Project Management

The primary role of a project manager is to oversee a project from a central position and serve as caretaker from start to finish. Responsibilities fluctuate between working with internal and external stakeholders, depending on the project.

For example, when Composure is hired under a full-service contract, there is more leveled activity between our internal editorial, art direction and design, photo research, production and technology departments. From a publisher standpoint, a more outsourced model allows the project manager to fully coordinate and report, rather than requiring daily contact with the publisher. On the other hand, if our client has allocated more internal resources with daily involvement, Composure’s project management team consistently works as the right hand of that internal team.

Composure’s project managers regularly:

• Dialogue directly with program authors
• Create and manage simultaneous, concurrent or consecutive workflows
• Build and monitor budgets and schedules
• Coordinate internal publishing department and external vendor resource activities
• Organize, attend or lead project status meetings based upon project requirements and participants
• Serve as centralized quality control oversight

Editorial

Composure’s experienced editorial team provides highly creative and editorially sound content development for both educational and trade publications. We have a diverse team of talented writers and editors for any subject area. Our team has varied backgrounds from classroom teachers and college level professors to leading publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Harper Collins. We parlay our years of experience to craft effective solutions for all your editorial needs.

• Content Development
• Scope and Sequence Development
• Proofreading
• Copyediting
• Indexing
• Correlations
• Fact Checking / Answer Checking
• State Customization and Alignment
• Translation (Spanish)

Design

Too often, we pick up a published textbook designed by a competitor and can quickly identify the design firm of origin. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. That’s not at all to say that every competitor’s work is subpar; there’s simply too much retread and average work out there.

It’s commonly our job to bring a fresh design perspective to long-taught content. We work very hard for our clients to make sure they receive top-notch, original, and inspired designs. We’ve found great success by infusing our B2B marketing experience into our educational designs. They not only have to look fantastic and teach conceptually, but they must sell well into the marketplace. Don’t you think you deserve this? We do!

Design services:

• Conceptualization
• Prototyping
• Art Direction
• Page Design
• Covers / Interiors / Kit Packs

Photo/Art

Imagery is significant. Breaking it down into photos, illustration, fine art and their uses, specs, budgets, permissions, fees, cultural sensitivities, and age-appropriateness (for starters) can be a virtual quagmire for some. However, we’ve pretty much been through it all before and enjoy the daily process of curation and discovery that comes with the territory.

Photo Research

We are comfortable executing photo research using a preferred list of vendors as well as locating very specific, individual sources. We understand issued guidelines and preferences, permissions, content management systems and procurement. We pride ourselves on multi-dimensional research to be able to locate just the right pieces for desired impact.

Illustration

Not only do we art direct fantastic illustrators, we are able to illustrate in-house to complement design solutions in development. We prospect new artists and integrate our favorites all at the same time, providing a unique visual mix for each new project. We are familiar with budget constraints and comfortable negotiating with artists or their reps to come to mutually beneficial agreements, followed by contract execution. Most importantly, true appreciation and respectful direction of great talent on your behalf is paramount to stunning final product delivery once the dust settles.

Photo/Art services:

• Budget construction and management
• Photo Research
• Permissions
• Metadata Tagging
• Art commissions
• Contract management
• Illustration
• Hand Lettering

Production

Composure looks at production as much more than just getting text and images onto a page. Our staff draws on decades of experience using industry-standard tools alongside the custom tools we’ve built ourselves for heightened efficiency. Because much of the work that goes into production is labor-intensive, we regularly automate portions of our workflows to maximize productivity and keep human error in repetition to a minimum.

Composure has the ability to work within traditional, collaborative (K4 and WoodWing), and XML workflows.

Production services:

• Spec guide and template development
• Page composition
• Image retouching and color correction/profiling
• Tech art creation
• Printer PDF generation
• Quality Control
• OCR (99.95% accuracy)
• XML Tagging
• Enfocus PitStop Flightcheck
• File management and long-term archival

Digital

Digital technology products are no longer an afterthought once the print is complete. They have become an integral part of the pub plans from the start, and the digital segment continues to grow at a rapid pace. Within this space, we can develop new content or repurpose your existing material to create the digital deliverables you’re looking for. We not only have the staff to develop the material, but we also have the expertise to create the technology through which it’s being delivered.

Digital Media capabilities:

• Interactive Whiteboard (IWB)
• Interactive Learning and Games – HTML5
• eBooks – Fixed and reflowable formats (ePub2, ePub3, KF8/mobi, iBook)
• Interactive eBooks (DPS)
• Muse
• LMS / CMS
• SCORM