Creative Services

Before you submit the appropriate request form to work with the marketing communications creative services team, know the budget that you may allocate to this project. Depending on the scope of your project, charges may include printing, postage and, when appropriate, freelance fees.

To ensure your project is completed in a timely manner you must plan ahead. Projects are deadline driven and we manage a large volume of work. Even the least complex projects can take up to four weeks to complete when design, proofs, printing and delivery are factored into the process. Depending on the type of project, you should contact the creative team between two weeks and two months before you need your publication delivered. See the production schedule below for general guidance and typical timeframes.

Any department interested in having a piece designed can complete the online Project Request Form. After submitting a request, the project manager will contact you within two working days to discuss the details and to schedule a consultation meeting if one is necessary.

You will also be provided with a rough deadline for final, approved text to be submitted to the creative services team. Following the initial meeting, the creative services team will develop and propose a creative brief that outlines art direction and a detailed production schedule that includes time for text editing, design, proofing and printing. The project manager will share this document with the client for approval. No work will commence until the creative brief is approved.

When writing copy, we ask that you adhere to the University’s Style Guide, the Associated Press Stylebook and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. The text should be submitted as a single Word file with little or no formatting.

• Submit only approved and finalized text for design. This is necessary to avoid delays in the design proofing process.
• Text should be single-spaced and formatting other than paragraph and/or section breaks is unnecessary.
• Use one space after a period.
• Use upper and lower case, not all caps.
• Include text for all materials needed (headers, captions, sponsors, web and social media addresses, contact information, return addresses, reply card text, etc.).
• If you are revising or making only minor edits to an existing publication, please mark the edits on a hard copy and forward it to University Communications via campus mail or a scanned version via email. If major edits are required, submit a Word document with the new text highlighted.

The production timelines shared above assume final, approved text is submitted to the creative services team on the requested due date, prompt review and proofreading by the client when notified, and final approval in one or two days. A longer approval time will add to the production timeline. That time cannot be made up by the designer or printer.

Please know that additional time may be needed to complete projects depending on the current department workload and other external factors (i.e. paper shortages, supply chain issues, etc.) Conversely, the creative services team may be able to accommodate requests with shorter production times, so please don’t hesitate to reach out for a consultation.

The proofing process is meant to illustrate what your project will look like when it’s printed based on the creative brief. During this process, you will check for factual, typographical or visual errors, rather than making major text revisions or requesting new design concepts. To eliminate substantial rewrites, please finalize copy and have all necessary approvals before submitting files to University Communications.

The production schedule allows for up to three proofs; please check each version carefully and entirely, making only the necessary corrections. Proofing can be done via PDF file and/or hard copy. Each client is responsible for the accuracy of any copy supplied to the creative services staff for a project.

Please make every effort to return the proofs to us as indicated in your production schedule and provide an “OK to print” on your publication before it is printed.

When the creative services team has received your sign-off/final approval on a proof, the designer will prepare the design files and send them to print, including Print Services. Changes at this stage are costly to both budget and schedule. If you are using Print Services and sending the file yourself, please consult with us about the appropriate paper for the project.

For projects that will be mailed, you will need to supply the mailing list in an Excel spreadsheet with only the fields required for the mail panel or variable data fields. The list needs to be supplied to the creative services team a week before your files need to go to the printer.

Delivery will be made per your instructions, typically either to your office or the University Communications office for pickup. Large volume orders (more than 2,500) will automatically go to the warehouse, unless you specify otherwise. When indicating a delivery date for your project, please remember the time required for addressing and mailing.