Arek Dvornechuck
Branding Expert
5 Best Graphic Design Proposal Templates
Need help with branding?
I specialize in the development of brands—from brand strategy & identity, to web design, motion and beyond.
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Well, look no further, because we created a list of the best design templates that will wow your clients while making your proposal writing process easy and fast.
How do you write a graphic design proposal?
There are a lot of proposal templates online that you can use to create your proposals fast and easy.
You don’t need to design one from scratch, when professional looking templates are at your disposal.
In this article, we’ll share our favorites and explain which one is the best choice for you.
It’s always important to create beautiful business proposals that are easy to follow and show off your expertise.
When it comes to graphic design proposals, they need to be extra nice since your clients will judge you based on their design.
You really can’t make any compromises when it comes to any material you’re sending to your clients.
It's a daunting task to create a proposal from scratch making sure you include everything your client wants to see and don’t forget anything important.
That's why investing a few bucks in reliable proposal software seems like a good investment—just buy it once and use for every project.
You can basically use any kind of software to deliver proposals to your clients: it could be a standard PDF or a dedicated online tool.
These online tools will let you choose prewritten and predesigned templates that you can fully customize, so naturally you want to chose the tool with most suitable templates.
There are 5 things you need to look for when choosing an online tool:
The content library helps you save your content in order to re-use it later on when creating proposals for other clients (so that you don't have to re-upload logos, change colors, add your text and graphics every single time).
You can save huge chunks of text (like terms of the agreement), pricing tables or other pieces of content for easy re-use.
Also having a digital signature functionality is good to have as it turns your typed-in name into a digital signature without any extensions or integrations needed (and you don't need a tablet or a scanner).
Payment methods are another great feature that we recommend your proposal software should have.
It simply allows your clients to pay the first fee as soon as they sign the agreement, shortening the time it takes you to receive your first payment.
Proposal analytics let you know exactly when your proposal was opened, by who and how much time did they spend on all of the chapters and pages.
This information makes it easy for you to follow up since you’ll know if your proposal was read or not.
It will also help you optimize your proposals for conversations in the future.
As you can see, this proposal is very elegant with a minimalistic design that puts your content front and centre.
A ready to use proposal template for high-end web design projects.
Don’t underestimate the power of a good proposal introduction—The first page your clients will see shows your branding and who the proposal is for.
From there we move on to your introduction page—It needs to inform the client how you’re going to help them with a problem.
This high-end web design proposal template comes with a prewritten introduction that focuses on building a responsive, custom coded website with a clean design and professional photos.
The next chapter lists your services and lets your client know the extent of your work.
From there it moves to timelines and a detailed explanation of your process.
Since portfolios are very important for web designers, the next chapter holds a case study.
We suggest you use real people, i.e., ask your loyal customers for quotes and reviews you could use.
The social proof will bring your clients to focus on the expertise and skills that separate you from your competitors.
Only after you’ve shown all that content, should you move into the pricing section.
The pricing section is conveniently called Investment and this chapter could be customized to your needs.
You can choose whether you want to price your services by the hour, or value.
You can showcase a few different packages and try to upsell your clients.
The next step is very important, and that is a CTA.
You need to prepare your client for the next steps.
Once that is out of the way, include a digital signature that seals the deal and finish off the proposal with terms and conditions and a Contact Us page.
Download High-End Web Design Proposal
If you’re a freelancer and you have to secure new clients, you’ll want to distinguish yourself by being the most professional choice.
A web design proposal template for solo freelancers.
And the best way to do that is with a beautiful web design proposal template.
The best thing you can do as a freelancer is focus on one area of your expertise, instead of being a jack of all trades.
That is why this proposal opens with an executive summary that lets your client know just that.
It’s important to have a discovery session with your client beforehand, in order to truly understand what your client wants and needs.
Once you do that, you can start your proposal with your client’s words.
Tell your client how you’re going to construct their website and which landing pages will you include.
Remember to not get too technical, because your client might not be at your level of understanding.
Once you cover your services, you should explain in greater detail exactly how you’re going to help your client, step by step.
