Layout and Graphic Design: The College at Brockport

Resources:

It is important to maintain a strong, consistent visual presence for the College and to create an integrated look and feel to Brockport publications, Web and other visual media.

Prescribing standards for all uses of school colors, fonts and the official university seal—and thus influencing everything from campus signs to digital media—creates a visual identity that unites the College community. This visual identity gives our institution a familiar and welcoming public presence, immediately recognizable to the many populations we serve, while enabling Brockport academic departments, offices and other units to communicate their unique identities within the overall College at Brockport identity.

The College at Brockport visual identity is comprised of the College logo, official colors and how to use them. The names, logos, colors and seals in this guide are the only ones that may be used for communications in print or electronic form and on other materials. View the Brand Standards Guide (PDF format).

Protecting our brand with trademarks and licensing

A trademark and licensing program exists to protect the College identity and image when used on clothing and promotional materials purchased from off-campus manufacturers. This may include, but is not limited to, T-shirts, caps, pens, jackets, sportswear and many other items intended for resale. It is important that the College have control over how our graphics and logos are used by external agencies. Before purchasing or authorizing the production of any items that may include College logos, marks or photographic images, please check with Donna Napier in the Office of Procurement and Payment Services (x5139), and/or Richard Black in the Office of Design & Production (x5162). A list of approved vendors that have permission to reproduce College marks on a wide variety of products is available. It is important to remember that these approved vendors have demonstrated the quality of their goods and services, and that a royalty has been paid to the Division of Advancement for each product produced. This revenue supports student aid and scholarships. For more information, visit http://www.brockport.edu/pps/policies/single.html..

Print Projects — Small to Large

Small projects

Small projects are typically those that are standard, repeat orders such as letterhead and envelopes, forms, fact sheet reprints and business cards. An online ordering system is currently available for business cards. Online ordering of letterhead and envelopes is online, but still has to be logged in with College Communications using a Pre-login Form. Submit the form to College Communications, located in Allen Administration Building, third floor.

Please gather the necessary information on the Pre-login Form before submitting to us, including:

Old job number (used for last update of materials), if applicable
Sample of the old job, if applicable
Billing account number
Due date (subject to approval by College Communications)
Quantity
Contact information - name, phone, e-mail
Edits to the job, if any (may need to send them electronically)

Intermediate-level projects

These projects will probably involve some work by our writers and possibly our photographer and graphic artists. Such projects also typically entail a small print order fewer than 2,500 copies. Examples of intermediate-level projects include programs for events, posters, and small flyers. An intermediate-level project may involve some discussions with College Communications (marketing and design) before it can be officially logged in and committed to the production schedule. You can help us meet your desired delivery date by:

alerting us as early as possible about projects; and
meeting initially with us to discuss the project

Any project that will be printed on the press in Printing Services requires a six-week lead-time once the copy has been approved (depending on the number of jobs ahead of it). Remember, except for business cards, we do not print fewer than 750 copies by offset printing methods. The number is too small to justify the pre-press work and associated cost. We will suggest other alternatives, such as the Copy Center.

Jobs that cost $2,500 - $9,999 are bid through Procurement and Payment Services; please allow an additional two weeks.
Jobs that cost more than $10,000 must be bid through the Office of Procurement and Payment Services with notification in the NYS Contract Reporter (this can add 6-8 weeks to your project).

Major projects

These projects typically involve several weeks of work on the part of writers, graphic artists, photographers, typesetters and the Printing Services or off-campus printing service. You’ll know yours is a major project if it meets one or more of the following criteria:

May cost more than $10,000 and therefore must be bid through the Office of Procurement and Payment Services with notification in the NYS Contract Reporter.
Requires review and/or approval by several levels of the College administration.
Involves multiple individuals’ or offices’ or a committee’s cooperation/input.
Must be produced off campus in part or for the entire job. This includes multipage publications of high quantity 10,000+ copies; long-run four-color (CMYK) printing, for example. (Many short-run four-color jobs can be printed digitally in the Copy Center.)
Is being created from scratch, because new publications require research, writing, editing, copy approval, layout/design, typesetting, photography and printing.
Has a restricting delivery mechanism such as use of a mailing house or need for mailing list creation/label production.
Has a long shelf life—in other words, is not meant to be disposable.
Has as its audience any external constituents (e.g., prospective students, alumni).

How long will it take to complete my project?

Several factors affect the time required to complete a project. College Communications may process as many as 1,200 individual projects annually. At any time, a minimum of 40 to 50 projects are at some point in the production process. There are numerous reasons why the time required to do two identical jobs may vary, for example, availability of resources such as staff, equipment and supplies. Generally speaking, the more complex a job, the longer it will require. For example, a relatively complex job would be reprinting a publication that requires considerable changes.

To help you meet your deadline, early notification of the project, early start, and prompt response by you in approving the intermediate steps are critical.

When a job is ready to log in, you will be asked to supply your desired delivery date. Desired is the key word, because deadlines are also affected by the complexity of the job and the current production schedule (jobs already in progress). If for some reason it is not possible to meet your requested deadline, we will suggest alternatives that may enable you to meet your deadline. A typical production schedule for a printed publication is outlined below:

Client meets with the creative team (writer/editor, designer) to discuss the manuscript, and ideas for illustrations, graphics and photos. It is often a good idea to include the representative of Printing Services at this first meeting.
Client submits document as both an unformatted electronic file and printed copy for editing or Marketing Communications writes a first draft.
Editor edits copy, and returns manuscript to author for approval or client reviews new copy and discusses any changes with writer.
Final copy is submitted to client.
Designer begins developing design concepts with client and Marketing Communications.
Client marks changes on (manuscript) copy and returns approved copy to editor.
Editor makes final alterations to the copy and forwards to Director of Marketing Communications for final sign-off.
Final text document is turned over to the designer. Illustrations, graphics and photos are selected and/or created as new artwork.
Designer completes first proof (preliminary layouts and roughs may have been developed while the manuscript was still in the editing stage) and gives it to Marketing Communications and client. Client makes corrections, if any are necessary, to proof and returns it to Marketing Communications.
Editor reviews client changes and returns revised proof to designer. Designer makes changes and gives final proof to client for approval.
Client approves final proof.
Director of Marketing Communications approves final proof.
Document is sent to printer or service bureau.
Proofs and/or color match prints are returned from printer for final review and client approval. In the case of multiple- or full-color publications, color proofs are reviewed by Design & Production and adjustments or color corrections are made as needed.
Approved proofs are returned to printer for final production and finishing (bindery). As the client, we want you to be part of the creative process of your project, and to be happy with the outcome. We invite your input at the time you receive your first proof. Graphic design is time consuming and intensive. Major departures from the design after concept approval are best avoided, since they will result in significant delays in the project timeline.

E-mail

If you’re working with Microsoft Word text files (without embedded graphics), you can easily attach them to your e-mail message to Design & Production or Marketing Communications. Photographs and other graphics usually can be sent as attachments as well.

Last Updated 2/22/11