Discover the changing colour palettes of Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is just around the corner so we thought we'd have a look at Cupid's annual visit from a design perspective. To kick off, Brandisty has sifted through a century of Hallmark Valentine's Day card and put together a collection of palettes for each decade, and it's a fascinating study.

While the message has remained broadly the same over the years, the colour palette has evolved greatly. Red, of course, has broadly remained a constant – except for some reason in the crazy 1970s – but it's amazing to see just how all over the place the rest of the palette has been.

The varying colours themselves are really interesting, but we've also enjoyed seeing how the overall tone of the cards has changed over the years. Those 1920s cards were hilariously dark and disturbing.

After years of quite dark Valentine cards, in the 1950s things became brighter and more light-hearted

After years of quite dark Valentine cards, in the 1950s things became brighter and more light-hearted

The 1960s palette manages to be both very dark and yet incredibly vibrant, just like the decade itself

The 1960s palette manages to be both very dark and yet incredibly vibrant, just like the decade itself

The 1990s! Grunge! Kurt! The 1990s palette is understandably muted and withdrawn

The 1990s! Grunge! Kurt! The 1990s palette is understandably muted and withdrawn

And here we are in the 2010s; that's more like it

And here we are in the 2010s; that's more like it

You can see the full collection of palettes over at the Brandisty blog, and if you like what you see you can download each one as an .ASE swatch, ready for importing into Adobe Creative Suite.

Liked this? Read these!

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.