Designer - DK Travel

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

DK Travel is seeking an enthusiastic and creative Designer to work across our growing list of practical travel guides and inspiring gift books, and help take our travel books in a new direction with innovative design.

As the world’s leading illustrated non-fiction publisher, DK Travel produces a wide range of practical travel guides and inspiring gift books such as the Top 10 and Like a Local series guides, Viva Mexico, Hello South Korea, The Travel Bucket List and Road Trips of the USA. We are dedicated to delivering high-quality, beautifully designed books that inspire and inform our readers.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone looking to advance their career in book design and contribute to our innovative travel publications. If you have an eye for detail and a love for creating visually appealing layouts, we want to hear from you!

Some key responsibilities include:

• Creating moodboards and styling for books
• Researching illustrators
• Collaborating with external contributors such as, picture researchers, designers and illustrators
• Supporting the design team with general admin tasks
• Coordinating sales and marketing materials

The ideal candidate will be passionate about design, skilled in creating visually appealing spreads, and confident in presenting ideas to stakeholders. Reporting to the Managing Art Editor, you will contribute to the development of our expanding lifestyle-oriented Gift and Inspiration list and also our Series and Speciality list. You should be well-organised, market-aware, and have a publishing background with experience in sourcing and collaborating with illustrators. Strong verbal and written communication skills are essential, along with the ability to produce eye-catching designs; previous experience in Lifestyle or Travel publishing is desirable.

In return, you will work within a collaborative global business where you can make a real impact. You’ll contribute fresh ideas, learn from experienced designers, and gain exposure to various design styles. This role is currently office-based for a minimum of three days a week, as part of DK’s hybrid working approach.

To apply, please upload your portfolio, most recent CV and a cover letter to be considered. We will only consider applications that include a design portfolio in pdf format.

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

We want to learn about you, so in your cover letter, please include the following:

• 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 non-DK travel books you think contain inspiring and/or successful design and why?

Closing date for applications: 24 November 2024

Salary: up to £31,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, 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 is a member of the disability confident scheme. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy/ies.

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.

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.