Tender Notice - Graphic Design Services

International IDEA - The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance

Tender Reference No: 2025-09-073
Assignment Name: Graphic Design Services (For use across the entire organization)
Project Name: Publications and Communications and other

Deadline for Submissions: Proposals must be submitted on or before 23:59 (CET), 14 December 2025. Late submissions will not be considered for evaluation.

Address for Submissions: E-mail: tendersubmissions@idea.int.

This email address is set up with auto-response to acknowledge emails received. In the event that you did not receive an autoreply, please send a text message prior to the deadline for submission (NO CALLS, CALLS WILL NOT BE ANSWERED) to this number +46725375735. In your text message, please provide the following:

Tender reference no. and title;
Email address you used for submission;
Date and Time, you sent your submission (e.g. 01 December 2021, 12:30 CET);
Please also send the above information to tender@idea.int before the deadline for submission.

Format for Submissions: Proposals must be submitted by email. Technical and Financial proposals must be submitted in separate files and marked accordingly. Price should not be mentioned in the Technical Proposal.

The following text should be put in the subject field of the email: Tender No. 2025-09-073 Technical and Financial Proposals – Do not open before 23:59 (CET), 14 December 2025.

Email Address for Clarifications: E-mail: tender@idea.int.

Clarifications may be requested via e-mail no later than 01 December 2025 at the above email address. Note a response to a request for clarifications will be issued to all tenderers on our website https://www.idea.int/. Therefore, tenderers are advised to check the website regularly during the process.

Note: There are two different email addresses as outlined above, one to be used for Submission of your final proposal and the second one to be used for clarifications and other related correspondence.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Section 1 General information

1.1 The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization established in 1995, with member states across all continents, which aims to support sustainable democracy world-wide and assist in the development of institutions and the culture of democracy. At the interface between research, fieldwork and the donor community, IDEA provides a forum for dialogue, builds networks of experts, develops training materials and provides strategic advice at international, regional and national level, cooperating with a range of organizations.

1.2 International IDEA now invites proposals from qualified consultants (individuals, firms and organizations) for Graphic Design Services. The services include creative, original design, and illustrations for communications products as well as typesetting of publications. A description of possible assignments is provided in the Terms of Reference attached to this Request for Proposals.

1.3 Tentative timeframe: It is anticipated that the services will commence on 01 June 2026 for an initial period of three years with the option to renew up to a total maximum of five years.

1.4 Estimated budget: The number of assignments will vary depending on International IDEA’ work programme. International IDEA does not guarantee any minimum quantity of work or exclusive engagement of a successful tenderer.

1.5 It is intended to establish a pool of Providers with Framework Contracts from whom International IDEA can invite quotations to undertake various design assignments. It is anticipated that International IDEA may include Providers that can provide all or only one of the required areas of services.

1.6 This assignment will be governed by International IDEA’s General Terms (attached to this Tender Notice). Please note that copyright of all deliverables shall be transferred to International IDEA as per the terms in the General Terms. The Provider will be acknowledged on the colophon page of publications, but not on communications material.

Section 2 Preparation of proposals

Essential requirements

2.1 Language: The official language for the proposal, contract, reports and any other documents in relation to the assignment is English.

2.2 Estimated input: The frequency of service requests will depend on the work programme and communications activities of International IDEA.

2.3 Required experience:

Have documented experience providing the services required;
Be financially stable.

2.4 The proposal should provide the following information:

A brief description of the company/organization and an outline of recent experience on assignments of a similar nature (max 200 words);
Any comments or suggestions related to work process described in the Terms of Reference (optional, max 200 words);
Samples of previous work (maximum three (3) examples and only with hyperlink or electronic form);
Specify which language(s) the Provider can work with;
Full Name and contact details (including email address) of three (3) client references that will be contacted as part of the evaluation process;
A completed and signed declaration of honour form (Annex A3);
Please note that the attached Declaration of Honour Form should be submitted as a separate file together with the proposal. All sections must be ticked YES or NO. Please note that in Section 3, in the absence of conflict of interest, this section should be marked Yes to confirm the absence of a conflict.

