Our clients benefit from the wealth of expertise we have gathered in more than 40 years servicing the design and publishing industry. We focus on adding value for our clients, keeping them ahead of their competitors.
There is a lot of talk about the “flat world” where global sourcing of services happens in real-time and in virtual proximity, anywhere. It makes it all sound rather clinical, process-driven and, well, flat. Is that what you expect when you need a quality creative solution, and fast? The Express KCS offshore service model is definitely ‘flat’ in the speed and flexibility of its delivery, but extremely ‘round’ in the depth of our creativity and capacity.
We have decades of experience in creative and graphic services and our studios provide the full range from: concept design, corporate identity and marketing materials, ad production, page layout and publication packages, digitisation, typesetting, pre-press repro, tagging, online ad production, web design, software development, adaptation, transcreation, catalogs, marketing collateral, retail packaging and complete premedia production. Our team works with you as if it were in-house. We integrate the processes tightly and allow you complete transparency of the work transfer in this “virtual” studio. Job components and instructions are logged digitally, either directly on your own workflow systems, or by dedicated ftp, where they are processed, and returned as finished digital images or complete documents.
All work is well documented, with a robust workflow and 24/7 shifts with turnaround times to suit customer demands. Our highly experienced designers and producers can either work inside your own production systems remotely, or via StudioOnline, our secure, flexible and robust workflow management tool. Contact us to see how our services can meet your challenges.
Creative Production
You want your message to stand out and to convey the right values. To that end your outsourcing partner needs to be in tune with you and your customers. Express KCS has the credibility, creativity and capabilities to deliver clear and consistent messages that are noticed.We offer unique design expertise, brand creativity and consistency, artwork asset management and a fully accountable and transparent workflow. Your credibility and ours are intrinsically linked – we work hard to ensure our values are tightly aligned.
Our resources are your resources: more than 450 designers, artists and editorial production staff, work with your team in a virtual, integrated media back office to deliver the turnaround times you need.
In addition, you have the comfort of onshore, local account management in North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia, who have been drawn from senior managers and executives with decades of experience in publishing, outsourcing, marketing, product development, strategic development and change management.
That depth of experience shows, particularly when it comes to delivering bottom-line benefits: our media clients typically see a 50% reduction in production and rework costs.
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Print Ad Production
In the fast-paced advertising market you need to be able to call on the right capabilities, on demand, to meet your advertisers’ needs. They want high-impact, innovative design at a reasonable price. The graphic design and production team at Express KCS offer high-end expertise and creativity at flexible and affordable rates. You can turn your attention to selling the ads and developing your brand, and let us handle the rest. Our professional team can support the entire post-sale process as a “one-stop shop”, from copy-chasing, and client liaison, to artwork creation, proofing, approval and pre-press.Our account managers in your region work directly with you to establish your priorities and define the best process fit for your advertising strategy. Our studio is your (virtual) studio: our talent will be connected seamlessly into your workflow. We can either utilise your existing technology with high-speed communication links and transfer files, or you can use our own secure workflow management tracker: StudioOnline and to help you remain ultra-competitive we will also give you a business model that’s a perfect fit for your needs.
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Rich Media
The exponential growth of rich media as an advertising and presentation medium, with so many options (Flash, GIF, QuickTime, Java, etc) makes it an extremely difficult landscape to navigate and keep ahead of the trends.Express KCS' pool of talented rich media staff with skills across these platforms makes both early tentative ventures and full-scale production straightforward, worry-free and low-cost. We have design and production staff who are highly trained in the software packages and the principles of dynamic visual storytelling for web properties.
Our successful track record in working for advertising agencies and newspapers means that we can offer this service with a fast turnaround. We use our highly resilient StudioOnline technology as a platform for collecting briefs and delivering the final result. As with all of our other services, our rich media teams are flexible, scalable and ready to deliver quality work, 24/7 to clients all over the world
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Adaptation & Transcreation
Packaging
When we accept your packaging project brief, Express KCS undertakes to design and maintain the necessary artwork assets and protect your brand equity. Providing a 24/7 service reduces turnaround time and speeds up amendment cycles. Not only does your product get to the shelves faster, but our clients typically see savings of up to 50% over conventional costs, as well as staff savings in terms of headcount and training.Contact us
Imaging
With any contemporary medium, visual presentation is crucial to conveying the right message. We at Express KCS understand your image-handling needs and the variable quality of the original content that you often have to work with. We handle hundreds of images in all formats per day, on fast turnarounds, matching our clients’ timezones with availability of skilled staff. The process is simple and transparent: images are managed in drop folders between our studios and the client, with messaging and online workflow tools to help you track progress.
Our services range from high-end retouching and enhancement at press and magazine output quality, to high-volume online and catalogue work, Our clients range from leading publishers and global businesses to SMEs and corporate clients who need ad hoc solutions. With all of our imaging services, we work quickly to establish the job flow that suits your needs: in practice, most of our completed work is delivered either same day or on overnight turnaround.
Image cutouts, clipping paths, and masks
With sophisticated desktop design tools now widely available, there is a temptation for customers – even in those not in the media sector – to try to take on all processing work in the production. This is not the best use of your resources. Express KCS can pick up the time-consuming and high-volume task involved in cutouts, clipping paths, masks and background removals, freeing up your own team to focus on adding further creative value. You maintain control through simple-to-use drop folders, briefing notes and communications tools.
