FAQs / Creative Design & Layout

This is our most common engagement model, and one of our favorite ways to work. Many clients have talented in-house designers or marketing teams who handle strategy, brand direction, and digital assets, but need a production-savvy partner for the print-specific side: prepress, file prep, adherence to brand guidelines, and working directly with press operations. We step in as an extension of your team rather than a replacement for it. We speak your creative team's language, apply your brand standards without needing to be corrected, and turn around production files with the speed and accuracy that keeps your team focused on what they do best.

We offer a full range of creative and production design services: brand identity development (logo, color system, typography, brand guidelines), marketing collateral design (brochures, flyers, sell sheets, postcards, catalogs, presentations), large format and signage design (banners, trade show displays, vehicle wrap layouts, environmental graphics), direct mail design (postcards, self-mailers, letter packages), digital asset adaptation (resizing and reformatting print files for web, social, and email), and file cleanup and prepress production. If you have a design need not listed, ask us. Our capabilities are broad and our team enjoys a challenge.

Yes, this is our preferred starting point for most engagements. Share your brand and style guidelines, or identity kit at the outset and we'll design within those parameters from day one. We work fluently with established color systems (PMS, CMYK, HEX), approved typefaces, logo usage rules, and layout conventions. If your guidelines are undocumented, we can work from a collection of provided recent samples and flag any ambiguities before production begins. Strong brand consistency is something we care about as much as you do.

The more context you share upfront, the smoother and faster the project goes. Helpful inputs include your brand guidelines or existing samples, final piece dimensions and specs, copy (or instruction for us to provide copywriting), images or logos to incorporate, design references you like or want to avoid, your target audience, how the piece will be distributed, your deadline, and your budget range. Don’t worry if you don’t have everything neatly organized, your Account Executive will ask the right questions. Clarity at the start of a project is a significant contributor to a successful design outcome.

Yes, subject to our designers’ availability. Rush projects needed within two or three business days may carry a fee that reflects the priority scheduling required. For the best results on any design project, we recommend building in at least two to three business days for design, one round of revisions, and proof approval before production begins. If you have recurring design needs with predictable volumes, a standing arrangement with your Account Executive helps ensure capacity is available when you need it. We'd rather plan for your peaks than scramble through them.

Final print-ready files are yours upon payment. We don't hold files or charge transfer fees. While we are not responsible for the safekeeping of your working files, we do our best to retain them in our project archive, making them available to you upon request. For files originally designed by a third party that we've modified, ownership follows your original agreement with that designer. File ownership matters, and we believe in being straightforward about it from the start of every engagement.

We offer brand identity services with a practical, production-first perspective: logo design and refinement, color palette development (with print-accurate CMYK, PMS, and screen RGB values), typography selection and pairing, and brand standards documentation. We build identities that work from the start across the full range of print applications you'll need. We also extend existing identities across new applications such as vehicle wraps, trade show displays, signage systems, and full marketing collateral suites. A brand that's built for production is a brand that stays consistent in the real world.

Yes, and brand refinement is often the more strategic, cost-effective path. Common refinement projects include: cleaning up and vectorizing a logo that exists only in low-resolution formats; standardizing colors that have drifted across years of inconsistent application; developing a more cohesive collateral system from an existing identity; or creating a secondary logo lockup that works better at small sizes or in single-color applications. We'll assess your current assets and recommend a scope to improve consistency without starting from scratch. Sometimes the right answer is evolution, not revolution.

Yes, we design logos that work as well on a business card as they do on a vehicle wrap or a trade show display. Our process encompasses a discovery and design brief conversation, an initial concept round presenting two to three directions, refinement of the selected direction through one to two revision rounds, and final delivery in all required formats (vector AI and EPS, print-ready PDF, web-ready PNG and SVG, and reversed or single-color variants). Logo design is quoted per project based on scope.

Brand guidelines document how your brand looks across every application, including logo, colors, typography, imagery, tone. Without guidelines, brand drift is inevitable when more than one person is producing materials on your behalf. By establishing a brand guidelines document, every vendor, and every internal staff member work from the same foundation. GISI Marketing Group can develop a brand guide at any level of depth, from a single-page reference sheet covering logo usage, colors, and fonts, to a comprehensive brand book with photography guidelines, messaging frameworks, and application examples. The right scope depends on your organization and how widely your brand is applied.

Yes, this is one of the most valuable contributions a trusted production partner can provide. We can develop and maintain a master set of print-ready templates and approved artwork files for your most common collateral types, establishing a standard for every vendor to reference. We can also audit materials produced by other vendors against your brand standards and provide corrected files before they go to press. For organizations with large vendor networks or franchise systems, this kind of brand governance prevents the inconsistency that erodes brand equity over time.

Our design team works in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. Specifically, we utilize InDesign for multi-page layout, Illustrator for vector artwork and logo work, and Photoshop for image retouching and compositing. We use Acrobat Pro for PDF preflight and review. Files produced in these applications are the industry standard and compatible with any professional print workflow. If you supply files from other applications, we'll assess compatibility. Some alternative file types convert cleanly, yet others need to be rebuilt in Adobe for reliable print output. We'll always tell you which situation you're in before we start work.

