Love & Valentine

Valentine's Day has a genuinely strange history. A Roman festival, a martyred saint or two, some medieval poetry that first linked mid-February to birds choosing mates, and then several centuries of greeting card companies refining the whole thing into its current shape.

The visual language settled early and hasn't moved. A red heart, which looks nothing like the organ. A rose, specifically red, specifically singular. An arrow, held by a small winged child with questionable judgement. Everyone on earth reads these instantly.

What's nice about the modern version is how far it's drifted from just romance. Friends exchange cards. Parents get them from children. The pink-and-red palette now signals affection generally, which is a much more useful thing to have shorthand for.

This collection leans into all of it - hearts in several styles, roses, ribbons, letters and glass, in the pinks and reds the day demands.

Good for February, good for anyone whose desktop aesthetic is permanently soft. Pick one and make your pointer a bit fonder.