Designing effective proposals

Most proposals get about as much design attention as the old generic beer cans got. Sometimes less. The reasons are many - ranging from the need to get the thing out of the door quick to the thought that the words speak for themselves. Either way, most proposals could use a bit of help visually.

Mel Lester, of The Business Edge, wrote an instant classic article on Rain Today. The article, Beyond Pretty: How To Design An Effective Proposal, offers a few design tips to "distinguish your proposals, not just in terms of their visual impact, but also in their ability to clearly convey your message(s) to your prospects." The high points:

• Study The Design Of Top Mainstream Periodicals


• Understand How The Client Handles Your Proposal & Design It Accordingly


• Present Information At Two Levels: Skim & Read


• Highlight Your Key Messages At The Skim Level


• Always Include An Executive Summary


• Don't Dilute Your Proposal With Too Much Text


• Arrange content in a logical step-by-step fashion, describing a work process or ordering points according to importance.


• Illustrate the work process with simple flow diagrams, described in associated text.


• Consider adding at least one graphic element (photo, table, figure) to each page.


• Present most information in bullets, with bold summary statements followed by supporting text.


• Keep tables and figures simple.


• Prepare your tables and figures first, before writing the associated text.


• Always include captions with your pictures.


• Use the inverted pyramid design throughout.

Read the full article here.