How to make on-brand proposals without a designer

A proposal is often the first thing a client sees from you that is not your website. If it looks like a default word processor file, the client notices, even if they cannot say why. If it looks like a careful, consistent piece of work, it says something about how you will treat their project.

You do not need a designer for that. You need a small set of decisions, made once and applied every time. This guide shows which decisions matter and how to make them.

Start with a small brand kit

Most of what makes a document look on-brand comes from four things. Collect them in one folder before you touch a template.

If you already have a brand guide from a designer, this is the one page of it you actually need. If you do not, the sections below help you choose.

Colour: fewer is better

Pick one main colour that is clearly yours. Use it for headings, key numbers, links and buttons, not for whole pages of text. Add neutrals: an off-white or white background, a dark grey or near-black for text, a mid grey for secondary text and a light tone for lines and boxes. If you want, add one accent for highlights.

That is enough for every slide you will ever make. Proposals that use six colours look busy; proposals that use one strong colour against calm neutrals look intentional.

Check contrast. Text should be easy to read for everyone, including people with low vision and anyone reading on a phone in the sun. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines set a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. A free contrast checker tells you whether your colour on your background passes. Bright brand colours (orange, yellow, light green) often fail as text colours on white; use a darker shade of the same colour for text, and keep the bright one for large shapes and your logo.

Type: two fonts, a few sizes

Use one font for headings and one for body text. A pairing of a characterful heading font with a plain, very readable text font works for most brands. If your brand has only one font, use it for both, with a heavier weight for headings.

Then fix a small scale and stick to it:

• Slide title: large, the same size on every slide.
• Subheading: about half to two thirds of the title size.
• Body text: large enough to read on a laptop from a normal distance. On a 16:9 slide that is much bigger than in a document.
• Small print: used only for footnotes and sources.

Avoid all caps for more than a few words, centre-aligned paragraphs, and more than two weights on one slide.

Free font libraries such as Google Fonts list the licence for each family. Check it before you embed a font in documents you send to clients.

Layout: one idea per slide

Proposals today are often read as slides, on a laptop or a phone, not printed. A 16:9 layout suits that. A few rules keep slides clean:

• One idea per slide. The challenge on one, the approach on the next. If a slide needs two headings, it is probably two slides.
• Generous margins. Leave the same space around the edge of every slide. Empty space looks confident; full slides look anxious.
• A simple grid. Two or three columns are enough. Align everything to them: text, images, numbers.
• The same element in the same place. Logo, page number and title in a fixed position on every slide.
• Numbers big, words small. On a pricing or results slide, the figure is the headline.

When content does not fit, do not shrink the text. Cut words, or split the slide. Long lists of deliverables can go into a table, and long case studies into two slides: the situation and the result.

Photos and images

Real photos of your team and your work do more than stock images. A slightly imperfect photo of your actual team is more convincing than a perfect one of strangers shaking hands.

• Use the same treatment for every photo: similar light, the same crop for portraits, the same corner radius if you round corners.
• For case studies, show the work as it is used: the website on a phone, the campaign in place, the product page with real content.
• Ask clients for permission before you use their logo or work.
• Keep file sizes reasonable, so the proposal opens quickly on a phone.

Make it work on a phone

A client may well open your proposal first on a phone, between meetings. A 16:9 slide shrunk to a phone screen is hard to read, so check yours on one before you send it. Tiny text and detailed tables are the first things to fail. If your tool can show the deck as a single scrolling column on small screens, check that view too.

Build it once, use it every time

Consistency is what makes a brand feel like a brand. The goal is to make every decision once:

1. Build one master deck with every slide type you use: cover, challenge, approach, scope, timeline, team, cases, pricing, payment schedule, terms, thank-you.
2. Set the colours, fonts and logo in the master, not slide by slide.
3. Write reusable content once: team bios, your standard cases, your terms.
4. Start every new proposal from the master, never from the last client's file. That is how another client's name ends up on slide 7.

In an agency, this is also how you keep proposals consistent when several people send them. More on that in what to include in an agency proposal.

Words are part of the brand

Design is only half of it. A proposal with a clean layout and a vague, jargon-heavy text still feels generic. Write the way you talk to clients: short sentences, their words, concrete numbers. The structure in how to write a web design proposal that gets signed helps.

Checklist

• Logo in a horizontal and a square version, light and dark.
• One main colour, neutrals and at most one accent, with hex codes written down.
• Text colours pass a contrast check.
• Two fonts, licensed for documents, with a fixed size scale.
• One idea per slide, with the same margins and grid everywhere.
• Real photos, treated the same way.
• Checked on a phone.
• Every new proposal starts from the master.

How Propozit helps

In a Propozit account today you set your brand once: colours, fonts and logo, with a live preview of a deck as you change them, plus your company details. Invite your team with roles, and your data is stored in the EU (Frankfurt); the AI features currently run on Anthropic in the US.

The live demo shows how the slides use a brand: 11 slide types that fit their content to a 16:9 page, so text is not squeezed or cut off, and an easy scroll on a phone. See the slide library. You can build your own decks in the editor today, or start from a template for the type of work and build the proposal in a few steps. Propozit is in early access and free to start.