Wilson and Barnes: greeting success via clever cards with universal appeal.

Wilson and Barnes: Greeting success via clever cards with universal appeal Gaining the stamp of approval for their three-year-old greeting card company, Wayne Wilson and Taylor Barnes are posting higher sales while proving that black-oriented cards can have universal appeal.

L'Image Graphics, which the two co-founded in Culver City, sold $50,000 worth of greeting cards its first year and $1000,000 the following year. And "We're doubling it again this year," Barnes says. It's the most successful minority owned greeting card company in the country.

Wilson and Barnes launched their venture to end what they perceived as a major shortcoming in the greeting card industry.: a lack of quality and selection for the black consumer.

One problem with traditional black greeting cards was a reliance on photographs - rather than illustrations - and outdated and overly realistic images.

Not so with L'Image. "What we do is fantasy images,"Barnes says, noting that mermaids, fairies and other not-real beings grace their cards. "We take a lot of creative license."

The main problem they saw with traditional black greeting cards, though, was a mentality that "as long as you had black people in a photograph, black people were going to buy it," Wilson says"The black companies targeted just the black consumers. It's almost like they wereputting up a sign that said 'Blacks buy here.' They alienated black buyers as well asother groups."

That's a mistake Wilson and Barnes carefully avoided.

Indeed, it's possible to pick up L'Image greeting card and not think it wastargeting a particular ethic group. Although the highly stylized drawings are primarilyof black people, other groups are represented too.

"That's exactly why the company is doing so well," Barnes says. "People become entranced and charmed by the images. The art is universal - it doesn't alienate anyone."

It's a point of pride with Wilson and Barnes that the buyership is ethnically balanced. Blacks make up half their customers and whites about 30 percent, with the re mainder divided among Hispanics, Asians and others.

"We've dubbed ourselves 'The Cosby Show' of the ethnic greeting card companies'" Barmnes says. 'Our theory is that if you do something well enough, it will appeal to all people."

L'Image have five lines of greeting card to suit a gamut of occasions like birhtday, anniversaries, sympathy and new arrivals. One line, L'Amour, expresses feelings on romance and personal relationships while another, L'Astrology, has the sign of the zodiac. L'Image also has a line of Christmas cards.

The cards, which retail for $1 to $1.50 each,, are sold in more than 1,000 outlets in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and England

In the beginning, actor Sidney Poitier and Motown's Berry Gordy were among the fledlings's financial backers. Wilson and Barnes have bought out their interests and are now the sole owners.

  Barnes, 31, has a bacherlor's degree in fine arts from UC Santa Barbara.   She
 did
most of the design work in the early days and now serves as art director.    Her
 collection

of original oil paintings is featured in the L'Amour series.

Wilson, 33, has a bachelor's degree in sociology from UC Santa Barbara.

(The two, who live together, met during college eight years ago.) Besides serving as L`lmage's president, Wilson is also editorial director and writes the verse for most ofthe cards.

"He has a particular talent for it," Barnes says admiringly. "He can sum up an emotion honestly in three lines."

PHOTO : Wilson (left) and Barnes