Digital & Social Designer

Job Title: Digital & Social Designer

Reports to: Head of Editorial, Booker Prize Foundation

Contract: Employee, preferably full-time employment

Location: UK based, at present working remotely

Salary: £29,000 – £34,000

Application details: Email CV, portfolio links and letter to [email protected].

The Booker Prizes have a unique place in the literary sphere, enjoying an enviable reputation as a cultural institution that is highly respected, much loved and hotly debated throughout the world. Over the past 50 years, more than 500 extraordinary books have been brought to the attention of the public, influencing reading tastes and transforming culture in Britain and beyond, along with the careers of hundreds of authors from around the globe. 

The Booker Prize Foundation is a registered charity, established in 2002, whose purpose is to promote the art and value of literature for the public benefit. The best-known way it fulfils this mission is by awarding the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize. Other aspects of the foundation’s work include reading initiatives in prisons, writers’ visits to universities, the distribution of books to disadvantaged readers and the funding of Braille and audio editions of Booker Prize books through the RNIB. The UEA Booker Prize Foundation Scholarship is awarded annually to a candidate for the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. Many past scholars have since met with acclaim as published authors. 

In 2021, we launched a new digital strategy at www.thebookerprizes.com to showcase ‘our’ nominated books alongside their exceptional authors in one unique online space. Called the Booker Library, it aims to be a unique and entertaining cultural destination that brings fresh attention to our books by combining 1) new content; 2) archive material from our authors, publishers and partners as well as our own physical archive at Oxford Brookes University; and 3) curated content from across the web. We’ve identified the concept of the Booker ‘Golden Thread’, a strand that runs through all our books, authors, themes and subject matters. We aim to bend and stretch this thread in many directions to help our audiences explore our world with the goal of encouraging more people to read more books. We believe that this blend of writing, audio, video, visual art, manuscripts and interactives will bring new insights and attention to the books, their themes, subject matter and the art of fiction writing itself. We are building a small editorial, marketing and partnerships team to take responsibility for executing this plan.

Booker Prize Foundation is looking for a digital and social designer to be responsible for creating content assets for our website and social channels that will bring ‘our’ books to life online. This will cover all longlisted, shortlisted and winning books for both the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize in its 52-year history, as well as those nominated each coming year. These assets will include native video formats, graphics, photographic imagery, motion graphics, and animation. The designer will work either independently or together with a web producer to define, create and deliver content assets each week for maximum impact and reach. 

This role requires someone with the passion and knowledge of what works across the content spectrum digitally and on all social media platforms, with experience of creating content routinely for a media company or cultural institution. They will be a social native who knows the various platforms inside and out with an appreciation for what works with a range of audiences, as well as an understanding for how to represent a high profile and respected cultural brand such as the Booker Prizes online. 

• Create digital and social content assets to a regular schedule for publishing across our portfolio
• Work with editorial, marketing and publicity colleagues to devise and deliver effective social media and digital content to support the awards and the wider Booker Prizes portfolio and Booker Prize Foundation activities
• Maintaining and developing the design vision and brand coherence across all our online channels 
• Create and improve processes to help the production and publishing workflow for these assets
• Together with colleagues be responsible for the Booker Prizes’ digital archive of images, video, audio, copy, archive assets and other materials to ensure they are catalogued and managed with the correct data and permissions
• Occasionally produce original content including photography and video shoots
• Engage with traffic and performance data analysis to inform your future work 
• Communicate effectively with the wider team and also external stakeholders 
• Ensure all digital assets are on brand and consistent.

• Highly proficient in creating static and motion graphics via the Adobe CC suite of apps including Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign and Illustrator; proficient in cutting videos using Premiere or Final Cut Pro 
• Demonstrable understanding of digital and social creative content, and a thorough understanding of the core social media platform behaviours, requirements and native formats (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok)
• A passion for art direction with an eye for design, layout, graphical, audio visual information and storytelling techniques
• Focussed on developing and improving processes and organisational tools
• Understanding and appreciation of digital marketing 
• Comfortable conducting analysis using data
• Self-starter who can work under their own initiative as well as collaboratively within a team as well as with third parties or external individuals/companies
• Able to prioritise, handle multiple simultaneous tasks and work in a newly created team
• Knowledge and a passion for contemporary fiction and literature a plus.