There were no broad noses crinkled in laughter. No muscular mocha arms holding newborns close. No giggling girls running through a field of daisies as their plaits flop in the breeze.

Robin McNeil, 38, of Loganville wanted everything to be perfect for her husband's first Father's Day — especially the card.

Vino Wong/AJC (ENLARGE)

Robin McNeil is expanding a greeting-card business niche by offering African-American cards featuring her images of black children and families.

Vino Wong/AJC/ (ENLARGE)

In her cards, Robin McNeil said, 'People see we are more alike than we are different.'

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"I knew what I wanted to see — an African-American man being a dad, but I didn't see any African-Americans at all," she said. "I didn't see pencil art, I didn't see graphics. That's when I thought, 'This is ridiculous.' I refused to buy anything else."

So that Father's Day in 2003, McNeil, a photographer, decided to leave the cards at the supermarket and make a card of her own. She flipped through her collection of photographs for an image that seemed just right — a black dad walking hand-in-hand with his daughter.

She attached the picture to cardstock paper and printed a personal Father's Day card.

It was the first in a collection the stay-at-home Loganville mother of two would soon design. Her greeting cards, Reflections of Us, now sell in stores in the Atlanta area, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and online at www.reflectionsofus.net.

"You may ask yourself, what's the big deal about greeting cards — it's a sense of ethnic pride," she said. "It is so important to see positive, beautiful, heartfelt images of people who look like you. Our children play in fields of flowers pulling classic red wagons. Our men walk in parks with their children at dusk. Our women bask in a moment of tranquility.''

While the greeting-card industry is a billion-dollar business, cards targeting African-Americans — though produced for nearly 50 years — can still be hard to come by in some neighborhoods.

"You tend to see the cards in African-American demographic locations," said Paul Palmer, director of ethnic marketing for American Greetings of Cleveland. "We try to encourage more retailers to get on board.

"It's a slow process."

American Greetings, one of the nation's top card sellers, has two lines targeting black consumers: its Black History Month collection, which features cards with images of civil rights leaders, sports and entertainment icons, and the "In Rhythm" line, which features cards for all occasions.

Metro Atlanta is one of the top five markets for Hallmark's Mahogany brand, which features nearly 1,000 cards. Still, the line hasn't hit every card store or grocery gift-wrap aisle.

"Hallmark has over half of the market in total card sales,'' said Deidre Parkes, spokesperson for Hallmark of Kansas City, Mo. "It is up to the individual retailer to decide what they carry ... based on who's shopping in their stores."

Mainstream cards with drawings or photos of animals, landscapes or people with white faces saturate the market.

That's why McNeil says there is a demand for cards like the collection she sells, which generated $10,000 over two years. Her greeting cards come with original color or black-and-white photos that appear to be matted. They can be framed as is.

The beauty of the images stopped Clara Jackson in her tracks one day when she was at Atlantic Station. "Her cards just moved me," Jackson said. "It was not that cheap little cartoony stuff you sometimes see in stores."

Jackson found a friendship card and sent it to her girlfriend. It thanked her for being there despite Jackson's "issues." Jackson returned to McNeil's stand to purchase a box of Christmas cards.

McNeil says she has black cards for all occasions — including an apology card for the grumpiness that comes with dieting and one for the broken-hearted: "Girl, it's time to get over him and live, love and be happy!"

Most come with Bible verses, or universal symbols like a peace sign.

As a very small business, McNeil caters to her clients. She is willing to change the word dad in her cards to "pops" for those who request it. And if her customers want a theme she doesn't carry, McNeil goes back to work photographing her children Jessica, 5, and Kennedy, 3, or other family members. She returns with the cards her customers want to see on the shelves.

"Not only black people buy them, a lot of other people buy them too," McNeil said. "People see we are more alike than we are different. It crosses the cultural barriers."