Your graphics may be pretty, but are they compliant? How can they be improved? Here’s what to pay attention to when putting together your proposal graphics.
Times New Roman is no one’s favorite font. If it’s yours, I’d like to talk to you. But alas, the government seems to favor this font in proposals, even for graphics. Often, the government will ask you to use Times New Roman point 10 for graphics and point 12 for text. But pay attention! Sometimes they ask for the same font size to be used throughout! And fonts can change from amendment to amendment as potential bidders plead with the government to ask for a smaller (but hopefully still legible) font size. And sometimes, they may even let you use Arial!
Everyone’s guilty of it. You already have an applicable graphic of a repeatable process. Why not re-use it? Be sure to check the customer names so you don’t accidentally call the Bureau of Land Management the Federal Bureau of Investigation! Change those customer names to the correct ones before placing into your document, even in a placeholder situation!
You never know if an evaluator will need to print your proposal to evaluate it. Their printer may not print in color; maybe it only prints in black and white! Do you have key elements that only make sense when the color can be seen, such as a colored-coded swimlane diagram? Might want to consider coming up with an alternative to your color coding!
I’ve been doing proposal graphics for close to a decade now. Nothing breaks my heart more to see that a proposal manager has taken my graphic that is supposed to take up at least 2 inches of vertical space and squished it so that it merely takes up but a corner of the page. When resizing graphics, you’re not only resizing the image. You’re also running the risk of not being compliant anymore because your font size has inadvertently changed during the shift. How do you combat this problem? Communication! Have your graphic designer tell you the dimensions of the graphic, and if you need it to be smaller, work with them to cut extraneous space or content.
By implementing these changes and giving your graphics just as much attention as you’re giving your text, you’ll find yourself with more compliant proposals in no time!
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