Graphic Design and Print Production

The design studio team, located within Biola’s Office of University Marketing, is responsible for designing print and digital materials that serve the university’s marketing and communications needs. The team produces roughly 700 projects each year on behalf of partners across campus — helping to reach external and internal audiences with visually compelling, on-brand materials.

Services

Biola’s design studio has expertise in creating solutions for a wide range of design needs. Whatever your objective — promoting a program, hosting an event, raising funds or anything else — we’re here to help you capture attention and call audiences to action.

• Print Pieces and Publications — When it comes to print, we do it all: viewbooks, brochures, flyers, posters, postcards, notecards, magazines, annual reports, letters, envelopes, invitations, event programs, fundraising booklets, and more.
• Digital Graphics — We serve all kinds of digital needs, including social media graphics and GIFs, customized website banners, event calendar images, email headers, customized presentations, slides for on-campus TV screens and more.
• Environmental Design — We can help with design needs that go beyond printed pages and digital screens. We help to brand events and environments through projects such as vinyl banners, signage, wayfinding, pop-up displays, tablecloths, wall art, vehicle wraps, billboards and more.
• Promotional Giveaways and Swag — When you want to make an impression, sometimes it helps to give your audiences something to hold onto. We regularly produce customized water bottles, pens, T-shirts, stickers, tote bags, notecards, enamel pins and many other types of giveaways.
• Branding and Logos — The design studio is entrusted with stewarding the visual identity of Biola University and its individual schools and units. With the launch of new centers, offices and initiatives, we develop branding guidelines to ensure a cohesive, compelling look and feel.

See Portfolio

Timelines

Wherever possible, the design studio requests six weeks of production time for job requests, from inception to delivery. Because the team is responsible for roughly 700 design jobs per year across the university, this timeframe allows us to plan, prioritize and meet everyone’s needs and deadlines with excellence. It also gives us ample time to obtain cost estimates and coordinate the production and delivery with our vendors and partners.

Of course, unanticipated needs often arise that require more immediate action. In these situations, we’re typically able to accommodate design requests within two to three weeks of a needed deadline. In certain cases — particularly with simple digital-only designs or minor edits to existing designs — we can accommodate urgent requests within a few days.

That said, the feasibility of these projects is determined by the complexity of the project and the quantity of other deadline-driven projects in our queue, so we highly encourage our partners across campus to plan as far ahead as possible.

Rates

In most cases, the design studio’s services are provided at no charge to departments.

Design Process

The design process is a series of steps that build on each other. Here’s what you can expect for a typical project:

1. Initial Consultation
   Design projects begin with an initial discussion with your Account Executive (AE) or Enrollment Marketing (EM) representative, who will consult with you on the needs, timeline, budget and strategic goals of your project. From there, the AE or EM representative will initiate an official job request with the design studio. For certain projects, a follow-up conversation may be scheduled with the designer who will be assigned to your project. If you don’t know who your representative is, please start by requesting a consultation.
2. Design
   After your project is initiated and given a job number, a designer will create a first “board” (or draft). The length of this stage will depend on the specific needs of your project and the quantity of other projects in our workflow.
3. Review and Approval
   Once the designer completes a first board, your AE or EM representative will send it to you for review. At this stage, we’ll ask you to provide any text edits and design feedback. Ideally, any substantial edits or questions should be noted in this first round, allowing subsequent rounds to be reserved primarily for fine-tuning and minor changes. Our aim is to partner with you to successfully complete your project in three boards or less — which will save you time and money, but will also help us to best serve the needs of the university-wide community.
4. Cost Approval
   For projects that require physical printing or production (as opposed to digital-only projects), we will provide you with a cost estimate from one or more of our trusted vendors. At this point, we'll work you to get your cost approval and arrange for payment to the vendor.
5. Delivery
   Once you provide both design approval and cost approval to us, you’re all set! For digital-only projects, we’ll deliver the final files directly to you. For printed projects, we’ll send the files to the selected vendor for printing and production. We’ll notify you when it’s delivered.