The black list

It was my first real designer job, everyone has been there, where you have to be so agreeable that all you do is make bad products all day.  This was the point in my life where I hadn't had the confidence enough yet to say "no" nor the skill set to make beautiful things on a regular basis.

I did identity and web work most of the day.   My boss at the time had a love affair with a font, a font so magical that it had to be tried on every piece of work that came across my art board.  That magical font my friends is Copperplate, but not just normal Copperplate, it had to be Copperplate Gothic Bold.  Every single thing I would present would be met with "humm...I dont know, have you tried it in Copperplate Gothic Bold?!?" to which I would boil over with rage and cave to the request and be met with praise.  

That is where the loathe of this font started.  Its not bad on its own, but every single time I see that typeface in the world (which is at least 2x a day, mostly on lawyer signage) I cringe inside.

I started to learn to say "no" shortly after that and have been perfecting the technique for years now.

When I started my Creative Director position I remember a junior designer made the mistake of sending me a logo in, you guessed it, Copperplate Gothic Bold.  In a frenzy, I made it a point to make a black list of all things that I found it unacceptable to use in ANY designs that they present.

Its rather short now but I do add to it often:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Agzunoquz4KvdEVyaC10NWhyWUg1SkxHQlBDaEFDb2c&usp=sharing

Bottom line, it is always good have an opinion and know when to say "no."