Proposals That Win You the Job

The most important tool for every designer after their portfolio is a design proposal. Your proposal determines whether you do design work. After you have delivered your pitch to your client and your client has requested a written proposal how do you go about it? The proposal should show your prospective client that you understand their needs, and are thinking long-term to establish a strong relationship. A strong proposal is a well-organized plan. It establishes the scope of work for a project. Your proposal must convince your client that you’re the best fit for the job. This book explains how to make the strongest possible argument for why you’re the best candidate to win the job. Proposals cause anxiety for many designers. If you haven’t done it before it can be a daunting task. Little is published that is useful for working designers. One of the most difficult areas to find useful information is the activity of preparing a client project proposal. Then designers first start consulting work learning to write successful proposals is one of the obstacles that they must conquer in order to earn their living in design practice. It is an area that is often not covered in design education. In this book is the time and materials model which is the most common model used in industrial design and a model used to varying extents in most disciplines of design. A proposal with terms helps create certainty about the agreement and avoid mismatched expectations. Proposals are necessary to get paid. A proposal should be built on a solid foundation of a good brief. I have included some questions that you should ask or consider when a brief is being prepared.