Services

Update Your Web site

Collectively, we have decades of experience in everything web, from graphic design to programming. We are committed to building sites that are visually unique, cleanly coded to current standards, and supremely navigable. We are information architects, and we'd like to help you frame your message and build your web presence.

We are also exploring the power of social media, that is, user-generated content, including blogs, feeds, tags and such. We'd be pleased to have you join us on this journey, and extend the reach of your message.

Next steps: If you can dream it, we will get it done. Think about what you want visitors to accomplish at your site, and the impression they come away with. Then let's discuss your timelines and budget; we will propose a plan that makes the best of both.

Typical products: Refurbished and updated web sites, re-coded to standards, web design from scratch, with a new or established identity. Additional features, including forums, blogs. calendars, photo galleries, data driven content and shopping carts. Regular updates to keep your site up-to-date. Preparation of web publications, training products, and e-news.

Create Your Identity

You stand for something. Let us help link your message with your image. Many of the Collective's Associates are designers and artists; several have extensive experience creating a "look and feel" for research initiatives, public information campaigns and non-profit associations. Whether you need a logo, a flag, a brochure or a whole suite of identity products, we will bring the creativity of the Collective to bear on your project.

Experience tells us that you will enjoy the process, and be delighted by what emerges. We think it will be the start of a long-term relationship, as your success brings more opportunities to wave your banner high.

Typical products: Logos, graphic elements, typography, blended together to provide identity for your project, organization, campaign or company. The resulting design can be utilized on any number of materials, limited only by our creativity. Start with letterhead, business cards, post cards, presentation templates, and take it from there.

Next steps: Talk to us about what your identity materials should say about your activities, and let us know what the initial products will be.

Advertise Your Existence

We are skilled at getting the word out. We know what works in today's world, and this changes by the minute. We pay attention to trends and advise accordingly. We help find the most direct path between your message and those who need to know it.

Sometimes this means print advertising, mailings, or news articles. Sometimes it is radio spots, e-newsletters or web posting, We can take care of this for you, whether for a single campaign, or for the long run.

Typical products: Publication announcements, advocacy alerts, organizational or issue-related ad design, press releases, feature stories, blogs.

Next steps: Tell us about your organization and its objectives. Who would you like to embrace them? Once we identify the help you'd like, we will agree on a timeline and pricing.

Publishing Your Knowledge

We specialize in design and production of publications that bring research to practice. We believe that best practice in any field should be empirically based, standing firmly on a foundation of the best available scientific information. This is especially true for advocacy work.

What the Collective does best is transform technical information through the magic of information architecture. Such projects call for great teams, often including writers, photographers, illustrators, and publication designers. End products will be engaging in appearance, digestible and effective in reaching their goals. Excellence is our baseline.

Typical products: Policy or issue briefs, technical reports, small books and monographs, scientific posters, public information materials (e.g., newsletters, brochures, resource publications). We can build your computer-generated presentations, as well. And the good news is that all of these products can be re-configured for electronic distribution through e-mail, web display and pdf libraries.

Next steps: We talk about your project, determine the nature of the collaboration, and build the right team. We agree on a timeline and pricing. And we get to work.

Announce Your Event

We know much about events. Events of any size are time consuming, detail-rich and nerve wracking endeavors. But they are also powerful venues for collaboration. In this electronic age, conferences and meetings provide rare opportunities to speak to partners in person.

We will handle whatever slice of the event marketing pie you are comfortable with, from design of the conference image and printed materials to notifying your intended audience through e-mail and web calendars.

Typical products: Consultation, site selection, vendor identification, conference identity design, registration announcements and agenda production, marketing products for print and web. We do not currently offer on-site registration support services.

Next steps: If you are thinking about hosting an event, please contact us early, and we can help you develop the workflow calendar, sometimes called the "critical path." If you are repeating a past event, let's talk about which services you'd like us to handle, and nail down due dates. In event management, timing is essential.

Plan Your Future

Our name, Next Steps, reflects one of our key talents: planning. If you would like consultation on how to implement your communications plan, information campaign, or establish your identity, we offer this service. We can do this through a focus group process, visioning activities, or just a sit down with the board. It is your call.

Next steps: You know what you'd like to accomplish, and the challenges to getting there. Discuss the scope of your goals with us, and we can agree on the best format for planning activities. We'll do our homework. We'll learn from you about you. We'll make a plan that fits.