Advancement

INTRODUCTION

The Office of College Communications welcomes inquiries about various types of publication projects from all College departments and programs. From brochures and postcards to posters and recruitment materials, we can help you create your product. We will help you determine if your project can be produced in-house or requires outside vendors (designer and/or commercial printer).

We recommend you designate one person in your department as our contact person when working on a publication. This will help to ensure your project progresses in an orderly and timely manner.

All publications targeted to an external audience (prospective students, parents, the community), must be submitted to College Communications for review. We will check for clarity and length of message, grammar and spelling, quality of graphics and images and consistency in the use of the College’s style.

If your publication is being designed in-house, either through Jason Kattenhorn in Graphics, or someone on your staff, you must still submit it for review.

Only College Communications may contact external, commercial vendors to design and/or print your publication.

PLANNING YOUR PROJECT

Prior to beginning your project, for both print and online communications, you should contact College Communications at extensions 2002 or 2686 to set up a meeting. Our office will discuss your marketing objectives, project and publication needs, schedules, and the production process.

Before meeting with us, consider the 6 common questions writers ask before writing: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

FOR PUBLICATION COPY

Who is my target audience?

What is the message I am trying to convey? Are there additional key points needed?

Where do I go/sign up to find more information?

When do I need to respond by?

Why do I need this product/service?

How will I get it? How does the audience respond?

SET-UP OF PIECE

Who will write the copy? Who will provide photos/design, other elements to include?

Who is the person responsible for accuracy of the information contained within publication?

What format is best to get message across? (Poster, flyer, brochure, booklet, letter)

What size should the piece be?

What is the budget?

Where is the finished piece delivered? (My department/outside mailhouse?)

When do I need the finished piece delivered?

How many do I order?

How will the target audience receive it? (self-mailer mailed from the College or a mailhouse? Will it mail in an envelope? Will other pieces go with it? Will it mail 1 st or 3 rd class?

PRODUCTION SCHEDULES

The production process can take anywhere from several weeks to many months, depending on the complexity of your project.

Sample timelines include:

• brochure/booklet: 6-8 weeks
• invitation/program: 8-10 weeks (depending on event and mailing schedules)
• bulletin/view book; reprints: 10-12 weeks; new design: 8-12 months
• poster: 6-8 weeks

While these are a guide, we can help produce in-house projects more quickly.

PREPARING COPY

If you are providing copy, you will need to forward final, approved copy via e-mail or on disk to College Communications. Your copy should be submitted as a MS Word document. Your copy will be edited by College Communications for Iona College style, grammar and accuracy. Depending on the extent of edits, your copy may be returned to you to make the corrections, to ensure accuracy. The final, edited copy is then returned to College Communications via disk or e-mail. College Communications will mark the edited copy with common proofreaders’ marks.

While preparing your MS Word document, you should:

• separate major sections of your document with two line breaks;
• separate paragraphs in major sections with a single line break;
• check all dates, times and information for accuracy; and
• spellcheck thoroughly.

PROOFS

Once your final, edited text is submitted, College Communications will act as project manager and forward all information to a designer . College Communications will forward a mock-up or proof of the design and text to you for review. Please ensure to read ALL text (headlines, photo captions, dates/times, etc.) and make all comments and changes on this proof and return to College Communications. The process continues until the publication proof is final and ready for printing.

Once your publication is printed, we will contact you to finalize delivery instructions.

MAIL

We are not responsible for postage or coordinating the mailing of your project. We do not oversee any mailings, nor do we deal with mail houses, other than ensuring that our printers deliver your materials to the mail house of your choice, when necessary.

 

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