Hey, Dude, Happy Father's Day

By LYNETTE CLEMETSON

WORKING her way through Father's Day cards at a Target store in Silver Spring, Md., Kelley Osmond was uninspired. There were plenty of options for her daughters to give their grandfathers: cute cards with animals and XOXOXO signature lines. But finding one for her husband, Chris, a computer software trainer with a taste for fashionable clothes and golf, was tougher.

She needed something witty but not silly. Loving, not sappy. And not too many words. "I like short and simple," said Mrs. Osmond, 33, the mother of three girls under 4. "The long stuff he doesn't really read."

Mrs. Osmond's 20-minute search for just the right card was a brushstroke in an evolving portrait of fatherhood. Like fashion, music and other cultural touchstones, greeting cards are a barometer of social change, those who analyze them maintain.

In the 1930's greeting cards came in muted colors, reflecting the mood of the Great Depression. In the 60's cards went Day-Glo and featured mod text. And in 2005 Father's Day cards are designed to match our new image of who Dad is and what he wants.

Research shows that today's father does not like his sentiments delivered in the form of endless rhyming lines tucked behind brown duck decoys in dark-paneled dens, the staid masculine standby of previous generations. He is accustomed to the brief, frank style of e-mail and well acquainted with the color and design of electronic gear and modern home furnishings.

And so card makers are referring to GQ magazine, celebrity poker, self-help books and international home décor exhibitions, among other up-to-date topics, to meet customer demand.

American Greetings, the world's second largest greeting card company (after Hallmark), has a new line for "today's sophisticated dads." Promotional materials promise cards that "speak to men who are connected with the Internet, whose tastes include electronic sports cars and home fitness equipment; who appreciate brands like Louis Vuitton and Tommy Hilfiger." Hallmark promotes cards with "more direct, more personal, more 'real life' ways of expressing thanks, appreciation and love."

With colors like rich butterscotch, celery green and steel blue (nabbed from fashion trends), the American Greetings cards are easy to spot. "For all the times I should have said it, but didn't," reads one, "Thanks Dad." Some are cut like short-sleeve men's shirts. A retro-looking green and black bowling shirt opens down the button line to display the succinct message, "Hope your Father's Day has happiness to spare."

"We've done focus groups and, people say, 'Just say what we would say,' " said Gale Thomson, the creative director for Father's Day at American Greetings. "We don't want sappy, mushy, a lot of copy."

Father's Day is the fifth largest card-giving day of the year, after Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter. The National Retail Federation, estimates that Americans will spend $743 million on Father's Day cards this year.

And they often bear a weightier role than those for Mother's Day. Cards for Mom tend to reinforce routinely voiced feelings said Gilda Carle, a New York psychotherapist and relationship expert who has studied card giving. But because dads tend to avoid expressions of sentiment, she said, "the right Father's Day card is often a conduit for communication, a way to open up a line of discussion."

Tiffany Capone, 32, a hairstylist from Olney, Md., easily found a "best friend and lover" card for her husband. But she said: "My dad is hard. It's easier for me to express my feelings for him in a card, but every year I look and look and look until I find the perfect one."

At American Greetings, some 50 creative team members - writers, designers, editors, marketing executives - began 13 months ago to create cards to appeal to people like Mrs. Capone.

Hallmark sends its writers out across the country to talk to consumers about greeting cards. "What you hear when you're out there is that these little pieces of folded paper actually become heirlooms to people," said Molly Wigand, a Hallmark writer, who just returned from Chicago, where she met with consumers at four coffee shops and a library over three days.

Not all companies have the resources or inclination to track trends. "We make cards that we think are funny and cool," said Chip Owen, the executive vice president of Avanti Press, a 75-person Detroit company that markets brash photography-driven cards. "We do not make cards based on focus groups." A typical one for Father's Day reads "Well Done Dad," on the front and opens up to a man going up in flames as he barbecues a burger.

Sometimes even the most detailed research falls short. Mrs. Osmond was excited at first when she spotted one of the new American Greetings "sophisticated dad" cards in a cool hunter green with a golf bag on the front. Then she opened it and read, "This year, Dad, have a Father's Day par excellence."

She put it back on the shelf with a wrinkle of her nose. "I like simple," she said, "but I want a little more than that." Back at American Greetings the team is already in motion, trying to forecast what Mrs. Osmond, and her husband, will want next year.