1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Hi there, welcome to this, Tuts+ course, How to Design A Project Proposal in Adobe InDesign. If you're looking to win new projects as a freelancer or for your business, beautifully designed proposals can really help you to leave a lasting impression on your clients. My name is Grace Fussell, I'm a graphic designer based in the UK and I'm going to show you how designing creative proposals doesn't need to be intimidating or time consuming. Once you know a few design tips and techniques for good practice. So you may be thinking, what exactly is a proposal? So proposals are smartly designed brochures which introduce a client to your business, and let them know how you would approach a design brief that they've set for you. Proposals can either supplement or replace face to face pitching and can be sent as printed documents or as PDF attachments. In this course, you'll learn how to create proposal designs that are super professional and look amazing. We'll learn how to edit proposal templates in design, adapting them to make them unique, and completely tailored to your own purposes. You'll also learn how to design beautiful creative proposal documents from scratch using InDesign, creating attention grabbing cover, formatting, awesome typography, and working with content pages, masters, color pallets, and textiles. Whether you're a seasoned user of InDesign, or you're relatively new to the software, you'll build up your familiarity of the program slowly. By the end of the course, you'll know exactly how to create a proposal document at the drop of a hat. As well as having picked up lots of transferable print design skills that you can use to create magazines, brochures, books, and other print media. So if you're looking for a new creative way of winning exciting new projects as well as honing your publishing design skills, this course will be a brilliant fit for you. I'm really looking forward to welcoming you on board and I hope you're excited to get started.

1.2 What Is a Project Proposal?

Proposals are a tried and tested technique that businesses use to win new client projects. Proposals are used by small businesses like design agencies and start-ups, as well as long consultancy firms like architects and lawyers, to help convince clients that they're the right people to choose over competing businesses. So some businesses might opt to do a face-to-face pitch as well as presenting a proposal document. But if your proposal is well designed, clearly structured, and easy to navigate, it's not always necessary to have to pitch as well. Some businesses might opt to do a face-to-face pictures as well as presenting a proposal document. But if your proposal is well designed, clearly structured, and easy to navigate, it's not always necessarily to have to pitch as well. If you want to grow your creative business, whether as a sole trader or small business, learning how to produce your own elegant beautifully designed proposals will help you to stand out against your competitors and win more exciting and interesting work. Here in Envato Elements, you can find a wide range of proposal templates that you can download and customize of your own content. But it's also a really good resource just for finding some inspiration for creating your own proposal designs. So there are some common elements you can find across a wide range of proposals. They all have a nicely designed cover with the business name and the name of the recipient, which is also really important. A contents page is useful for helping readers to navigate through the document easily. And is particularly handy for time strapped clients who need to find certain bits of information really quickly. A proposal might also contain a meet the team page, a summary of your business and company ethos. And then the bulk of the proposal will usually be devoted to breaking down the client brief into how it will be approached, time frames for delivery of the work, and also cost estimates. If you're in the states, a letter page size is the normal format for proposals. If you're in the UK or elsewhere, A4 is normally the standard. This is helpful if you're sending your proposal over email, as it means that the client can easily print it off without any issues. In this course we're not gonna look at the text content of proposals, but instead how you can create an appealing design for your proposal, which balances both professionalism and creativity. The look at your proposal is really important because it helps the proposal to stand out against others. It ensures the readers is engaged with what you have to say for longer. And it also gives the client a really good feel for your business. Subtle design decisions can make a huge difference to the look and feel of your proposal. So opting for a geometric sans serif over a serif font, for example, can lift your design from more corporate territory to a cleaner, more contemporary look that might be a better fit for a youthful startup, for example. Researching color trends across other media, like advertising and editorial design, and applying these to your proposal can also send the message to the recipient that you're the sort of company that's very aware of current trends. And is able to produce cutting edge design work for their clients. Researching color trends across other media, like advertising and magazine design, and applying these to your proposal can send the message to the recipient that you're the sort of company that's very aware of current trends. And is able to produce cutting edge design work for their clients. You might have an idea about the sort of style or branding that would be appropriate for your proposal. But equally, you might be a bit unsure about the sort of look that you'd want to aim for. In the lessons to follow, we'll download a proposal template from Envanto Elements that has a simple, modern look that would look great for a range of businesses. The elements that define the look of your proposal are actually very simple, including the fonts, the color palette, and the choice of photos and graphics. So first up, we'll look at how you can adapt an existing template like this one, and tweak some of the elements to give a very different feel to the design to make it instantly more unique and creative. In the later part of the course, we'll develop these skills. And we'll work towards creating a complete proposal from the ground up, which is a great choice if you want to have complete control over the look and layout of your document. In the next video, we'll look at the software and resources you'll need to follow along with the course lessons. And then we can dive in and start creating some really great proposals.