Creative Services

Procedures & Policies

Inactive Job Policy

Publications Procedures

The four areas that make up Hofstra University Publications, all housed in Butler Annex, work together to write, edit, design, print, and mail publications for faculty, administrators, and staff. We produce brochures, catalogs, fliers, booklets, ads, newsletters, invitations, posters, calendars, and business cards.

GETTING STARTED

To begin work on a publication, visit the Hofstra University Online Print Center and log in, using your Novell account user name and password. The Hofstra OPC lets you place new orders, reorder previous publications, view order status, modify unsubmitted orders, and manage previously archived files and items. A Getting Started link has all the instructions you need, though questions about using the system can be addressed to Publications at 516-463-6963.

Business cards can be requested via WebCRD. Click on Shared Archives to access the business card templates.

SERVICES AVAILABLE

Editorial Services assists our clients by either writing copy or by editing and fact-checking existing text. Our copywriter can write copy or refine existing copy; compose captions; write advertising; conduct interviews for newsletters; or pen speeches. If clients need copy written, please call Publications at 516-463-6963.

Our editors proofread first-draft copy and edit for grammar and style before design begins. Once clients decide which editing suggestions they wish to make, the copy makes its way through the system. Design work now begins with clean and edited text.

DESIGN

Once Creative Services receives the edited copy, the assistant creative director assigns a graphic designer to the job.

The graphic designer meets with or speaks to the client to determine the best way to communicate the client's message. Important considerations include size, paper, the overall tone of the design, the order of information, photography, typefaces, colors, the method of mailing, potential printing problems, and more. These should be communicated in the Online Print Center notes to make the workflow as smooth as possible.

If they choose, clients can access Extensis, the University's digital photography library, or Photos.com to suggest photos for the graphic designer to use. If using Photos.com, sign up for a free guest account, create a lightbox, and email the lightbox to your assigned artist. Simple instructions on how to create lightboxes are found on Photos.com.

While design work continues, other considerations are made. If a publication will be mailed from the Hofstra Mail Center, the graphic designer alerts the Mail Center's manager, who will communicate with the client and request a mailing list, if necessary. If the job requires an outside printer, the director of printing and publications services, obtains cost estimates and makes recommendations.

APPROVALS

The graphic designer and client will exchange a proof to reach a finished design, which the client must approve by signing a layout or by faxing or emailing approval. Editorial Services then proofs the final design and the vice president for Marketing and Communications reviews it before printing. The finished design either goes to the Print Shop or to an outside printer.

PRINTING AND COPYING

Printing and Publications Services prints or copies publications in black and white or color. (Large or specialty four-color printing orders are sent to outside printers.) The department provides cost estimates and advice for outside printing.

If the job is being printed outside, clients must contact the University's Print Shop by submitting a request using the on-line Print Center (WeBCRD). Any client whose job is being printed by an outside printer will receive a blueprint prior to printing.

MAILING

The printed publication is picked up by the client, delivered to the client by the Plant Department, or mailed from the Hofstra Mail Center. All questions about mailing can be addressed to the manager of the Mail Center at 516-463-4737.

Inactive Creative Services Jobs Policy

If an artist sends a proof to a client for feedback or approval and no response is received, the artist will email the client on the Monday following the last contact with a reminder that a response is needed.

If the client does not respond by the following Monday, the artist will send a second follow-up to the client.

If the client does not respond within a week of the second follow-up, the job will be considered inactive and placed in the inactive file in the Creative Services studio. The artist will not initiate any further follow-up with the client on an inactive job.

If the client responds at some later point regarding an inactive job, the artist will inform the client that the job is inactive and has been returned to the Creative Services queue, behind jobs currently in progress. The job will have to be reviewed once it is picked up again to ensure the content is still correct and not outdated.

If a job is inactive for two months (per a regular review of the inactive file), it will be considered abandoned, and the job will be canceled in WebCRD (and the client will receive an email notification, along with their edited text file, if applicable). To restart the job, the client must resubmit it via WebCRD.

The goal of this policy is to help prevent the artists in Creative Services from spending unnecessary time on repeated follow-ups and keep their focus on active jobs. This also helps ensure that clients who are diligent in responding receive the most expeditious creative services.