Request for Proposal: Rosenfeld Media Cover Design

Rosenfeld Media seeks to engage a partner to design a book cover theme for a new series of user experience methods books. The theme will reflect the unique focus of each book, while incorporating consistent and common visual elements that reflect and reinforce the brand.

Background

Founded in late 2005, Rosenfeld Media (www.rosenfeldmedia.com) is a publishing house dedicated to developing short, practical, and useful books on user experience design. Our books explain the design and research methods that web professionals need to make informed design decisions.

Audience

The primary audience for the books is design professionals who seek tools that help them make more informed design decisions. These professionals come from a wide variety of backgrounds—from graphic design and interaction design to business analysis and marketing—and typically focus on designing digital experiences. Secondary audiences include designers of non-digital experiences, web designers and developers who seek to professionalize their practices, and senior UX practitioners who will use our books to educate their managers and team members.

Because these books are sold directly, they will rarely be displayed on traditional retailers’ shelves. The audience, therefore, may not be seeing them in line with similar books, but they will still compete for a reader’s attention in other ways.

Branding

Rosenfeld Media upholds some attributes that we use to consistently position the publications. The designer can also use these as inspiration:

• practical
• nuts-and-bolts
• attentive to good design
• purposeful
• accessible
• approachable
• usable
• useful
• welcoming
• warm
• serious without taking itself too seriously

Design Requirements

Rosenfeld Media encourages our partner to explore fairly unconventional ideas for the design, introducing new concepts that can be represented on the front and back covers. In doing so, there are required elements that the designer should keep in mind:

• Front cover: Book name, author name, publisher name
• Spine: Book name, author name, publisher mark
• Back cover: Book reviews and testimonials, publisher mark, website URL, book description/what you’ll find inside
• Size: 6”x9”
• Length: typically 150-200 pages
• Bindery: Perfect bound

Competition

Publishers such as New Riders, Peachpit, Morgan Kaufmann, and O’Reilly have begun to publish books on user experience design. Most are relatively long (400-600 pages) and educate readers about the “whats” and “whys” of UX. Of these, O’Reilly is the only one that has a strong visual design for a series, relying on consistent typography, color, and, most recognizably, iconography (each cover features a Dover woodcut animal engraving). The others have not succeeded in presenting their titles consistently. While it appears that the “O’Reilly approach” works well, RM is open to non-iconographic means for achieving this consistency.

Proposal Requirements

The designer should demonstrate how she proposes to meet the design requirements through the following:

• One to two-page proposal in PDF format
• Portfolio or examples of relevant work
• Estimated cost for project
• Professional references

The Rosenfeld Media team will choose a designer based on her prior design experience and vision for this particular project. Any questions prior to the deadline should be directed to the publisher at lou (at) rosenfeldmedia.com.

Process Guidelines

Please submit your proposal in response to this RFP by close of business on January 15, 2007. Please submit by email to: lou (at) rosenfeldmedia.com. Rosenfeld Media intends to award a contract to the selected partner on February 2, 2007. The design partner should be prepared to begin work on the project shortly after the award date.