Design services

What this section covers

HQT designs and produces the publications and visual materials public agencies put in front of residents. Twelve services cover the recurring community magazine and activity guide, layout and typesetting, brand standards, photography, image editing and licensing, advertising, prepress, accessible digital editions, social media graphics, flyers and brochures, posters and signage, and the production calendar and file handover that hold the rest together.

How we work

The same method runs under every service below, whether the job is a quarterly magazine or a single flyer.

1. 1The calendar comes first

   Every publication is planned backward from the date it has to reach residents and from the dates the agency cannot move, such as when program registration opens. Content deadlines, proof rounds, and printer dates follow from those.

2. 2Templates before pages

   Grids, type, color, and styles are built and agreed before the first issue or campaign, so later work is faster, stays consistent, and can be picked up by someone else.

3. 3Content from the system that holds it

   Class listings, schedules, and fees usually live in a registration or records system. Where an export exists it is mapped to styles rather than retyped, because retyping is where errors start.

4. 4Proofs in defined rounds

   Each piece goes through a known number of PDF proof stages, with one consolidated set of agency comments per round and a recorded approval at the end.

5. 5Built for print and for screen

   Files are preflighted against the printer's specification, and the accessible digital version is built from the same source with tags, reading order, and alternative text, then tested.

6. 6Licenses and rights on record

   Every photograph, illustration, and font carries a note of where it came from and who holds the license, so the agency can keep using what it paid for.

7. 7Everything handed over

   At the end of each issue or project the agency receives the packaged source files, the final PDFs, and the license records, and owns them.

Why design sits with HQT

Most of what goes wrong in agency design work is not visual. Listings that disagree with the registration system, a digital edition a screen reader cannot follow, a photograph used without the right release, and source files the agency cannot open after a contract ends are systems and records problems. HQT treats design as the last stage of the systems and processes an agency already runs, and works it the same way it works the rest: documented, tested, and handed over.

Services 12

• Community Magazines and Activity GuidesThe quarterly magazine and recreation guide residents rely on, designed as a series and produced on a calendar that holds.
• Publication Layout and TypesettingGrids, type, and styles that make long and recurring documents readable, consistent, and fast to update.
• Brand Standards and Visual IdentityApplying an agency's typography, color, and logo rules consistently, and writing them down where they were never recorded.
• Event and Program PhotographyPhotographing community events, programs, and facilities, with the releases, captions, and metadata that make images usable later.
• Photo Editing, Illustration, and Image LicensingRetouching, graphics, illustration, and stock sourcing, with licenses recorded so the agency can keep using what it paid for.
• Advertising Design and Ad ProductionDesigning, building, and checking the ads that appear in agency publications, whether supplied by advertisers or by departments.
• Prepress and Print-Ready FilesPreflight, color, bleed, and file packaging, coordinated with the agency's printer so the press run matches the approved proof.
• Digital Editions and Accessible PDFsWeb-optimized PDFs, interactive flipbooks, and accessible versions of the publication, built to WCAG rather than repaired after.
• Social Media and Digital GraphicsGraphics for social channels, web banners, and email, sized for each platform and readable without the image.
• Flyers, Brochures, and Informational MaterialsEvent flyers, program brochures, and the handouts departments give the public, in print and as accessible files.
• Posters, Banners, and SignageEvent posters, street banners, and facility signs, designed for distance and weather and checked against accessibility rules.
• Production Calendars, Proofing, and File HandoverThe annual calendar, proof rounds, approvals, and the packaged source files the agency owns at the end of every issue.

How to start

Most engagements start with a look at what the agency publishes now, the standards it works to, and the calendar it runs on. Send the detail to info@hqt.org, or use the contact form.