Financial proposal

2.5 The price broken down in fee (showing unit rates and input) and incidental expenses likely to incur.

The financial proposal must be prepared using Annex A – the Price Matrix for submitting prices which forms part of the tender documents. The proposal should be costed in EURO and VAT (or any other taxes) must be included in the fees as and if applicable;
VAT or any other indirect taxes. International IDEA is not tax exempt and does not have a VAT number. The Bidder must act in accordance with their country’s tax laws as it relates to providing services to non-resident organizations. The Bidder shall be responsible for their own tax obligations as per the laws of the respective country;
Note that there are two (2) different services to be costed in the Matrix for submitting prices. You only need to fill in the matrix for those products that you can provide services for;
The estimated cost should include three rounds of feedback;
Please note that International IDEA only accepts payment terms of 30 days after receipt of invoice and does not cover any bank charges for international payments.

Section 3 Submission of proposals

3.1 Proposals should be submitted in electronic format by e-mail. Technical and Financial Proposals must be submitted in separate files and marked accordingly. The full details on how to submit proposals is under Tender Notice at the beginning of this document.

3.2 Please note that a Declaration of Honour Form should be submitted as a separate document along with your Technical and Financial Proposal.

3.3 Proposals must remain valid for at least 90 days following the deadline for their submission stated under the Tender Notice. During this period, the consultants are expected to keep available the professional staff proposed for the assignment. In the event there should be any (unexpected) delays, International IDEA will treat proposals as valid until the tender process and evaluation of proposals has been completed.

Section 4 Evaluation of proposals

Technical evaluation

4.1 The proposals will be evaluated and scored against the following criteria with respective corresponding weights:

Quality of submitted sample work (maximum 50 points);
References (maximum 50 points) (please note the score will be calculated as follows: total number of points allocated by each reference, divided by the number of references received per bidder).

Note the minimum passing score in the technical evaluation is 70 points. Only proposals of 70 points and above will be considered for financial evaluation.

The maximum technical score (T) is 100 points.

Financial evaluation

4.2. The financial proposals will be verified and, if necessary, adjustments will be made to the prices to ensure consistency with the technical proposals in terms of work input and to eliminate arithmetical errors.

4.3. The corrected prices will then be converted to the currency of evaluation to obtain the evaluation price (E). The exchange rate is the IDEA monthly exchange rate.

4.4 The currency used for evaluation is EURO.

4.5 The financial scores (F) will be computed as follows:

The lowest evaluation price proposal (E_m) will be given a financial score (F_m) of 100 points.

The financial scores of the other proposals will be computed applying the formula:

F = 100 x E_m/E, where:

E_m is the lowest evaluation price; and
E is the evaluation price of the proposal under consideration.

Consolidated technical and financial Score

4.6 The final consolidated scores (S) will be computed by applying the formula:

S = t x T + f x F, where:

t is the weight given to the technical score;
f is the weight given to the financial score.

4.7 The weights given to the technical and financial scores are:

t = 70%;
f = 30%.

4.8 The consultants ranked highest will be invited to negotiate the contract and if negotiations are successful the selected consultants will be awarded a Framework Contract. As stated under 1.5, International IDEA intends to establish a pool of Providers for graphic design services.

4.9 International IDEA reserves the right during the negotiation stage to vary at the time of award of contract, the quantity of services and/or goods, or scope of work by up to a maximum of twenty-five per cent (25%) of the original TOR. This negotiation will not permit any changes to unit fee rates or other terms and conditions outlined in the tender proposal.

4.10 International IDEA reserves the right to directly award a follow up contract to the contractor selected for the tender to carry out potential future work related to this initial assignment. This will depend on satisfactory delivery of the tender assignment.