Special Group License Plate Illustrator, short term

Request for Proposal (RFP):

Utah Lake Specialty License Plate Illustration & Design

Address: Utah Lake Authority (ULA), 51 S University Ave., Suite 109, Provo, UT 84601

PoC: Shelby Kozak

Phone: (801) 708-1305

Email: Shelby@utahlake.gov 

Date Issued: August 17, 2026

Question Due Date: 9:00 am MT on August 24, 2026

Proposal Due Date: 9:00 am MT on September 2, 2026

1. Project Overview

The Utah Lake Authority is seeking an illustrator or creative team to develop three distinctive specialty license plate designs celebrating the wildlife and natural character of Utah Lake.

Our goal is unusually ambitious but straightforward: to create license plates that are exceptionally beautiful, memorable, and immediately evocative of Utah Lake. We wish to offer Utah residents the world’s most beautiful license plate options. We are seeking sophisticated, highly finished illustration, not conventional logo design or generic wildlife graphics.

The selected artist/team will work within the State of Utah’s license plate requirements while making the fullest possible creative use of the available plate surface.

2. Creative Direction

We envision designs built around a large, close-cropped, naturalistic illustration of a single wildlife subject, making particularly effective use of the uninterrupted space on the left side of the plate while allowing the composition to extend visually across the broader plate wherever permitted.

The desired style is representational and relatively realistic, although artistic interpretation is encouraged. We are not seeking photographic reproduction, highly abstract work, cartoon imagery, or clip-art aesthetics.

The primary wildlife subject should command the composition. The remainder of the plate should generally be dark or black, incorporating only subtle indications of the Utah Lake environment, for example, water, cattails, shoreline vegetation, sunset light, or similar atmospheric elements. The overall effect should be elegant, dramatic, uncluttered, and highly legible.

The three concepts are:

1. Red Fox

   1. Close-up red fox carrying a fish in its mouth.

2. Monarch & Milkwee

   1. Monarch butterfly on a cluster of showy milkweed.

3. Bird, either:

   1. Bald eagle carrying a fish in its talons; or

   2. Red-winged blackbird

   3. Final selection between the two bird concepts will be made in consultation with the selected artist/team.

The State’s template permits customized background colors or imagery, subject to required contrast and other design standards. The Utah wordmark, registration decal, and registration characters have prescribed locations and dimensions, and all final designs are subject to approval by the License Plate 

Utah DMV Design Review Board

A copy of the State license plate template and design requirements will be provided to the selected contractor(s).

3. Scope of Work

The selected artist/team will be expected to:

• Develop an overall visual approach for the three-plate series;
• Create initial concepts and compositions for each plate;
• Refine the selected concepts in collaboration with ULA;
• Integrate the illustrations with the required license plate elements and technical constraints;
• Revise artwork as necessary to address feedback from ULA and State reviewers; and
• Deliver final production-ready artwork and source files suitable for State license plate production.

The three plates should feel related as a collection while remaining individually distinctive.

4. Technical Proposal Requirements

Proposals should be concise and may not exceed four pages, excluding the separate cost proposal described below.

Please include the required sections as part of your proposals:

• Qualifications
  • A brief description of the individual, studio, or team and the experience most relevant to this project.
• Relevant Work
  • Examples or links to approximately 5–10 examples of work demonstrating capabilities relevant to this commission, particularly naturalistic illustration, wildlife or botanical subjects, highly constrained compositions, packaging, posters, stamps, labels, or other work requiring strong visual impact within a limited format.
• Proposed Approach
  • A brief description of how you would approach the artistic and design challenge presented by this project, including how you would balance naturalistic wildlife illustration, environmental context, visual impact, and the functional requirements of a license plate.
• Project Team
  • Identify the illustrator(s), designer(s), or other key personnel who would work directly on the project.

Please do not create speculative license plate artwork as part of the proposal. Selection will be based primarily on demonstrated quality of work, relevant experience, and the proposed creative approach.

5. Cost Proposal Requirements

Please provide pricing in a separate document from the four-page qualifications proposal.

The cost proposal should identify:

• Total proposed fee for completion of all three license plate designs;
• Any significant assumptions regarding revisions or scope;
• Any separate licensing or usage fees, if applicable; and
• Any optional or additional services the proposer believes should be considered.

6. Selection Rubric

The ULA and review committee will evaluate proposals based primarily on:

ULA may invite one or more finalists to participate in an interview or portfolio discussion before making a final selection. Selection will follow applicable ULA and State of Utah procurement requirements. ULA reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, negotiate scope and budget, request clarifications, and award a contract in the best interest of ULA.

7. Submission Instructions

Question Due Date: 9:00 am MT on August 24, 2026

ULA allows for questions regarding the RFP to be submitted via email to shelby@utahlake.gov. Due to the volume of inquiries, ULA staff is unable to facilitate questions via phone or video calls. Questions will not be answered via email. Instead, questions and answers will be posted to the public Q&A Doc. Expect to see this updated with all questions and answers within 1-2 business days of the question deadline.

Proposal Due Date: 9:00 am MT on September 2, 2026

Please submit all proposals to Shelby Kozak via email at Shelby@utahlake.gov. Applications not submitted here are unable to be considered. Expect a confirmation email within 1-2 business days of your submission.

8. Disclaimers

ULA reserves the right to modify the project scope, request additional information, negotiate with one or more proposers, or decline to make an award. ULA reserves the right to make an award to one or more proposers and is not obligated to award all three license plate designs to a single artist, studio, or firm. Awardee(s) may be contracted for the entire scope or divide the work among multiple proposers based on the relative strengths, artistic styles, qualifications, proposed approaches, pricing, or other considerations applicable to each individual design. Proposers may therefore be selected for one, two, or all three plate designs, as determined to be in the best interests of the ULA, though the preference is to hire one firm for all three designs.