We’re looking for a creative and detail-focused Artworker to join the Art Department at Penguin Michael Joseph, supporting the team in bringing our books and campaigns to life. Combining creativity with technical precision, this is a fantastic opportunity to work across a varied range of publishing projects, developing your skills within a collaborative and supportive creative environment.

About Penguin Michael Joseph 

Penguin Michael Joseph publishes some of the world’s most popular and commercially successful authors and brands, including Jamie Oliver, Marian Keyes, Dr Julie Smith, Claire Douglas, SenLin Yu and Dawn French. We specialise in women’s fiction, crime and thriller, fantasy, romance, cookery, memoir and lifestyle books. Many of our authors are now, or soon will be, household names here in the UK and around the world. 

We seek out the very best authors in their field and bring their books to the widest possible audience. We take an author’s vision and turn it into a beautiful book people can’t help but talk about. 

In a crowded market, our books shine. 

Role Summary

Working closely with your manager and the wider Art Department, you’ll provide essential creative and technical support, with a particular focus on artworking and reformatting files ready for print. Alongside this core work, you’ll have opportunities to contribute to additional creative projects, gaining exposure to different areas of the design process and developing your experience along the way. This role would suit someone with a keen eye for detail, strong technical skills and a genuine enthusiasm for creative design and publishing.

Key responsibilities:

• First point of technical support, trouble shooting and problem-solving within the department
• Picking up projects at any stage in the process and taking over to finalise as required
• Multitasking over many microprojects at any one time
• Reformatting pre-existing designs
• Compositing images within photoshop
• Typesetting cover copy
• Taking in text corrections from editorial
• Colour management within print production
• Awareness of critical path and other schedules. Pushes for material when necessary and plans and manages work in order to meet schedule

What you’ll bring

Essential criteria:

• Design experience, ideally in a publishing environment
• Flair for creative thinking and problem solving
• Strong, adaptable design sense
• Thorough design technical knowledge (Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Bridge, etc…)
• Some knowledge of printing process and desire to learn more
• Good communication and effective influencing skills

Application instructions

Please apply with your CV and cover letter (both in pdf format) outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on Tuesday 15th September. The cover letter should be uploaded as an additional document.

Please ensure you include a cover letter (in pdf format), as it is a crucial part of our assessment process. The cover letter offers an opportunity to show how your experience and interests align with the role requirements. Typically, we expect the cover letter to be no more than one or two pages in length.

Salary

Circa £33,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

Use of AI tools

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team.

We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.

Disability Confident

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt-in on their application form. The essential criteria for this role are listed as part of the ‘What you’ll bring’ section. There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview.

We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing [email protected]. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable with, for us to support your request.

Hybrid working

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you will work at least 2 days a week in the office. 

Disclosure requirements pertaining to the collection of your personal data:

Responsible for processing the information provided in your application is the company specified in the job advertisement, with its registered office as indicated. The company processes your data for the purpose of establishing an employment relationship on the basis of Art. 6 (1) b GDPR / Section 26 (1) sentence 1 BDSG.

The retention period for your data is determined by the statutory time limits applicable in the respective country, beginning upon completion of the recruitment process. You can find these here.

You can contact the company’s Data Protection Officer at the above-mentioned postal address. 

Further information on data protection and your rights can be found here.
 

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