Founded in 2014, the family-run business offers fresh and creative pop up cards and prints from their innovative design studio in Surrey. The team of three; sisters Dipa Shah (Founder & Designer), Kripa Shah (Founder & Senior Designer) and Kripa’s husband David Falkner (Founder & Trade Director) – combine their engineering and design backgrounds with an eye for fine detail to produce amazing 3D pop-up greetings cards and art prints with the wow factor.

Their showstopping, painstakingly handcrafted cards are a true labour of love. Using complicated paper-engineering techniques (Kirigami and Sliceform) to create 3D models, the particularly intricate cards open up 180 degrees to reveal a hidden surprise inside, much to the delight of their lucky recipient.

“We wanted to create amazing 3D cards that were perfect for the UK consumer, after first discovering this style of card during our travels around Asia. We were bursting with ideas of how we could transform this artform and create wonderful cards that our customers would feel proud to gift their loved ones. Lucky for us our engineering and computing backgrounds meant we were able to start designing our own cards that we knew the British public would love! We take inspiration from the latest and emerging trends in British culture to create unique cards that will leave a lasting impression (Dipa)”

Starting from humble beginnings, all three founders packed in their day jobs to start up their family venture in 2014 and used a small spare box room at their parent’s home to run their operations.

“We all moved back in with mum and dad (much to mum’s despair) and ran our business from a small box room and a bit of space in the garage (courtesy of dad!). It was a tough initially as we were all living and working together in a small confined space. But the journey has been incredible and to see how far we have progressed is something we are all really proud of (Kripa)”

Fast forward to now, Cardology are proud to have designed work for a range of household names clients including Sotheby’s, the National Gallery, the House of Commons and Transport Scotland.

They regularly feature in influential magazines and national publications such as the Sunday Times, Stylist magazine, Evening Standard and even made their TV debut on ITV This Morning for their Valentine’s Day segment with Ruth and Eamonn.

Most recently, the team have entered into an exciting partnership with Warner Bros, to bring much loved characters such as Harry Potter, Batman, and Wonder Woman to full pop-up life. The team are also to be working with country lifestyle brand ‘Joules’ to offer some fabulous rural cards as a fitting tribute to Cardology’s very first customer base.

Cardology’s magical take on the traditional card market has also built them a strong celebrity following, but the team prefer to keep the exact details of who’s buying to themselves:

“Of course it’s amazing to know some of the people who’ve received our cards and there have been several times where we’ve acted cool, before making excited, squealing, phone calls home. One of our favourites was when we were nonchalantly commissioned to produce a particularly special card for someone with a personal audience at a rather well-known house at the end of The Mall. However, as with everything we send, the most important thing is the reaction these cards then get, and what better endorsement than to have someone who could choose anything, opting to gift your work on to someone they love (David)”