News-Record.com

To most people, two trash bins at the edge of a parking lot have nothing to do with expressing love.

Not Robert Jeffers.

A lyricist at heart, he sees it as a way to convey emotion for another, despite the person's flaws.

"If you wanna know why I'm so good at putting up with your garbage, it's because I've learned by watching you constantly put up with mine."

That greeting card - a picture of trash bins on the front, sentiment on the inside - is one of many messages Jeffers has crafted for his company, Lyrics Personals.

Jeffers, 31 , designs cards to reach younger, edgier and more urban markets that major greeting card companies often overlook or stereotype. Not America's Partridge and Huxtable families, but the James and Florida Evanses, Kat Von Ds and Tony Hawks.

"These are people who buy greeting cards, too. They fall in love, they fall out of love, they miss people, they meet somebody that they feel like they can't live without," he said.

"You have a lot of cultures that aren't represented in the greeting card industry. They have to go buy what they can find."

Patrick Ronan is familiar with that problem. Ronan, 20, is only one or two tattoos short of having ink for every year he's been alive.

"In my world, there are black people, Asian people, tattooed people, skateboarders, Goth," said Ronan, who recently answered one of Jeffers' ads looking for tattooed models.

"If I'm going to get somebody a card, I'd like to get them something that resembles where they're coming from or their way of life," he said. "I'd be pretty stoked if I got a greeting card from someone with somebody on it who had tattoos rather than a card with someone who I don't really have anything in common."

Jeffers' quest to find pictures, scenes and people that will tug on memories and heartstrings of his niche market takes him across Greensboro.

"You're not going to see a picture of the projects on a Hallmark or American Greetings card," Jeffers said.

But you will find them on his cards, with lyrics like this: "We may not live in a mansion, or a house, or a condo. Quite frankly we live in the 'hood. But it's okay. As long as you're next to me I'll love it here. Because your love makes this 'hood a home. Happy Birthday."

Jeffers named his greeting card line Lyrics Personals as a tribute to his days in the music business in New York. Even though he had some success - even writing songs for groups produced by rapper Big Daddy Kane - he grew tired of a business he saw as corrupt.

Five years ago, he packed up and came to North Carolina. When he's not writing tearjerkers, Jeffers works as a teacher's assistant at Northern Guilford Middle.

Lyrics Personals cards, which retail for $2.50 each, are sold in seven shops in Greensboro. He expects that number to expand to 10 to 15 locations by the summer.

The cards resonate with customers, store managers said, for their realness.

"The photography doesn't look staged. A lot of the cards at Hallmark are written by professionals, and the photography looks staged. His cards have a down-home feel to them, like anybody could have shot the photo," said Jackie White , manager and buyer at African American Art. "And the wording that is used is not always the King's English. People like that."

Contact Lanita Withers at 373-7071 or lanita.withers@news-record.com