French Paper Co. Promotional Art Prints by CSA Design

Here at Hero we are big fans of French Paper and have used it on MANY different occasions. We've even been featured on their French Paper Sample Room website. French, on top of having brilliantly colored and uniquely textured papers to choose from, their paper sample books are always beautiful pieces of art in themselves.

Minneapolis firm CSA Design, who I am personally a big fan of, creates all of the marketing materials for French Paper and the back story on their relationship is truly a fabulous story. I know it looks long, but do yourself a favor and read it, it's worth it.

The collaboration between Charles S. Anderson and French Paper Co. started in the mid '80s when Jerry French was in Minneapolis selling his paper to designers, he was showing swatches to designers at an agency, when a kid practically out of college walks up and says "This stuff looks terrible". French asked if the kid had ever used the paper and the kid got up and walked away.

The kid came back with a sample of something he had produced on French Paper and it blew French away. "His work was just incredible," French says. "He loved our stock and wanted more of it, but he thought the way we'd designed the sales materials was awful. Then he said , ' Why dont we do a job together?'

Long story short, that designer was Charles Anderson, and he and Jerry French worked out a deal that day: Anderson's then agency needed a promotional brochure and French needed a well-designed promotional tool, so French suppied the paper and Anderson designed the brochure. From that point on, Jerry French was a firm believer in design and Chuck Anderson was his guy. That was the beginning of a nearly quarter-century long relationship.

(some of the details of that story were taken from 'Til Death Do They Part by Tom Zeit, How Magazine December 2007 Issue)


The whole point of this post is that CSA Design recently created these beautiful new art prints as part of a new 2-color series, to promote the French Paper Co. These are 19″ x 24″ offsets, and mostly will be given away free at upcoming paper and design shows. Some will supposedly be offered online for sale down the line as well. How beautiful are these?