“RAIN” is Seeking a Graphic Designer

Request for Proposal: Branding for RAIN Coalition Vision 

Project Overview

The Rain Garden Action In Neighborhoods Coalition (RAIN) is seeking a skilled graphic designer to develop branding outreach materials to represent RAIN’s vision focused on rain garden maintenance. 

Responses Due: June 13, 2022

Budget: $8,000

Project Completion: August 1, 2022

RAIN Coalition Background

Four community based organizations that include Bronx River Alliance (BxRA), Gowanus Canal Conservancy (GCC), The HOPE Program (HOPE), and Newtown Creek Alliance (NCA) developed the Rain Garden Action In Neighborhoods (RAIN) Coalition, a pilot collaborative approach for rain garden stewardship of City-owned Green Infrastructure.

Project Background

NYC experiences more frequent extreme weather events like Hurricanes Henri and Ida making the need for green infrastructure (GI) more imperative than ever to mitigate hazardous flooding and combined sewage overflow, among other climate change impacts. To date the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has converted 1,230 impervious acres to GI,  including approximately 10,032 rain gardens that manage localized flooding and reduce combined sewer overflow, while providing numerous co-benefits including improving air quality, providing shade and beauty, and reducing the urban heat island effect. However, the City did not develop adequate maintenance capacity for this critical infrastructure nor consider opportunities to link this maintenance with workforce development. 

In response, four community based organizations previously mentioned above developed the Rain Garden Action In Neighborhoods (RAIN) Coalition, a pilot collaborative approach for rain garden stewardship of City-owned GI. 

Since inception in 2021, the RAIN Coalition has maintained 56 rain gardens throughout the 3 priority watersheds including the Bronx River, Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek that drain to the most polluted NYC waterways. These watershed communities are impacted by multiple environmental injustices, including exposure to CSO, flooding, high poverty, impaired air quality, extreme heat, and lack of accessible green space. Maintenance included litter abatement, weeding, pruning, soil cultivation, removal of sediment from inlets/outlets, and replanting of rain gardens. Each watershed has an established stewardship organization poised to build long-term capacity for local GI management, provide local green-collar jobs, and catalyze a citywide network.

Scope of Work

The RAIN Coalition (RAIN) is looking for a skilled graphic designer to develop branding outreach materials to represent RAIN’s vision focused on rain garden maintenance. RAIN seeks the services of a graphic design professional to create a dynamic and visually stimulating logo and style guide; produce a suite of electronic and print materials to build and unify our identity, promote awareness of and interest in our work, and effectively communicate our work activities and opportunities for expanding our work. 

Target Audience

The audience for the materials created includes prospective funders and donors, policy makers and government officials and other community based organizations. 

Project Scope & Deliverables 

The design work will include:   

1. Style guide, establishing consistency in fonts and colors for all Coalition documents and materials.  
2. Design of the RAIN’s logo, delivered in both Vector art (.eps) and web format (. jpeg &.png). The logo should work in both full color and black and white format and in two versions, an English and Spanish version.
3. Print design for a 8 1/2 x 11 one page flier template, delivered in both high-resolution and low resolution .pdf.  Designer will deliver the source file and editable template. 
4. Electronic slide presentation template. Fonts, colors, and any images used should be consistent with overall design established by the designer. Designer will deliver the source file and editable template.  
5. Opportunity to extend work deliverables based on future funding. 

Budget  

The budget for this project is up to a maximum of $8,000. Budget should itemize each deliverable.  

Necessary Skills 

Graphic design and illustration skills are critically important in addition to possessing an  outgoing personality, good communication, organizational and time management skills. Creativity to develop new and unique materials. The ability to meet  deadlines and submit high quality work is very important. Previous experience working with environmental issues and public policy projects is highly preferred. Ability to edit for language translation is a plus. 

Proposal should include:

1. Background: individual’s/firm’s name, address, contact information, CV and two (2) references. Please include name, email, and phone number of the primary point of contact.  
2. Experience/work samples: summary of completed projects of similar scale and/or for clients doing environmental work similar to RAIN. Please include at least three (3) relevant work samples.  
3. Cost proposal: estimated cost for all work related to tasks and deliverables outlined in the proposal. Please itemize the cost associated with each deliverable. 

Schedule  

All proposals are due by June 13, 2022. Submissions will be reviewed immediately following the deadline. Target completion date for this project is August 1, 2022. This timeline includes two rounds of design material submissions for review, deadline as follows:

• 1st Draft due July 11, 2022
• 2nd Draft due July 20, 2022

Proposal Evaluation & Award for Contract

Criteria for proposal evaluation will include:  

1. esthetic capabilities and portfolio review: designer’s work reflects ability to communicate message, as well as creativity and quality.  
2. Experience: candidate has successfully completed similar projects and the necessary qualifications to undertake this project.  
3. Cost: price is commensurate with the value offered by the proposer.  
4. Schedule: ability to meet the timeline listed above. 
5. Proposal presentation: information is well organized, clearly presented and in a logical manner. 
6. Strength of references

How to apply 

Please send your proposal as one .pdf file to rain (at) bronxriver (dot) org by June 13, 2022.