Image retouching and enhancement
When specialised and more complex image enhancement is required, our highly skilled imaging and art operators will work to get the best out of the image. Images are uploaded through drop folders, with briefing and instruction notes. Our staff are highly skilled in the use of Adobe Photoshop and other image enhancement tools and we can also share progress status via our workflow tools and in-file comments. Our clients for retouching and enhancement work include leading ad agencies, model agencies, magazine, newspaper and catalogue publishers, corporate marketing departments and individuals.
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Video Post Production
Editorial Services
Our highly skilled designers, graphics artists and sub editors are among the best in the industry, and are quickly able to adopt your publication’s style and tone to take a briefing from sketch to signoff. Our page design work is highly customisable: we can produce pages either dynamically on-demand, or create templates for products that require ongoing consistency and strict design control.We can provide all levels of text creation, editing and quality revision, including specialist editing, online editorial, tagging and SEO enhancement of content. In a time of fundamental change in the way publishers and corporate marketers need to handle multimedia output, Express KCS has the experience and skilled staff to offer full web editing and production services.
The production studio team is highly skilled in all of the major publishing software packages. Our workflow can be managed either inside or outside the client’s own publishing systems and tracked closely through online workflow tools, which increases transparency and accountability for the client.
Among the many editorial services we can provide are:
» Page design and production
» Graphics design
» Original content
» Text editing
» SEO enhancement
» Metatagging
» Summary writing
» Website content production
» Comment moderation
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Digital Editions
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Express KCS’s mobile platform services offer publishers a low cost of entry into digital editions. Scalability for content conversion, tagging, and scripting engine turns concept into reality, quickly.
Our Capabilities include:
TOUCH VideoEnhance your subscribers reading experience by embedding videos or commercial film of a featured brand.
TOUCH 3D 360°Strengthen your message with more choice by providing 360 degree view, touch & feel of products and services.
TOUCH PointsGive more options to your advertiser to make their brand story interactive and engage the reader with these innovative features.
TOUCH Image PanoramaPanorama Slide and experience the beauty of panoramic imagery.
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iAds
Express KCS provides iAd designing and production capabilities. We utilize our expertise in Apple's iAd Producer to design and produce interactive content. Our team of software developers can create custom interactive templates as per client requirements.Contact us
3D Visualizing and Rendering Services
More and more a flat representation of an item, room or space isn't enough to give a real impression. To give a real sense of physicality and to see without building physical mock-ups Express KCS provide 3D rendering services with fast turn around and tremendous capacity. Our rendering team are able to create virtual 3D domestic, retail or commercial spaces and architectures, as well as items such as FMCG goods and furniture. We'll deliver these either as a series of photo-realistic image files, a Flash or HTML walk-through or indeed as the native files. Contact us now to find out more about Express KCS' 3D rendering services.Contact us
Manage Assets
We truly understand the value of moving files efficiently along the production chain and so we developed a platform that liberates assets from the limitations of traditional file storage systems and procedures. StudioOnline provides permision-based access to content and marketing assets from anywhere in the world, and utilizes the latest acceleration technologies to reduce the burden on IT infrastructure. Best of all, it can accommodate your existing processes and is deployable across the disparate parties involved in your supply chain.
Track Projects
StudioOnline manages real-time tracking of projects via a web interface and can support centralised or distributed creative teams. Aside from a host of automated features, the workflow tools progress jobs through all stages of creative production, and each part of the process can be measured, reported and audited. Approve Art
In today's organizations, collaborating with multiple reviewers in disparate locations is considered routine. These reviews, however, typically take place via e-mail, with multiple PDFs and markups flying around a business, making tracking approvals and corrections difficult, labour intensive and prone to error. StudioOnline's built-in collaboration tools are perfect for sharing and reviewing artwork with team members. Users can view electronic proofs, make annotations, see comments and mark-ups from other users, and indicate approvals using any modern web browser. This highly efficient process results in improved collaboration, fewer review cycles and shorter production times. Automate Tasks
StudioOnline's tools help organizations improve the efficiency of their creative production process. Many common and time-consuming workflow tasks, including preflighting, proof generation, and project routing, can be automated freeing creative staff to undertake more important work.
Our methodology
Express KCS works with you in partnership to deliver on your business objectives, allowing your team to focus on adding strategic value. What sets us apart from other BPO competitors is exceptional creative media industry expertise, our agility, our focus on quality, and the transparency and accountability we build into all of our working relationships.
How we compete
- We maintain a world-class graphic arts centre with the latest equipment, software and full training programs for staff to maximise productivity.
- We compete rigorously on delivery, and we work to continuously improve both turnaround times and reduce amendment cycles.
- Clients tell us that we are easy to communicate with, have very responsive account management and supportive executive leadership
- We are aggressive in delivering cost savings, but also in identifying ongoing improvement and efficiency for the client
- We have a flexible, scalable service model that means we are able to respond quickly to potentially dramatic volume fluctuations.
Contact Us
To learn how Express KCS can help your organization, contact us today at (412) 961 8160.
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Our services
• Creative outsourcing
• Editorial services
• Graphic design
• Image editing
• Interactive design and production
• Newspaper ad production
• Packaging adaptation
• Prepress and premedia
See our portfolio
View samples of our work >
Case studies
Express KCS has helped its clients reduce costs by as much as 70%.
Read how >
