BIG YEAR'S IN THE CARDS INDUSTRY COUNTING ON PEOPLE'S NEED TO CONNECT TO FAMILY, FRIENDS.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - The greeting card industry, from giants like Hallmark and American Greetings to local manufacturers, has stepped up production of patriotic and conventional holiday season cards, reasoning that people want to connect more in stressful times.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Van Nuys-based greeting card manufacturer Colors By Design responded to demands from retailers and quickly put into production a line of patriotic cards in time for Christmas.

``It's a response to people's emotions,'' said Gary Raskin, president of Colors By Design. ``After the 11th, we started getting requests. We rushed ahead and created some very nice ones and they are selling quite nicely.''

Nationally, card sales jumped an average of 4 percent in the weeks after the attacks. But the anthrax scare, which involves anthrax-tainted letters sent to New York and Washington, D.C., has some manufacturers wondering how sales might be affected in the coming months.

``I have not seen anthrax affect our business at this point but I can speculate that people might be more hesitant to open up letters,'' Raskin said.

``Since greeting cards are in envelopes, you don't know what the impact might be on consumers. I also worry that perhaps, depending on what happens with the postal system, the timeliness of delivering mail might be impacted.''

So far, the greeting card industry is largely rejecting the idea of producing a special line of holiday postcards to relieve any apprehension people may have about opening envelopes.

``Postcards are so different from greeting cards,'' said Marianne McDermott, executive vice president of the Greeting Card Association in Washington. ``I understand that it is worrying people but if the senders put their name and address clearly on the envelope, the recipient will clearly know who it is from.''

Christmas cards alone brought in about $2.6 billion in sales last season, with an additional $20 million or so in holiday cards for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Ramadan, according to McDermott. She believes that not even the anthrax scare or tough economic times are going to derail a strong season for card sales.

``People send more cards than ever during stressful times,'' she said. ``They want to communicate and stay in touch even more.''

Hallmark Cards Inc. and American Greetings Corp. have extensive new lines of patriotic cards not only for the holidays, but for any time.

``We have noticed a surge in interest in the more traditional cards, the cards that express care and concern, versus humorous cards,'' said American Greetings spokeswoman Laurie Henrichsen.

The new line from Cleveland, Ohio-based American Greetings, the second-largest U.S. card maker, express sentiments ranging from patriotism and love of freedom to prayers for comfort and guidance to expressions of courage and optimism.

Ten percent of all sales from this line of 38 new cards will be donated to American Red Cross disaster relief efforts in a multiyear campaign that will continue in the future with other patriotic-themed cards and merchandise, Henrichsen said.

Colors By Design is donating proceeds from its patriotic card line to the New York Firefighters Fund, Raskin said. Those cards include a Christmas tree ornament resembling the American flag and cards with holiday candles and doves accented by the flag.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Hallmark, the nation's top greeting card manufacturer, began selling six new cards that reflected the events of Sept. 11 and some of their new Christmas cards will be clearly patriotic.

``We are quite some time away from the sending of Christmas cards but we are confident that cards will remain a way for people to communicate with each other,'' said Hallmark spokeswoman Rachel Bolton. ``Consumers have told us that they intend to celebrate with the traditions that they hold dear and exchanging cards remains one of those.''

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Gary Raskin shows some of the patriotic greeting cards his company, Colors By Design of Van Nuys, has produced for the holiday season in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

(2 -- 4 -- color) no caption (Greeting cards)

David Sprague/Staff Photographer