Creative Services

We will search for the vendor that will best meet your need for the right price whether it's through a licensed vendor or from our in-house printer. For any questions related to printing and pricing, please contact the print production specialist Tara Gunsch at tgunsch@montana.edu. 

Depending on complexity of the project, this can be quite variable. It is our strong recommendation that you meet with our staff as soon as you develop the project in order to develop a detailed, realistic schedule in advance. Waiting until late in the process greatly increases the possibility that the project cannot be produced as intended, on time, at an economical rate — or all three.

As a general rule of thumb, allow a minimum of 5–10 working days for art, editing and electronic production, and 5–10 working days for printing and delivery. It is always better to err on the side of providing more time than necessary in order to accommodate the unexpected. Some large projects may take longer.

When the project is complete an invoice will be sent using an internal department index number. When first reaching out for design services, please provide your department's index number for future billing.

Generally, yes. For any questions relating to using the MSU logo and brand please reach out to University Communications Chief Marketing Officer Julie Kipfer by submitting an exemption request application. Read the Logo Exemption Q&A before applying for exemption, and then fill out the logo exemption form.

There several different formulas for these colors depending in the application and color model being used. These include:

RGB: The RGB values for the nearest color to MSU blue is: R=22, G=41 and B=96. For MSU gold the nearest value is R=244, G=180 and B=37.

CMYK Process: The process color value for MSU Blue is: C=100%, M=85%, Y=5% and K=36%. For MSU gold the formula is C=0%, M=27%, Y=100% and K=0%.

Spot Color: The official Pantone color for MSU blue is PMS 281. For MSU gold, use PMS 124.

Web Colors: The nearest hexadecimal color for MSU blue is "#162960" and for MSU gold is "#f4b425."

We do our best to proofread and edit to ensure accurate and up to date content, but ultimate proofreading is the client's responsibility. A proofing guide is available when in the reviewing process.

There are several writing style guides in general use, but due to our considerable involvement with the news media, University Creative Services relies most heavily on the Associated Press (AP) Style Guide. We are also familiar with several MSU-specific styles. We have a reference guide to some of these on the University Communication's Style Guide.

Generally, for text Microsoft Word is highly recommended. For graphics TIFF, EPS, PNG, PDFs and JPEG each have advantages and are all commonly used.

Onedrive or email. These are our primary resources for file exchange.