my first proposal... Help!

[Mad Dawg]

Hey everybody
ok, so I have to make up a porposal for business class. The proposal is for a fictional job to revamp the identity of the bus transit system of my city. That means all the infomation on the buses, bus stops, maps, brocure. everything.
I do get the main idea of how a prefessional proposal should look but I am just looking for any tips people might have about the subject.
Any advise would be most appreciated

[SurfPark]

You'll want to include some of these issues into your proposal:

- Printing. Who is printing it? Are you responsible for printing or do you send the work off? What kind of paper will you use?

- Usage. Know how much of your work is going to be displayed and if the client has the legal right to reproduce your work later on (such as if they buy a new bus).

- Designer Fees. Talk about how much you'll charge based on printing and usage. Also, consider the scale of the fictional transit system.

- Schedule. Develop a realistic schedule that will allow you to work and finish it in a timely fashion.

[cjoe]

I recently did a proposal for a website (real client)

First thing: Client requirements and expectations. Then outline how you will meet these requirements. Then go into detail about each aspect of the proposal, always relating them back to the client requirements and justify them against observations you have made. You can always make recommendations as well, if you think it will benfit the client.You may also want to give examples of similar work (doesn't have to be yours) that has been successful for someone else. Then you need to do a basic quotation, thats where printing costs, designer fees etc. come into play. You have to make guestimates of these costs and a draft project timeline.
Usually proposals aren't very long. Usually ten or fifteen pages should be sufficient. Keep in mind, clients are usually impressed when you quote statistics and figures when you are justifying a piece of work.

[skirklan]

If you want to see just how nitpicky proposals can get, visit any state government's vendor/purchasing site and read the kind of proposal they ask you to sign prior to doing design work. Since they buy most things based on the lowest cost, they have to protect themselves against getting stiffed with unusable product. Remember, though, their proposals are slanted to a different advantage than yours should be. But it is a good example of form as long as you change the tone to include assurances that you take pride in your work, which the government never allows for. :rolleyes:

It makes my skin crawl to think of a civil servant defining the parameters of a design job. Wacky. Don't look for Star Trek anytime soon as long as NASA continues to choose vendors based on lowest price. I was so looking forward to that first date with a Vulcan.

Good luck.