Production Designer

JOB DESCRIPTION

• Title: Production Designer at Hoxton Mini Press
• Application closing date: midnight on Sunday13th March
• Salary: £24–28k PAYE dependent on experience / skills
• Start date: March/April 2022 or ASAP
• Interviews: At least two rounds, the first will be on Zoom
• Location: Working at home / in studio by London Fields (if/when safe to do so)

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

We are looking for a super-talented and enthusiastic production designer to join our small but multi-award-winning team in our office by London Fields in east London. We need someone who has a great eye for visual detail, is extremely savvy with InDesign and Photoshop and knows how to prepare files for print and can understand our brand and apply it seamlessly across not only our books but also our website and other media. Ideally, you'll have a number of years experience in the publishing industry but if you are highly skilled in artworking, file preparation and have a great portfolio of work then we'd be delighted to interview you.

WHO ARE WE?

We are a young independent publisher. Our goal is to make photography, art and lifestyle books that are both beautiful AND accessible. One without the other is fairly easy, both at once is more difficult. And doing so while maintaining a clear brand is harder still.

We are best known for our books about east London but we have now expanded to produce books about subjects much further afield. However, we still want our book to have an ‘east London’ feel: urban, visually arresting, diverse and experimental. This means our designs have to fit within parameters – but boundaries encourage creative solutions.

We care about books. We care about font. We care about the environment. That sounds like total drivel, but it happens to be true. We pride ourselves on being a close-knit team that takes making good books, doing good and being generally good to each other fairly seriously.

WHAT IS THE ROLE?

There is some flexibility in the role depending on your experience, but it has a fundamental leaning toward artworking rather than full book design. Nevertheless, being a small team, the day-to-day experience will be varied and involve everything from deciding on cover directions with the creative director, discussing how to extend our brand across books, online assets and marketing materials, finessing internal layouts, preparing images for print, liaising with photographers, repro houses and printers and exporting final PDFs with all the correct settings. Primarily we need someone with a passion for books who has a very solid understanding of InDesign, font, layout and Photoshop and who can pay extremely close attention to detail. We manage a lot of files and you'll need to be ultra organised and fastidious about keeping on top of it. You will have the ability to take an existing book design or one from an external designer and apply that design across an entire book from conception all the way to final exported files. Clear visual flare should therefore be supported by exceptional technical and organisational ability with a knowledge of colour management and production techniques.

You will work closely with our creative director, editors and in-house production controller, and be in direct contact with external photographers, repro houses and freelance designers.

WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED?

• An exceptional sense of design – a personal portfolio of work is essential
• Expert knowledge of InDesign
• Expert knowledge of Photoshop
• Expert knowledge of Acrobat
• A thorough understanding of colour management
• Ideally a number of years’ experience within publishing and/or a very good knowledge of print production

WHAT SORT OF PERSON DO WE WANT?

• Happy to work in a small team and willing to muck in
• Focused on detail and quality and ULTRA organised
• Able to work on a number of projects simultaneously
• Willing to learn fast and adapt to a changing environment
• Have a clear passion for books and other print media
• Be interested and knowledgeable about photography and the wider arts
• Understand and like our brand and be willing to work with its language

(Please note: you must be dog-friendly. There are two lively mini-schnauzers in the office!)