Start with a design interview, in which you’ll get enough information and content needed in order to start working on the website.
Then transition into explaining how you’ll prepare multiple versions of the design and get your clients input in order to pick the winning one.
After that, bring up the issue of content. Make it abundantly clear who will be in charge of content creation.
The next step should be the creation of the website and lastly, prepare for the launch. The launch process should be carefully planned and timed.
From there you can show some of your previous work and further demonstrate your expertise.
Luckily, Better Proposals’ editor is easy to use, making showcasing your portfolio very easy with a few clicks.
Your pricing section should be clear.
We suggest offering a one-off total price instead of pricing by the hour since that doesn’t give you the incentive to finish the project.
After that, incorporate a digital signature and explain your next steps.
Download Freelance Web Design Proposal
Ecommerce design is slightly different from landing page design and as such, requires a dedicated proposal.
A great template for offering e-commerce website projects.
Clients who ask for online stores are probably already selling their products and services in an offline shop, or through social media and want to expand their business.
That means that you have to have a great explanation of why they need to invest a sizable portion of money in an estore—That is the focus of this template.
It already has convincing arguments that explain your strategy for helping them achieve their ROI.
Make sure to explain the structure of their new website and how you’re going to consider SEO from the beginning.
Your client may not be informed on the process of creating a website, so explain how quickly they can expect their shop to be done.
Since this is an expensive service, make sure to include a chapter dedicated to social proof.
This template already comes with one, making it easy for you to show your client that you have delivered similar results before, making you the perfect person for the job.
We recommend you include some sort of guarantee in your business proposal.
The one written out in this proposal is fair and easy to make, since 4 months is a reasonable period of time for ROI.
This chapter going right after the pricing table will make your clients feel at ease and help them come to an agreement with you way quicker.
Finish it off with a digital signature and a payment gateway.
Download Ecommerce Website Proposal
App design and development differ from website design—In this case, you should explain the focus of the app you were hired to create.
An excellent proposal template for app developers.
The proposal template offers a great insight into what your client will be interested to hear when it comes to app development.
Not only do you have to explain the technical side of it, but also delve into the marketing part and define your target audience as you’ll need to convince your client that you know how to reach future users.
App development is exclusively user-centered, as opposed to websites that can be content centered.
That’s why you need to showcase a real understanding of the future users, in order to create the best user experience for them.
Designing an app takes more time than creating a website, so make sure to explain week by week what your team will be working on.
Include the testing phase as well, since it’s essential for app development.
Putting out an untested app is an amateur mistake, so make sure your clients know that you’ll include testing in your process.
The pricing chapter should have more content than just a pricing table.
We suggest you let your client know which amount they’ll be paying upfront and why you operate this way.
The proposal template offers a choice between an iPhone and an Android app.
This choice could be up to you if you already know the direction your client wants to take, or you can leave it for them to choose and maybe go for a package deal.
Download App Development Proposal
Small businesses usually have smaller budgets but they take on a lot more risk than bigger companies do when it comes to launching a website.
A great converting proposal template to send to small clients.
That is why your business proposal has to be just as professional as it would be for a bigger company and detailed in your approach to the project.
Your introduction should reassure your client that you understand their problem.
Show them that you want to fix it in a way that will bring them short term as well as long term benefits.
Include a case study in your business proposal and incorporate your past client’s quotes or reviews.
Having that chapter before your pricing page is important because you want to create a flow and pace for your client.
The later you put your pricing section, the more content you’ll have to justify your price to your client.
After the pricing section, make sure to include a CTA that lets your clients know what the next steps are, after signing your proposal.
Download Small Business Proposal Template
The more work you put into your proposals, the faster your clients will agree to them and pay you.
Make sure to have a quality discovery session with them before you start working on your proposal in order to provide an insightful look into the problem they are facing.
This article was contributed by Vanja Maganjić, she is an experienced writer with a unique passion for creating content that helps brands connect with their customers.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
I'm a branding expert and graphic designer based in NY. I specialize in the development of brands: brand strategy, identity & web design. Need help with your project?—Get in touch
