Junior designer/cover designer

Closing date for applications: Friday 20th of March 2026 23:59

Salary: £28,000 + depending on experience

Location: London

Shape the visual identity of fiction and non-fiction titles, creating cover designs that capture attention and resonate with readers across the globe.

Bloomsbury Publishing is a leading independent publishing house, established in 1986, with authors who have won the Nobel, Pulitzer and Booker Prizes, and is the originating publisher and custodian of the Harry Potter series. Bloomsbury has offices in London, New York, New Delhi, Oxford and Sydney. Within Bloomsbury’s Academic division, it publishes under Bloomsbury, as well as under a number of prestigious and historic imprint names.

Our mission is to be a creative, entrepreneurial, independent publisher of books, audiobooks and digital content of excellence and originality and to bring these works to a worldwide audience. Our purpose is to inform, educate, entertain and inspire readers of all ages and backgrounds. We champion a life-long love of reading and learning and seek to help build a reading culture with all the benefits which that brings society.

Head of Zeus, a division of Bloomsbury, is a dynamic publisher of fiction (commercial, literary) and non-fiction (humanities, biographies, lifestyle). We publish around 150 trade titles and 150 paperback titles a year. We are looking for a bright and creative Junior or Middleweight Designer to join the Head of Zeus Art Department. This is a fantastic opportunity to develop your career in book cover design, working across a broad range of projects. You will contribute to the design and production of book and eBook covers, across a diverse range of publishing. You will report to the Art Director, work closely with the Art and Production team, and liaise with the editorial, communications and sales teams.

What you'll be doing

• Developing designs from concept through to professional print-ready finished artwork; editing and amending as required.
• Artwork covers for reprints and different formats
• Department and design-related administration duties

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Excellent Creative Suite skills (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) for Mac
• Ability to prioritise, multi-task, and stay organised in a busy work environment
• High standard of typographic design, with excellent attention to detail
• A demonstrable interest in publishing design
• Confident communication skills

Desirable, but not essential

• Some experience within a publishing environment.
• Illustration skills

Additional information

The role is a full-time, permanent position.

The role is based at our London office 5-8 Hardwick Street EC1R 4RG, on a hybrid working pattern of 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred). Allocated office days for this role are Monday and Wednesday.

This position is eligible for Bloomsbury’s Rental Deposit Loan Scheme. To assist candidates who want to start and to establish a career in publishing, Bloomsbury offers an interest-free rental deposit to support securing somewhere to live. The rental deposit loan can be up to £3,000 and will be paid back over 2 years.

Please apply with a CV (Word or PDF format only), Portfolio (PDF) and answer the application questions via our website detailing how you meet the requirements outlined above for this role by 23:59 on Friday 20th of March 2026.

For best results, please use a desktop to apply as some mobile browsers may not fully support the application portal.

Bloomsbury reserve the right to close the role early if we exceed the required number of applications

Bloomsbury Benefits

As well as a fantastic opportunity to join a global award-winning organisation, Bloomsbury offers the following competitive benefits package:

Working Pattern

• Hybrid working pattern of: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)

Holidays

• 25 days holiday
• 3.5 days Christmas company holiday

Other Benefits

• Two paid Personal Wellness Days
• Flexible Fridays – take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 30 minutes earlier in the week
• Work Anywhere Fortnight - For two weeks of any calendar year. The minimum period for Working Anywhere is one week, the maximum period is two weeks.
• Season Ticket Loan
• Learning & Development - Free access to LinkedIn Learning, BookMachine Campus, InRehearsal & IPG Skills Hub
• Share Save Scheme
• AXA Healthcare Plan (Private Medical Insurance)
• Ride to Work Scheme
• Peppy Health App
• In-house Doctor
• Eye Care Voucher Scheme
• EAP Advice and Counselling

Company culture – Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (Bloom, Accessibility, Mental Health, Pride, and Parents, Guardians and Carers, Multi-Faith) and Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources

For additional benefits see our careers page

Bloomsbury is a place where anyone of any background, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, or socio-economic status can thrive, feel comfortable, and be heard and accepted. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We are willing to make any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please flag to the recruitment team if required

Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK.


We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries.

Please make sure that you state in your application that you found this role via Creative Access.