Selection of components is a major task in any project, with previous project exectuion using arduino and huge number of LED's, I used simple shift registers and ULN2003 - The software complexity increased many folds and I used to run into out-of-memory errors.

 With LED's the brightness when one LED is "ON" and when the whole row is "ON" should be the same.

Hence time I chose MAX7219 as it takes care of the LED matrix, Brightness, refresh rate etc.

Why RED LED Matrix ? RED is the color of love and Danger !

Why DIP components ? Its easily available in India - in low quantities!

Perfboard setup ? Yup !

Which/what Switch is used to trigger ? Physical or Capacitive or Kiss .....  Still working this out !

Message - How is the user's message get into the system? While Programming .. Bluetooth .. Sterio cable .. Still working this out