Yes, and we often do. A brochure redesigned as an email attachment, a postcard reformatted as a social ad, a trade show banner that converted to a website header. We produce both, adapting layout and file specifications appropriately for each medium. Print and digital versions aren't simply the same file at a different size. Color mode, resolution, typography rendering, bleed, and interactive elements all differ. We produce each version natively in the correct specification for its intended medium. Consistent brand expression across channels is something we care about deeply.

Yes. Multi-page catalog, book, magazine, and report layout is a core capability of our design team. We work with InDesign's long-document tools, including master pages, paragraph and character styles, automatic page numbering, table of contents generation, and data merge for variable content. For very long documents (100-plus pages), we manage in sections and coordinate with your content or editorial team on versioning. Share your content, image assets, and any existing layout reference and we'll build a production-ready document that's built to be updated.

Yes, we offer copywriting, copyediting and proofreading as part of our design process. Proofreading is intended to catch obvious errors, inconsistent capitalization, and formatting issues as we lay out the piece. For copywriting or content strategy, we utilize trusted writing partners. Clear, well-written copy submitted before design commences consistently produces a better result, faster. If you're still developing your messaging, that's worth investing in before the design process starts.

Depending on the complexity of the project, we include one or two rounds of revisions following the initial draft presentation. A revision round is a consolidated set of changes submitted in a single pass. We ask that you gather all stakeholder feedback before submitting each round. Additional revisions beyond the original scope of work are billed at our hourly rate. The most efficient revision processes happen when stakeholders are aligned on direction, copy, and content before design begins. We'll always tell you when we think something needs more alignment before we start to save everyone time.

Yes, this is a common approach to starting a new design project. Some of our most successful projects started with a napkin sketch, a rough PowerPoint layout, or a description of what the piece needs to accomplish. What we need most is clear intent: the purpose of the piece, the intended audience, the key message or call to action, the required content, and any visual references (even from unrelated industries) that convey the aesthetic direction. We translate vision into production-ready design. The clearer you can articulate what success looks like, the more directly we can get there.

It means we operate as a seamless production partner rather than an outside vendor who needs to be managed separately. We learn your brand standards and apply them without repeated correction. We communicate directly with your designers or project managers. We maintain your approved files, templates, and assets so every project starts from a solid foundation. We flag potential production issues before they become problems. And we adapt our workflow to yours. Your team handles strategy and creative direction, we handle production, print, and distribution. It's a division of responsibility that makes both sides more effective.

Yes, and we encourage it. Direct collaboration between our production team and your designers typically produces better results and fewer revision cycles than routing everything through a single account contact. Your designers can share working files, ask technical print questions directly, and get accurate specs without delays. We're happy to be added to your project management tools (Asana, Monday, Basecamp, Teams, Slack) and participate in your workflow rather than running a parallel one. The goal is always the best possible outcome for your project, and collaboration is usually the fastest path there.

Yes. We maintain a managed file library for ongoing clients, including logos, photography, brand-compliant templates for recurring collateral, and production-ready master files. Projects start from a solid, current foundation rather than hunting for the right file version each time. When your brand assets are updated, we update the library. We treat your asset archive as a living resource and keeping it current is part of the service.

Discretion with client materials is a standard expectation at GISI Marketing Group. We routinely produce projects containing sensitive information. Staff involved in production access only what they need for their specific role. We don't discuss, share, or display client work without explicit permission. If your organization requires a formal non-disclosure agreement for a specific project or ongoing relationship, we're happy to execute one.

Yes. Supporting volume spikes is one of the most practical advantages of having us as a production partner. Rather than staffing for peaks internally or asking your team to absorb excess workload, route your overflow needs to us. We schedule and staff to handle variable workloads without compromising turnaround. The key to making it work smoothly is advance notice. If you know a major campaign or seasonal push is coming, looping us in four to six weeks ahead lets us block capacity and prepare assets in advance. We'd rather be ready for your busiest periods than reactive to them.

Timelines vary by complexity. Typically, a simple one-sided flyer or postcard requires 3–5 business days from brief to approved file. A multi-panel brochure or folder package may require 7–10 business days. A full brand identity (logo, color, typography, brand guide) often requires 3-4 weeks. These timelines assume client-supplied copy and imagery and include two revision rounds. Projects requiring copywriting, photography, or illustration add time. If your timeline is fixed, tell us upfront and we'll design a workflow that fits.

We quote nearly all creative work on a project basis. You receive a fixed quote before work begins, so there are no surprises. Project quotes are based on estimated hours at our design rate, adjusted for complexity and scope. Hourly billing applies to open-ended work, revision-heavy projects, and small production tasks. For clients with ongoing, recurring design needs, a monthly retainer may offer better value and priority access to our team. Contact your Account Executive for a quote. In response, we'll ask a few targeted questions about scope and turn around an estimate quickly.

Design requests can be submitted to your Account Executive by email, phone, or the contact form on our website. The more detail you can share upfront the faster we can provide an accurate quote and begin. For recurring work types (monthly newsletter, weekly promotional flyer, quarterly catalog), we can establish a standing project template that removes the back-and-forth from each cycle. We acknowledge all design requests within two business hours and aim to provide quotes within two business days.