Call for tender – Graphic design

The results of the call for tender will be announced in the week of 22 September 2025. Thank you for your patience!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the company selection has been moved to 19/09/2025. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.

This call for tender was launched on 30 July 2025. Applications had to be submitted by 29 August 2025

FEPS – GENERAL INFORMATION

The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) is the think tank of the progressive political family at the EU level. Our mission is to develop innovative research, policy advice, training, and debates to inspire and inform socialist and social democratic politics and policies across Europe.

We operate as a hub for thinking to facilitate the emergence of progressive answers to the challenges that Europe faces today.

FEPS works in close partnership with its members and partners, forging connections and boosting coherence among stakeholders from the world of politics, academia, and civil society at local, regional, national, European and global levels.

Today, FEPS benefits from a solid network of 76 member organisations. Among these, 40 are full members, 31 have observer status, and 5 are ex-officio members. In addition to this network of organisations that are active in the promotion of progressive values, FEPS also has an extensive network of partners, including renowned universities, scholars, policymakers, and activists.

Our ambition is to undertake intellectual reflection for the benefit of the progressive movement and to promote the EU’s founding principles – freedom, equality, solidarity, democracy, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, human dignity, and the rule of law.

PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT TENDER

The purpose of this tender is to select a graphic design agency to deliver graphic design services for the Foundation of European Progressive Studies.

The objective of this tender is to procure design services to produce magazines, books, policy studies, policy briefs, leaflets, flyers, banners, logos, promotional material, website(s), or any other kind of FEPS-branded products.

If selected through the present call for tender, FEPS offers the possibility of signing a five-year contract for graphic design services with no exclusivity and no minimum billing amount between October 2025 and September 2030, with a six-month trial period.

PARTICIPATION IN THE TENDERING PROCEDURE

Tender Process

FEPS reserves the right to conduct the tender process and select the successful tender.

FEPS is not bound contractually or in any way to a bidder to this request for tender until FEPS and the successful winner have entered into a written contract.

The key dates of this call for tender are the following:

1. Deadline for the submission of applications: receive the offer in writing via email by 29/08/2025
2. Emails/phone calls to discuss the offers: 01/08/2025 – 15/08/2025
3. Company selection: 05/09/2025 at the latest 12/09/2025 at the latest 19/09/2025 at the latest
4. Start of contract: 01/10/2025

The offer must include the hourly rate cost VAT. Any other costs or additional fees that may be charged in exceptional situations should be detailed and include applicable conditions (e.g. premium fee for urgency). Providing some samples of its graphic design portfolio is highly recommended.

Tender qualitative evaluation criteria

In non-preferential order, the evaluation criteria used to assess the quality of the applications are the following:

Criteria 1: A cost proposal – value for money offered by the applicant.

Criteria 2: A list of references – Quality of the technical and professional capacity proposed by the tenderer in terms of graphic design and layout. The tenderer is requested to provide at least three examples of graphic design and layout done for other clients that are similar to FEPS’s request.

Criteria 3: Quality of the assurance mechanisms proposed by the tenderer to ensure the production of a high-quality service (number of artwork proposals, rounds of corrections, etc.)

Criteria 4: Speed of work, ensuring efficiency is not compromised.

Applicants must be able to work in the English language. French and other EU languages are an asset.

CONTACTS

If the above request is of interest to your company, we invite you to liaise with morgana.cochaux@feps-europe.eu (FEPS Communication and Events Officer) to request further information and submit your application.

All written offers must be submitted to morgana.cochaux@feps-europe.eu (FEPS Communication and Events Officer) and put in copy to johan.robberecht@feps-europe.eu (FEPS Director of Operations) and accountancy@feps-europe.eu.

Offers must be provided in writing via email to be considered

TERMS OF PAYMENT

Prices must be fixed amounts in Euro.

The amount of VAT must be disclosed on the price offer and invoice. Services and items charged should be broken down as much as possible in the invoices in order to have a comprehensive overview of the project costs.

Costs incurred in preparing and submitting tenders are borne by the tenderers and cannot be reimbursed.

QUALITY ISSUES

In delivering the service, the tenderer shall ensure the highest quality standards, of which FEPS shall be the sole judge.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The tenderer undertakes that they will not, at any time, either before or after the termination of this service, use, disclose or communicate to any person confidential information relating to the affairs of FEPS.

