The typography decision that changed how clients see our proposals
This is a small story about a change that should have been obvious and was not.
For three years, our proposals were formatted in a Google Doc. Clean, professional, our logo at the top. The font was the Google Docs default. Body text at 11pt. Headings in the template style. Nothing wrong with it. We just never thought about it.
In April, we were working on a proposal for a client who had mentioned in passing that they were comparing us with two other agencies. Both were slightly larger than us. I decided to treat the proposal itself as a design brief. Not just the content, but how it felt to read.
What we changed
We moved proposals to a designed PDF format built in Figma, exported to PDF for sending. New body typeface: a clean serif called Lora, rendered at 12pt with generous line spacing. Headings in a matching weight that felt considered, not just defaulted into. White space treated as a deliberate element, not just what happens when you do not fill the page.
The content did not change. The structure did not change. Just the typographic decisions and the move from Google Doc to designed PDF.
The client who was comparing us with two other agencies signed with us and mentioned in their first kickoff call that our proposal "felt more serious" than the others. That phrase stuck with me.
Why typography signals trust
There is a logic to this that feels slightly uncomfortable to say out loud. Typography communicates investment. A proposal set in a considered typeface with deliberate spacing tells the reader that the sender thought about presentation. That care signals that the sender probably cares about other things too.
For an agency that sells design and brand work, this is doubly true. If our own materials look unconsidered, why would a client trust us with theirs? Our proposals are a live demonstration of how we treat presentation. For three years, we were demonstrating mediocrity.
What else changed because of this
Once we rebuilt the proposal template, we rebuilt the client report template. Then the onboarding document format. Then the invoice layout. The logic was the same each time: these are materials that a client or prospect sees, which means they communicate something about us whether we intend them to or not.
The total time investment was probably twelve hours spread over two weeks. The return on those twelve hours, in terms of how professional our materials feel and the signal they send, has compounded every time we have sent something to a client since.
Proposals are not just documents. They are the first piece of client-facing work we deliver. I am annoyed it took me three years to treat them that way.