In June I visited PG Live for the 1st time, a tradeshow dedicated to greetings cards.

There I met with Heyy cards, an independent card brand who we now have the pleasure of stocking at Chirpy.

We like to get to know our suppliers a little bit more, so here’s an interview we did with Dan & Yvette. It’s great to learn more about them & what makes their brand tick.

Tell me a little bit about yourselves & Heyyy

Heyyy is our small greeting card business run by husband and wife team Dan & Yvette Clarkson. Basically, we are both hopeless romantics! When we first met a few years ago we used to send a lot of cards to each other (we still have them all in a drawer in our office!). Somehow we fell into the habit of starting each card, each note and each text message we sent to each other with the word ‘Heyyy’, it became our little greeting. One night during lockdown we got talking about an off the wall idea to start our own card company – and so Heyyy Cards was born!

How did you get into doing what you’re doing?

Dan is a graphic designer and Yvette worked in the greeting card and stationery industry for 15 years for another publisher until the pandemic, when things changed for everyone. At a time in our lives when a lot was changing, we decided that there was no better opportunity than to try to see if we could make a business doing something that we were both passionate about.

What does a ‘normal’ day look like?

A normal day for Heyyy (if you can call it normal!) starts with us both heading off to work – we still have 9-5 day jobs! Dan works for a branding agency and Yvette works for a local charity. After arriving home in the evening and walking our dog (and office mascot) Keo, we begin our work on Heyyy! Our evenings and weekends consist of packing orders, invoicing, brainstorming new ranges, designing cards and everything in between! It’s rather hectic but at the moment we absolutely love it, and the fact that we have been able to keep our day jobs gives us the security to be able to invest in the business and grow our collections without having to worry about paying the bills at home.

Biggest achievement to date (personally or business wise)?

Being shortlisted as finalist for the Henries awards (the Oscars of the greeting card world) for our Tiny and Terrific children’s cards in our first year of trading was amazing! We were so pleased to be invited to the award ceremony and see our cards up on display.

Where can we find your cards?

Our cards are stocked in a small but steadily growing list of gorgeous independent retailers, card and gift shops, garden centres, bookstores and fashion boutiques, from as close to home as Chesterfield, to as far away as Chicago!

Favourite card you’ve designed  / most popular card design?

Dan’s favourite card is from our Type Dreams collection which simply says ‘Thanks for Being You’. It was one of the first cards we designed and is a really simple yet elegant design.

Yvette’s favourite card is probably ‘Happy Birthday Handsome’ from our new Dancing in the Rain collection. Men’s cards are so difficult to find, especially for a more contemporary fellow, and this one hits the spot for me!

Our most popular card is probably ‘Old Enough to be a Classic’ which is a letter press style birthday card featuring beautiful classic car illustrations. We loved this design from the start which was inspired by our 11 year old son’s fascination with cars, but it has even surprised us how popular it has been!

Have you seen any changing card trends over the last 12 months?

The card industry is so amazingly diverse and new ideas are constantly coming into the market. This year we have noticed a growing trend for 3D designs, scalloped edges on cards and also more quirky concepts like cards which look like book covers.

Why do you think sending cards is still so important?

Sending greeting cards is SO IMPORTANT! In a world where everything is online, immediate, and digital, it’s so lovely to still be able to send something hand-picked and tactile to a loved one in the post. Greeting cards are perhaps one of the most accessible forms of art and expression. Costing only a few pounds you can buy something unique which has the power to make the person you are sending it to smile, laugh, cry or just feel like you are thinking of them.

Best thing about running your own business?

The freedom to design things and do things our way… of course not everything is a best seller and we have learned some lessons along our journey, but that’s all part of the fun! It’s also incredibly fulfilling to have started something from nothing and to be able to watch it grow. It’s absolutely humbling and still a bit surreal to stand in a shop and see someone pick up a card that you have designed and start smiling!

Advice to someone looking to turn their hobby / talent into a business?

Sponge up as much information and advice as you possibly can before you take the leap! Speak to other small business owners, look at online forums, local business networks. Know your market, look at what’s out there, learn about your customer. In our case we spent a lot of time talking to shops about what they needed, who their end customers were, what sold well for them, how things were packaged etc. Research is key! We are lucky that the greeting card industry is a very friendly one and other publishers and retailers have been very kind in sharing information to help us along our journey.

Plans for the future?

World domination!! Only kidding. Hopefully we would like to grow slowly but surely, working on new designs and building a range that keeps us relevant to both shops and consumers. In time we would both like to do this full time… if we can both eventually make a humble living doing this, that would be the dream!

Watch this space to find out what we’ve got planned with Heyy later this year to celebrate ‘Thinking of You Week’ and why not give them a follow on INSTAGRAM