Logo design and Drupal website development
The organization proposes to obtain a new logo that conveys our brand and editorial philosophy, as well as to construct a new website to alpha level by April 30, 2012. These projects must happen simultaneously. Respondents are encouraged to quote both projects; however, while it is preferable that the same bidder be able to complete both projects, it is not required. Feel free to bid on one or both projects. If you believe your bid is strong but cannot make the alpha level deadline, please bid anyway, but indicate why.
Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) is a 12 year-old non-profit reporter collective that produces the only national daily progressive radio newscast in the United States. FSRN is heard on more than 100 radio stations in North America, and globally via the Internet and on shortwave. We are a virtual workplace, with four full-time and seven part-time staff in four states and the District of Columbia. Our staff works with more than 200 freelance correspondents on six continents. We also produce regular topical series and documentary reports for distribution. FSRN is an independent news source, relying on foundation, listener and affiliate station support.
Project Description:
FSRN proposes to obtain a new logo that conveys our brand and editorial philosophy, as well as to construct a new website to alpha level by April 30, 2012. These projects must happen simultaneously. Respondents are encouraged to quote both projects; however, while it is preferable that the same bidder be able to complete both projects, it is not required. Feel free to bid on one or both projects. If you believe your bid is strong but cannot make the alpha level deadline, please bid anyway, but indicate why.
Logo design summary:
FSRN seeks a new logo that resonates with a broad US and international audience. The adjectives that best describe our new logo include: strong, striking, simple, elegant, vibrant, interesting, timeless and versatile. The message we’d like our new logo to convey is that we’re a trusted, reliable, credible and professional daily source of news; that we’re a non-corporate and unique alternative to the mainstream media; and that we prioritize public interest news and diverse, grassroots voices from around the world. We’d like any imagery to communicate our evolution into a multimedia platform.
We have also conducted a survey with FSRN stakeholders on specific elements of the logo redesign, which we can share upon request.
Criteria for the logo include:
--Logo must be an original design
--Logo should be versatile for use on web, printed materials and promotional products
--Logo should retain its integrity when used in multiple formats, sizes
--Logo should be attractive in both color and black and white
--FSRN will retain all rights to this logo and associated files after completion
Web design summary:
FSRN seeks a new website that will showcase our original reporting from across the US and around the world; that will invite and facilitate audience engagement; that will integrate emerging, collaborative storytelling tools; and that will feature a contemporary yet timeless interface with smooth and intuitive navigation.
We envision a clean design that incorporates photographs and other visuals, but that avoids being too busy, cluttered and distracting. While many news sites appear formal, detached and antiseptic, we’d like our site to incorporate a sense of warmth and community, spotlighting the human element that is prominent in our stories, in our global network of reporters and in our growing worldwide audience.
FSRN produces a number of original radio reports each day (1-4 headlines, 3-5 feature segments). Our site is used by both radio stations who download our content and by news consumers. We are looking for better ways to post, display, organize and archive this content. As we add staff capacity, we envision more multimedia elements being created and posted with our stories: photos, videos, extra audio, slideshows, graphs, time lines, annotated maps, searchable documents, etc. Radio transcripts will be converted into articles, which will require an attractive layout that can include pull quotes, photos, links to primary documents, links to related and previous stories, etc.
As we are non-profit with a small budget and no PR department, we need our new website to incorporate tools that allow our audience to promote and disseminate our reporting. Options to spread our content through social media need to be prominent and accessible. The ability to sign up for automatically generated newsletters and/or news updates that follow a topic area or specific reporter is another option. Because we rely on donations from our audience, reminders and links to donate need to be available for with each original story, as well as on each landing page. Although we don’t currently accept advertising, we’d like to build in the technical capacity to accommodate ads if we decide to do so in the future.
We may need to keep some of the new web features in hibernation and roll them out after we can hire appropriate staffing. But, we are open to big ideas, and welcome proposals for unique and diverse elements that could help FSRN find new ways of presenting our journalism, sharing information and collaborating with our reporters and our audience.
We have also conducted a survey with FSRN stakeholders on specific elements of the site redesign, which we can share upon request.
Technical and Infrastructure Requirements:
Written in Drupal 6, incorporating or ready to incorporate the Open Publish application. Our current CMS is Drupal 5.
A pop-up media player will allow visitors to listen to FSRN programming while surfing our site, or after leaving our site.
The site will frequently feature embedded video from other sources.
The site should be built with simple architecture and an intuitive naming convention.
Our audio archives should be easily accessible via a topic selection system, a search and advanced search function and a calendar.
The site should be fast and accessible from all devices/platforms, including the iphone, ipad, androids, tablets and older, slower machines.
The site should have a robust comment system or discussion space that promotes respectful conversation moderated with a minimum of effort, perhaps Disqus.
It will heavily incorporate the use of Social Media, including Twitter, Facebook and others.
It will have ready access to donation links.
The ability to incorporate e-commerce or advertising placement is critical. This must be easily done in a way that is visually flattering and consistent with overall design.
Password protected audio exchange though a webform, with separate file archive.
The site should interface with common transcript generation software.
The site should meet accessibility needs as much as possible given other design requirements.
Dashboard activity will be actuated by multiple users, many non-technical in nature.
FSRN’s full online archive needs to be migrated to the new site, with stories appropriately tagged to appear through multiple search functions (topic, reporter name, date, etc.).
The site should include or interface with newsletter software to facilitate or automate emails and digests featuring our content.
The site should have the capacity to integrate other elements/tools that can facilitate work place efficiency, communication and record-keeping.
Estimated Project Duration:
Desire to move from awarding RFP to alpha test in 45 to 60 days, with additional 30 days to full rollout.
Qualifications:
--Extensive experience in Drupal
--Experience building media or data-heavy sites in Drupal
--Experience transferring large amounts of untagged data
Bid Submission:
Please send via email the follow:
-- Links for up to three Drupal sites you have built that had similar needs as FSRN
-- Names and contact information for three references for whom you have designed Drupal sites
-- A brief narrative describing your vision for a new FSRN website
Combined bids for logo design and site construction should not exceed $13,500
Bids for site construction alone should not exceed $12,000
Bids for logo design alone should not exceed $1,500
If your bid is significantly lower or higher than these figure, please enter your bid and explain.
Bids should be sent via email to [email protected] no later than February 27, 2012. Email any questions to this same address. We anticipate awarding a contract by March 12, 2012.
FSRN reserves the right to reject or dismiss any proposal for any reason, and will not return bids.
Request for Proposal
From Free Speech Radio News
February 13, 2012
http://fsrn.org
[email protected]
510-931-5775
