A large technology and services corporation centered around helping government serve the people.
• MY ROLE
For the last 8 years,
I was the
SENIOR VISUAL DESIGNER
of Maximus' Proposal Operations Team
As the Senior Visual Designer for Maximus' Proposal Operations Team, I completely reimagined how we approached proposal design — creating full visual identities for our biggest bids that helped tell each client's story in a compelling way.
I also helped build the systems that kept everything running smoothly, like visual libraries so our designers could easily reuse assets, streamlined workflows to improve the productivity of our team, and even partnered with Maximus’ software engineers to design a custom SharePoint-based graphic request system from the ground up. On top of that, I trained all our new designers and created an employee handbook that served to standardize our entire design process and methodology.
• A NEW APPROACH
My day-to-day included making many visuals for the various bids that we supported, but my biggest contribution was the creation of our Creative Approaches.
Even though they were household name in H&HS, Maximus needed to stand out on critical bids. It was my job to analyze the proposal, client, and our solution to develop a visual language that our designers used to create tailored graphics for each bid.
This resulted in the Creative Approach. A tailored visual strategy that walked senior leadership through our method of tackling the visuals of the bid.
Short on Time?
• CDPH CASE STUDY
Studying the RFP
Compared to the rest of the country, California is serious about its healthcare. This bid was centered around the entire takeover of their HCO program, which is a widespread initiative to streamline the process for Californians to reach better health outcomes.
For Maximus, this large of a bid was an absolute must-win.
Who is the Consumer?
For this bid, we looked closely at the types of Californians who would be covered by the HCO program. Since the program is so large, it actually touches on every citizen in the country, no matter the demographic.
My goal was to represent the citizens of CA often and with visuals that evoke emotion.
Diverse People, Diverse Colors
Leveraging the colors of CA's current health care programs and using inspiration from other materials that CA uses, I built a strong palette wide enough utility to build complex graphics, yet restrained enough to not look strange when compared to CA's current programs.
• PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Unifying the Message
After dissecting the RFP, I needed to look at our solution and how it related to the client. For Maximus, this results in the creation of the Hero Theme and Differentiators.
Hero Theme
The hero theme acts as a sort of "logo" for Maximus' responses. It contains a simple message that the reader can hold in their mind as they read the narrative.
Differentiators
Maximus leverages the use of "differentiators" as an easy way to set themselves apart from other bidders. To emphasize these details, icons are developed to help anchor special parts of the text that stress how Maximus set itself apart from the competition.
• TEMPLATE ELEMENTS
Creating a Usable Template
After all the big decisions are made, it is time to implement all of those decisions into the template elements that Maximus commonly uses for their bids. I translated the intent, identity, and feeling of Maximus' solution into all of the templated elements that they use to build their responses. These elements are then available for use by other designers, desktop publishers, and writers to build the sections as they go.
