Publication Planning

Need a new publication or to revise an existing one? Or maybe you need a little guidance staying in brand? Let's work together to identify your publication needs and goals.

Whether you need to create a booklet, brochure or custom publication, we're here to help guide you through the planning and production process.

Need Assistance?

Submit a project request and we'll reach out to schedule a meeting. Please download and review the planning checklist before your meeting.

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Download Checklist

Production process

Generally, each publication will go through these main steps.

After you submit your project request, a meeting will be scheduled to discuss your needs and help clarify ideas about what content and design are best suited for your goals and audiences.

When you come to this meeting, please bring a completed publication planning check-list. A production schedule will be prepared after the planning session based on information gathered during the meeting.

Information gathering, fact-checking and writing

Writing may be done by your staff or ours. If we do the writing, your help is still needed to define the proper tone, gather background information, and choose suitable people to interview.

If your office writes the text, please fact-check every detail for accuracy. Refer to the online Style Guide for the proper punctuation, capitalization and other mechanics of style that should be followed in all university publications. Then send us the final text, preferably in Microsoft Word.

Copy editing and proofreading

All copy (text) is reviewed by our staff editor for consistency, accuracy, and conformation to college style. Minor rewriting or reorganizing may be done to improve the clarity and readability of the material, but no extensive changes will be made without your knowledge. All publications this office produces must conform to the university's style guidelines. At each stage of production, our office will check proofs for text and design errors. The final responsibility for accuracy, however, rests with your office.

You will be asked to review, provide edits, and approve the copy-edited manuscript. Please examine the copy in detail for errors and be sure you are happy with the content and "tone" of the piece. This is the last time changes are relatively easy to make.

If the content must be approved by several people, those approvals should be in place before the copy is returned to the communications department. Work will not begin on a client's publication design until the final copy is in hand.

Our staff designers will begin working on the layout, placing images and creating visuals that follow the S&T brand strategy. They will consider your suggestions and preferences along with the publication's practical demands and our general design guidelines, which give a unified appearance to all Missouri S&T publications. Once the layout has been finished, they will share a design proof with you for approval. Our publications are designed and laid out using InDesign software.

The design/layout approval is the second opportunity you will have to examine and approve your publication during the production process. You will be able to review and provide corrections to up to three design proofs/revisions of the publication. Once our publications team receives the project revisions, a revised proof will be given back to the client for another review and approval.

After the final approval, it is not possible to make changes except in an emergency and will result in additional costs. Please examine this proof carefully.

The final document and a print work authorization form will be prepared and sent to print. Depending on the project type, a printer proof will be sent back to the communications office approximately one week after the file was sent to print, depending on staffing and workload of print services.

Our office will review the printer proof for any print errors and will then share with you for a final review. Any changes requested that aren't in the error of the printer will result in additional costs.

Based on the project type, the finished publication will be either delivered to you or mailed to a provided mailing list.

Deadlines

Because we work on many publications simultaneously, meeting approval deadlines is important. A day's delay in approval can throw a tight production schedule as much as one week behind. Any changes consume staff time, which may delay your publication. Also, the cost of making changes and the chance of delivery being delayed by changes increase substantially as production progresses, so make changes early.