’s not my strong point,” says Emma. “I wish I was better at playing with the words.”

Once she has a design down Emma will ask her husband Ewan for help with the message on the card – which isn’t always straightforward.

“We were sat discussing what we could use on a card with a toad on it the other night,” she chuckles.

One of Emma’s best ever sellers is a Valentine’s Day cars that reads “loved you yesterday, love you still, always have, always will”, while another card shows two owls with the message: “Owl will always love you”.

The importance of greeting cards is not lost on Emma.

“I’m delighted that people buy my cards to share a special message to a special person on sometimes monumental days,” she says.