Overview
INTERNAL ONLY** Asst Area Dir – Marketing/Lecturer/PoP/ATP Jobs in Lawrence, KS at University of Kansas
Request for Qualifications – Marketing and Creative Services
The Eastern Trail Alliance seeks a firm or individual to provide consulting assistance and creative services to develop branding and cohesive marketing for trail signage and wayfinding.
Background and Context
The Eastern Trail is a visionary plan for a long-distance walking and bicycling trail that will one day extend entirely and contiguous off-road from South Portland to Kittery. Today, you can cycle across the Scarborough Marsh, walk through the woods of Saco or Kennebunk, and enjoy more than 20 miles of completed off-road, multi-use trail in southern Maine.
The membership-based Eastern Trail Alliance (ETA) was incorporated in 1999 and the regional semi-municipal organization the Eastern Trail Management District (ETMD) was incorporated in 2001. Together the sister organizations manage the trail. The ETA is tasked with engaging members and partners, promoting the trail, and facilitating programs that encourage communities and individuals to use it while the ETMD works with municipalities to maintain and expand the trail’s path.
The sister organizations share an executive director, the only full-time staff member of both organizations, who reports to two separate and independent boards of directors. The ETA also employs a part-time office manager and a part-time trail manager as well as two independent contractors that work on web administration, communications, and the annual Maine Lighthouse Ride.
Needs/Challenges
We are eager to work with a group or individual that will guide us and lead the development of new trail signage and wayfinding. There are currently eight informational kiosks, or wooden structures displaying printed information at trailheads, along the trail from Scarborough to Kennebunk. The kiosks were last updated in 2019. The kiosks provide information (such as maps, trail rules, events, and information about the ETA, etc) in a non-standardized fashion. In addition, along the route of the Eastern Trail, other signage (mile markers, trail rules, etc) may also require some initial updating as budget allows.
Currently, the Eastern Trail does not have defined brand guidelines regarding its logo, typography, or color palette or consistency regarding its overarching message. While we do not expect the selected firm or individual to develop these products, navigating their absence is an anticipated project challenge. It is our hope that this project may inform the creation of a future brand kit.
At its core this project is about developing and designing new standardized messaging and a coordinated set of elements that can be used (and reproduced as the trail grows) for trail kiosks and other signage along the trail. We think that will include the following and look forward to developing a prioritized work scope in coordination with the selected firm/individual. Identified needs include:
Development of a stock set of messages to be displayed at each informational kiosk.
Development of a stock set of design elements and products (i.e., maps, QR codes, etc) to be displayed at each informational kiosk with a variation for kiosks located at “gaps” in the trail.
Recommendations for the printing of these messages and designed elements (i.e., large format printing versus in smaller pieces) at each informational kiosk.
Development of reproduction guidelines for future kiosks so that messaging and design elements can be easily reproduced as the trail expands in the next five years.
Recommendations for and design of signage along the path of the trail (such as route signs, mile markers, trail rules) that follows from the design and messaging of the kiosks.
Timeline
January 31 – Request for Qualifications issued
February 19 – Applications due
February 20 – March 17- Applications reviewed including brief interview and/or possible reference checks or request for additional information. Interviews will be held the week of February 24-28.
March 17 – Applicants notified of decision
March 31 – Scope of work, timeline, and contract developed and finalized
By April 1 – Project begins
By July 1 – Project ends
Selection Process
Submit your application proposal (PDF) via email to [email protected] by 5:00 pm on February 19, 2025. Hyperlinks to previous work may be included in the PDF. Materials will be shared with a subset of the Eastern Trail Alliance’s staff and Board of Directors that serve as the review team for applications. All applicants and their materials will be treated as confidential.
Explain why you are a good fit to update the Eastern Trail’s trail signage and wayfinding.
Provide a task-based work scope that describes the approach, level of effort, costs associated with your plan for the Needs/Challenges section above. Identify key personnel for each. You may also add other tasks, services, or products you think would be beneficial, for consideration by the review team. The total for the entire project should not exceed the grant-funded amount of $5,000 including the printing of the signs. (The ETA will cover installation.) We welcome proposals that make creative use of or include plans for in-kind support to amplify the budget.
Highlight some previous work you have provided or developed for clients since 2019.
Describe your prior experience helping nonprofit organizations shape their messaging/brand.
Provide contact information for two former or current clients willing to provide a reference.
Additional Information
A contract will be executed between the ETA and the selected consultant for services.
The Eastern Trail Alliance Executive Director will be the point of contact, dedicate time to working with the selected consultant, and help facilitate coordination with the staff and boards of the ETA/ETMD, as needed.
Once the contract is initiated, the overall project duration is ideally no more than three months. The sister organizations would like the newly designed kiosks functional by late June 2025.
Questions
Contact Chelsey Berlin, Executive Director for the Eastern Trail Alliance/Eastern Trail Management District, at [email protected].
Job Type: Contract
Location:
Maine (Required)
Work Location: Remote
Title: INTERNAL ONLY** Asst Area Dir – Marketing/Lecturer/PoP/ATP
Company: University of Kansas
Location: Lawrence, KS
