Summary

The Drupal Association seeks a creative and innovative design partner to create the web and print designs for the 2014 DrupalCon events. We’re looking for people who understand that each DrupalCon is a singular expression of the Drupal community, DrupalCon location, software innovation, and extreme nerdiness and know how to turn this into compelling designs that are functional, fun, and make people look twice.

DrupalCon events convene thousands of people from the diverse Drupal Community - including coders, site builders, content editors, business people, themers, and more. For a week, these people come together to drain a city of all its coffee and fill the void with  energy, companionship, and code unmatched by any other tech community. Part SxSW, part DreamForce, and part college dorm room, DrupalCons are a signature part of the Drupal experience.

Design is an important part of the DrupalCon experience. Through design, we are able to:

• Showcase the community in which the DrupalCon is held, highlighting known, and not so known, gems without subverting or subjugating the Drupal identity.
• Illustrate the beauty of Drupal for web sites. DrupalCon web sites should push the boundaries of Drupal design.
• Create a sense of community connection. DrupalCon t-shirts and pins are collectors items, worn by the folks who proudly show off their participation.

Project Elements

DrupalCons are not small undertakings. Your designs will need to work in a variety of contexts and settings, from giant 12 foot banners to 150 pixels square web badges. Following is a comprehensive, though not exhaustive, list of elements to be delivered:

• Conference logo, web and print ready formats
• Conference splash page (prior to site launch)
• Conference web site theme (but you don’t have to build the site, we’re on that)
• Web badges for sponsors, attendees, and other stakeholders
• Social media icons and badges
• Newsletter banners, other images
• Conference venue signage, including banners, etc.
• Conference program book
• Sponsorship guide
• Production style guide

There’s one thing you DON’T have to do: build the website. The Drupal Association will lead the development of the website from COD. Our Design Partner will be heavily involved in applying the new design to the website as a Drupal theme. Knowledge of COD will be extremely helpful here.

Requirements

We don’t want to leave you to wander the wilderness alone, so we’ll be providing lots of guidance along the way, but our goal is to stay out of your way as much as possible and let you create compelling, fun, and memorable work. That said, there are a few things you’re going to want to be prepared for:

Working with a committee of local team members. We don’t run DrupalCons by ourselves. Our Local Team committee is going to be deeply involved in developing the identity of the conference. But don’t worry - they don’t all have to sign off on every web badge.

Extreme comfort in web and print production processes. We make a LOT of stuff for this conference, and understanding printing processes will allow you to maximize our print budget while pushing the boundaries of cool.

Compensation

The Drupal Association’s budget for each DrupalCon design work is fixed at $25,000 per event. The design company will receive public recognition on the site via footer credits and volunteer credits, but no sponsorships are exchanged for work.

Timeline

The timeline to launch our first 2014 event is very tight. We expect to complete firm selection by mid-April. We need a logo for the first 2014 event by the first week of May, and an event splash page by May 20th. Process As you may have noticed, this is not your father’s RFP. Instead we intend to engage in a more rigorous selection process that is better suited to engage and evaluate the relative merits of creative professionals. Firms that intend to bid on this project should state their intent to bid (contact info below). We will then engage in a round of presentations, where our team can get a sense of you, your process, and your portfolio. A round of Q&A follows, leading to our selection process, after which we will announce a winner. Then, we’ll work on a final round of negotiations and a contract. If your firm is not selected we will take the time to explain why.

Firms that intend to bid should inform the Drupal Association no later than Friday April 5, 5pm Pacific.

Contact Information

Holly Ross
Executive Director, Drupal Association
holly@association.drupal.org
p) 501 213 3767