Art Director – Cosmopolitan

At Hearst UK, there’s always more to the story. Join Cosmopolitan as our new Art Director to start the next chapter in your career.

We’re the UK’s leading premium publisher, and the people behind iconic media brands such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Country Living. We’ve created a working environment that encourages everyone to pull together. We never stop looking for brave new ideas. We’ll always try to develop and improve, we trust each other to do our best, and we have fun as we build on our heritage to make history.

ABOUT THE ROLE

You will assist the Editor-in-Chief in implementing the creative visions for the brand, and to help maintain/develop them across all platforms. You will also be responsible for working on design and visuals across all products— print, digital, events, marketing materials and commercial projects.

Key duties:

• Oversee, and be the main point of contact for, all visuals across the entire Cosmopolitan brand, across all platforms.
• Concept and mood board all in-house cover shoots within budget, pitching fully fleshed-out briefs to the Editor-in-Chief, along with styling ideas from Fashion, location ideas, photographer ideas, prop requirements, etc. Run these shoots with support from the Picture desk, taking ultimate responsibility for the output and execution on the day.
• Design all magazine covers and supplementary assets, ensuring everything is on-brand, eye-catching and optimised to drive sales at the newsstand.
• Run print Art meetings, from ideation meetings with the wider Art and Picture teams, to pitch meetings with the wider Cosmopolitan editorial team to approve concepts. Ensure this process runs to schedule in accordance with our publication deadlines.
• Be a creative ideas machine, leading from the front in generating cool, modern, on-brand ideas for visuals and layouts that the Cosmopolitan audience will love.
• Design layouts across the magazine, from 8-page long-read investigations with original art, to templated regular pages.
• Work closely with the Production and Subs Hub to ensure a seamless process that works to deadline, runs efficiently and minimises hiccups – from early-stage planning, right through to finaling pages and helping send the magazine to press.
• Build and maintain a brand style guide that can be used across the brand and wider business, directing in fonts, colour palettes, visual identity, etc.
• Design, as required, for digital platforms, working closely with the Site Director and Heads of Departments, to prioritise work accordingly.
• Build a bursting contacts book of artists, illustrators, photographers and freelancers, building relationships along the way.
• Provide constructive feedback to the Senior Art Editor on all the junior heads on the Art Desk, ensuring their work is on-brand, and development opportunities are maximised.
Liaise and collaborate with other internal departments ranging from licensing and accreditation to commercial and events, apps and newsletters, to ensure all brand materials are visually aligned.

ABOUT YOU

• Experience designing at a senior level.
• Commissioning leading freelance creatives.
• Generating visual ideas and see them through from scratch to publication.
• Supervising more junior designers .
• Ability to forge excellent working relationships with an editorial team
• Unflappable under pressure, ability to juggle multiple projects, collaborative approach to working with multiple editorial teams.
• Absorbing and adapting to different ways of working of different brands and Editor-In-Chiefs.
Prioritising most pressing work despite competing pressures

WHAT WE OFFER

At Hearst UK, you can choose from a huge range of perks and benefits that can help you learn well, work well and live well including:

• 25 days’ holiday (with the option to buy up to 5 additional holiday days)
• Hybrid working – Three days per week in the office
• Discounted gym membership
• Healthcare cash plan
• Spend a charity day with your favourite good cause
• Life assurance and pension scheme
Regular socials and more!

There’s more to your story than you imagine. And the next chapter begins right here.

Hearst UK is deeply committed to using our influential brands to reflect the world we want to live in – one that respects, protects, represents and uplifts the voices and opinions of all people. As a business, we recognise the significant benefits of creativity, collaboration and innovation that comes with diverse teams. Not only is diversifying the voices in our organization the right thing to do, but it also helps us to make powerful and exciting content that can be enjoyed by many more people. This is why we’re working to build a sense of true belonging within our business and foster a culture in which everyone feels heard.