This restriction shall continue to apply after the termination of the service without limit in point of time.

To ensure the independence of the terms of their contract, the winning tenderer will sign a declaration certifying that they have no conflict of interests in relation to the tasks to be undertaken and undertake to inform FEPS’ Director of Operations should this status change.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

FEPS reserve the right to reject any and all proposals, in whole or in part, to advertise for new proposals, to abandon the need for services, and to cancel or amend this call for tender at any time prior to the execution of the written contract.

FEPS reserves the right to waive any formalities in the call for tender process. FEPS may respond to questions or provide information from tenderers and is under no obligation to provide such responses or information to all other tenderers.

By submitting a proposal, the tenderer agrees to:

• FEPS may copy the proposal for the purpose of facilitating the evaluation of the proposal and agrees that such copying will not violate the rights of any third party.
• It will not bring any claim or have any cause of action against FEPS based on any misunderstanding concerning the information provided or concerning FEPS’ failure, neglect or otherwise, to provide the bidder with pertinent information as Intended by this call for tender.

The accomplishment of a tendering procedure imposes no obligation on the FEPS to award the contract.

Should the invitation to tender cover several items or lots, FEPS reserves the right to award a contract for only some of them.

FEPS shall not be liable for any compensation with respect to tenders whose tenders have not been accepted. Nor shall it be so liable if it decides not to award the contract.

CONTRACTING AUTHORITY

Foundation of European Progressive Studies (FEPS)
Avenue des Arts 46
1000 Brussels
EUPF 4 BE0896.230.213
www.feps-europe.eu

RECAPITULATION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS  (Updated regularly)

Brand manual / Templates

FEPS has documents outlining our colour palette and typography, as well as templates for specific publication categories. These can be shared upon request.

Photography/illustrations

We have a Shutterstock account that we use to source images. Occasionally, we also commission original artwork or illustrations from graphic designers and artists, though this is handled separately from publication design. If this is a service you can provide, please feel free to indicate it in your offer as a possible extra.

Print management

We typically manage print production in-house, but please don’t hesitate to mention in your offer if you have established contacts with printing companies.

Scope of work

The primary role of the graphic design agency would be to produce publications using FEPS templates and the text we provide. Publication length varies. Main formats include: 

• Books: long work, but changes totally from book to book
• Policy study: longer paper: >30 pages
• Policy brief: shorter paper: <15 pages
• Magazine: triannual: 70-80 pages

Additional possible tasks:

• Flyers, leaflets, brochures
• Graphical adaptations of charts, maps, diagrams
• Roll-ups
• Logos
• Country fact sheets
• Policy recommendations

Anticipated volume

The workload can vary significantly from month to month. We typically produce around 60–70 publications per year that require the support of a graphic designer, so the need is fairly regular.

The time required depends on the complexity of each publication. On average, a standard publication takes about 4–5 working days to complete. If the content is text-only, without infographics or tables, it can be done in around 3 days.

In addition to these regular publications, we occasionally need support for one-off projects. The time commitment for those really depends on the nature and scope of each project.

Workflow

Typical process:

1. FEPS provides a Word document.
2. Designer creates the layout using FEPS templates.
3. FEPS reviews with partners/authors, collects feedback, and returns comments.
4. Designer implements revisions.
5. If needed, one or two additional rounds of revisions follow.

Usually, changes to the editorial content once it is set are minimal.

Editorial or copy support

We have copyeditors helping us with every publication. However, if this is a service you can provide, please feel free to indicate it in your offer as a possible extra.

Accessibility requirements

All materials should comply with standard EU accessibility practices, including:

• Legibility and good colour contrast
• Screen reader compatibility (all PDFs are accessible on our website)

If you can also provide an accessibility-compliant PDF, that could be a great added value. Feel free to include it in your offer as an optional extra, along with the price difference compared to a standard PDF.

Any extra information?

It would be helpful to include in your offer

• List of the design tools you are proficient in
• Whether you accept urgent requests, how you define an urgent request, and whether you apply a specific rate for such services
• As indicated in the call, please include the hourly rate cost VAT. Any other costs or additional fees that may be charged in exceptional situations should be detailed and include applicable conditions (e.g. premium fee for urgency).