After I visited the French Paper plant (in Niles, MI if you were wondering) two years ago, I realized how powerful a cohesive brand can be. All of the collateral that French produces, from shipping cartons to “Shutter Shades”, could be recognized as part of the brand even without the logo attached.

French Paper's website was also designed by CSA.

Paper Shutter Shades anyone?

I actually got this poster during my tour; it looks awesome on my wall at home!

There’s a reason why people often refer to projects as “your baby”. Because that project is yours, it is precious, and as far as you’re concerned, it’s perfect. But, just like those parents as they watch their baby go move on to the oh-so-pleasant teen years, we must all realize that our babies have flaws.

In graphic design, this realization comes in the form of people taking your design, ripping it into pieces, and then rearranging it into a more pleasing manner. And, oh yes, I mean that literally.

Now depending on who you are, this can lead to one of four reactions:

But as anyone will tell you, it’s really nothing personal. Critique is the mean teacher to your naïve student in this movie trope metaphor we call life. It causes us to think critically, stop looking at it as our “baby”, and realize its flaws. This process should go on from start to end, from the first spark of an idea to the final steps. Here are a few things to do along the way to make sure your work is flawless:

1. Ask others about it Finding people of different backgrounds means getting unique viewpoints. For instance, if you’re building a website, a tech-impaired friend may say that the navigation isn’t intuitive, an SEO-expert might say your site is unsearchable, and a lawyer might say, “Hey that’s copyright infringement. How did you even get that?”
2. Walk away from it This is usually my favorite piece of advice (anything for a vacation, amiright?). Stepping away for a few days or even a few hours gives a new frame of mind. When you come back to it, you’ll probably spot the flaws immediately.
3. Compare it Check out what your heroes have done in the past and compare it to your project. Noticing a gap? Well there’s your problem.
4. Present it Present it to the people around you. As you present you’ll begin to notice changes that need to be made. Instruct your audience to ask as many questions as possible. If you can present it with pride and without reservation, no more changes are needed (NOTE: This never happens.)

Follow these steps and you may just end up with something that’ll make momma proud.

So yeah, sometimes critique hurts, but it’s usually that same critique that makes you and your work a little better. It’s not personal, it’s just a necessary part of the process. So don’t wuss out, talk with some people and start ripping that project to little bits until it works.

Seeing as how Valentine’s has just recently passed, I feel it’s only right to gush a little over a personal love: web fonts. So, to ease your (and my) Valentine’s Day woes I bring you a list of beautiful Google web fonts worth loving.

Ubuntu
Tall letters with a slight curve make for a friendly font. This font is so strictly sans-serif it doesn’t even bother with extra lines, instead choosing to bend the letter instead of beginning a new stroke.

Open Sans
The internet seems to love Open Sans, and it’s a love that’s well earned. This font has all the seriousness of a good sans-serif, with the gentle slopes of a serif (check out the t and the f)

Cabin
If you love Ubuntu for its curves, then maybe you’ll love Cabin for its solidity. Round o’s and vertical j’s make this font for me.

Josefin Slab
A dozen varieties and beautiful slabs aren’t the only thing that make this a great font choice. There’s also that tilted e and 90-degree t to love. This font also comes with a sans variation, but how can you deny something as elegant as a slab serif?

Arvo
Well known and loved across the world-wide-internet, this font hasn’t worn out its welcome for me. Relatively large and curvy, this font is another personal favorite.

Droid Serif
The Droid family consists of some beautiful fonts, but Droid Serif takes the cake. Tall and just-square-enough, this font has the benefit of making a great header or great body copy.

Lora
Lora is a beautiful font and great for body-copy. It’s wide, slightly wavy, and friendly. The wavy feeling gives it the perfect amount of whimsy.

Merriweather
Merriweather is another that’s commonly mentioned in web font discussion, and for good reason. This is a beautiful, thin serif that needs little explanation

Font Picker
Font Picker allows you to view a custom preview of all the fonts on your computer inside your browser window.

myFontbook
myFontbook is another in-browser font viewer. It allows you to review and catalog all of your installed fonts. Features include tagging, favorites and a glyph viewer.

WhatTheFont
WhatTheFont is a fun tool that can help you identify a font by using an image of the font or a url. If you can’t find the name of the font that way, you can post your image to the WhatTheFont Forum and get help from other font enthusiasts.

WhatFont (not to be confused with WhatTheFont)
This is my favorite tool to use when I need to know what font is being used on a webpage. The WhatFont tool gives you the font, size, line height and color and, if you feel its necessary, you can tweet it.

FontDropper 1000
Alright this one is just fun and I had to add it to this post. FontDropper 1000 is an easy way to test or design with web fonts from WebINK. You just drag the font from the palette to the text you want to replace in your browser screen.

One of my most-reached for tools is a 6 inch ruler. As a guide for making straight lines, measuring, or even helping visualize how something will look, this is almost always out on my desk.

This next item might be pretty obvious as to why I use this. Whether it’s a pen, mechanical pencil or just an old fashioned yellow wood pencil, something to write with is pretty vital to drawing and writing ideas down.

I also keep a few permanent markers around, in different sizes and colors. Helpful for revisions, drawing or putting my name on my notebook so it doesn’t get misplaced too often. But, my main tool for making revisions is my purple highlighter. It’s bright and colorful enough to make sure that I don’t miss any revisions and I can cross them out as I finish them. Plus, it’s a more interesting color than a standard yellow one.

Lastly, scissors for making mockups, cutting out images and cutting off the fuzzy edge of notebook paper (that stuff drives me crazy).

And guess what? I also have the hex colors of all the objects too. Enjoy!

Ruler: #1C75BC
Pencil: #ECCC37
Small marker: #018E8A
Marker: #231F20
Highlighter: #A34E9B
Scissors: #315F9C, #243E86