Book Designer - DK Travel

Are you a creative, talented, and imaginative Book Designer with a passion for travel?

DK Travel is seeking a midweight book designer to join our team and help take our travel books in a new direction with innovative design. We are looking for someone who can bring fresh ideas to the table and is well-versed in project managing multiple book titles at various stages of development.

As the world’s leading illustrated non-fiction publisher, DK Travel is seeking an enthusiastic and creative individual to work across our growing list of travel guides, and gift and inspiration books. The ideal candidate will be passionate about design, know how to make a spread visually appealing and have confidence in presenting your ideas to stakeholders. Reporting into the Managing Art Editor, you will have an opportunity to contribute to the development of the expanding lifestyle-oriented Gift and Inspiration list.

This role will be for you if you love the buzz of working as a key part of a busy team, are eager to give things a go, are unafraid of trying innovative approaches, and are always on the lookout for emerging styles. You will be someone who can get stuck in from the get-go, take ownership of projects, flex your approach and can handle working to multiple deadlines.

Some key responsibilities include:

• Creating moodboards and styling for books
• Running and overseeing series titles such as the Like a Local and main travel guide list
• Organising and commissioning photoshoots and briefing picture researchers.
• Briefing design freelancers and commissioning illustrations
• Supporting the design team with general admin tasks

To succeed, you will be well organised, market-aware, have a publishing background and experience sourcing and working with illustrators. You should have clear and concise communication skills, both verbal and written, as well as the ability to create eye-catching designs. Previous experience in Lifestyle or Travel publishing is desirable.

In return, you will have the opportunity to work within a truly collaborative and global business where you have the freedom to make a real impact if you’re willing to put in the hard work. As part of DK’s hybrid working approach, this role is currently office based for a minimum of three working days a week during the probation period with the option to review further down the line.

If you are ready to bring your design expertise to DK Travel and take our books in a new direction we want to hear from you. To apply, please upload your portfolio, most recent CV and a cover letter to be considered. We will only consider applications with a pdf of your design portfolio with publishing design examples.

We want to see what represents you, so please include your most recent and proudest work in your portfolio submission.

We want to learn a little bit more about you, please include the following prompts in your cover letter:

• Why do you want to work at DK and/or in Travel?
• What design trends have you seen emerging in book publishing?
• What are 3 travel books you think contain inspiring and/or successful design and why?

Closing date for applications: 27 May 2024

Salary: Starting from £35,000, plus bonus and benefits.

We have a range of benefits to reflect our commitment to our people, some of which are:

• 25 days paid holiday entitlement in year one, plus bank holidays
• Generous pension scheme
• Volunteering policy and charity matching
• Employee assistance programme
• 60% discount on company books
• Cycle to work scheme and discounted gym membership
• Flex fridays (1pm Finish*)
• Shopping discounts
• Up to 30 days remote working from abroad

And we plant a tree for every new employee to our business

DK is committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects the varied communities that read our books across the world. We encourage applications from all individuals, regardless of age, religion, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality or social background. DK is proud to announce that we have adopted The Halo Code.

DK supports flexible working and has introduced a new ‘smart-working’ policy with a hybrid approach of working weekly from home and in DK’s office a minimum of two days a week.

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade, but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews or undertaking internships. For more information, visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org

*Subject to certain criteria being met.