On-Ramps, an executive search firm for mission-driven organizations, engaged Thinkso to help up its business development game. The ask: a new client proposal system that positioned them as the innovative, premier firm they are, while being easy for their (non-designer) staff to update quickly. We created a template that conveys their unique approach and value proposition while organizing their standard and custom content. Our strategic development of their information architecture and purposeful use of their limited, warm palette made the proposal easy to read and digest, and presented On-Ramps stylistically as a top-tier, highly specialized firm.
“I was amazed that we got everything we wanted and needed in this template. Premium design. Fast and easy customization. A compelling pitch. With their design and copywriting savvy, Thinkso was able to deliver it all.” Michelle Kedem, Founding Partner, On-Ramps
We used On-Ramps’ photo library, comprising candid professional photos of their staff in action, to create multiple cover options to give the proposals humanity and variety and to convey On-Ramps’ unique combination of professional excellence and joyful endeavoring.
The key to creating a proposal that looks highly designed but is easy for non-designers to customize was standardizing 80% of the content. This allowed us to design static pages and use On-Ramps’ signature slab-serif font at scale to create the feeling of a highly stylized document. We dropped the static designs into Google Slides, and created live text blocks for the customizable copy.
We wrote and refined all of the text in the proposal to ensure the content was clear and compelling to On-Ramps’ target audiences. Then we designed graphics and layouts that create a strong information hierarchy: those who want to scan the document can easily absorb the key takeaways, while those who want to dig deeper have access to the details.