Case Study
Education Report
MARCH 2011 —Education is a top priority for the current administration, so policymakers in this arena are bombarded with recommendations and reports of varying quality. The Brown Center at Brookings needed its deeply researched reports to stand out in this very crowded field. The design and layout of the report needed to support the Brown Center's status as a genuine thought leader in education policy, and add this extra layer of credibility to an already excellent product.
For years, the Brown center worked with a large PR firm to have these reports designed and produced, and this ensured a very high-quality report design. With the economic downturn, the Brown Center was looking for ways to cut costs, and they contacted MillerCox Design.
As always, MillerCox submitted a simple written agreement outlining design fees, printing costs, deliverables and deadlines, working backward from the established deadline of early March. After reviewing samples of our publication design and being convinced that we could recreate the design intact, The Brown Center partnered with MillerCox to take on the production of this publication .
We spent our lead time, prior to receiving the final text, rebuilding the document structure and paragraph styles in the latest version of Adobe InDesign. Type rules and measures were studied and recreated to the pixel, so the visual consistency of the report held firm. Mock-ups were presented for review and approval and we were prepared for the quick turnarounds requested for layout, once the final text was provided by the authors.
As text began to trickle in, MillerCox and Brookings communicated on the phone and through Basecamp, a project management web application. This kept all of the report sections and revision cycles easy to locate and manage. As each section was designed, it was posted as a PDF file at Basecamp. Once these were downloaded and printed, a marked-up PDF was scanned, and posted so it was easy for us to accurately execute client-requested changes, and this kept us on schedule and on budget.
In the meantime, MillerCox requested competitive printing bids from trusted print vendors. We sent paper mockups on the proposed paper (100# Finch opaque vellum text) so that the client could feel the weight and texture and make an informed decision. In this instance, we specified a slightly heavier paper to facilitate perfect binding. Brookings chose to use the same printer that was used last year, as they still offered the best value, and Brookings worked directly with the print vendor for this service. Finally, we provided the report as web-friendly PDF.
The printed reports delivered on time and the client wrote that she was happy with the process, the final design, and the printed result.
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