Designer

Closing date: 28th April 2025

Salary: £30,000 - £35,000 dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

Location: This role can be based at our London or Sheffield office, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Are you an experienced designer looking to take your next steps in publishing?

Octopus publish books for everyone. We love to enlighten, nourish, entertain and most of all inspire readers and listeners everywhere. Octopus is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 11 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

Our team publishes books, games and gifts in everything from Mind, Body, Spirit; food and drink; lifestyle; popular reference and vintage classics. Much of our work reimagines books from Octopus’s vast backlist and archive but we’re also adept at creating commercial and clever IP.

We are looking for an experienced and versatile designer to work across our varied list of illustrated books, games and gifts. This is an opportunity for someone looking to advance their career in book design and work with a team dedicated to producing beautifully designed books that inspire our readers.

What you'll be doing

• You’ll be creating covers, layouts and templates with wow appeal and developing and managing the designs right the way through to packaging final files.
• You'll be the sole cover and layout designer of approximately 20 titles per year and will manage and work with external freelancers on a further 20-25 titles.
  • Those titles could be illustrated gift books in the MBS space, photographic recipe books, card games with a vintage feel, text-only paperbacks or quirky hardback micro-histories.
• You will report to the Publisher of the Pyramid team and work closely with them, a Project Editor, Editor and a brilliant Production team.
  It's a fun, whirlwind of a role in a team that thrives on spinning plates.

Who we are looking for

• The ideal candidate will have several years' experience of book design (interiors and covers) under their belt and will have worked with both integrated colour and text-only books.
• You'll need to demonstrate advanced technical competence - particularly in Adobe InDesign - as well as an incredibly high level of accuracy and a keen eye for detail as you will be responsible for handing over final, print-ready files.
• You should have experience working in a fast-paced environment where you are used to working on multiple projects at one time, and be confident in your ability to meet key deadlines on production schedules.
• You'll be a confident communicator as you'll be presenting designs in internal and external meetings, championing our visual strategy and working very closely with a dynamic team where communication and collaboration is key.

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Generous pension schemes
• Rent deposit loans
• 2 community days per year
• Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
• Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development programmes (including mentoring)
• Up to 70% off book purchases
• A charity bookshelf
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

To apply

Please include your CV, Cover Letter and Portfolio (which can be enclosed in the Cover Letter section).

Our commitment

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

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 and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.