Nada Backovic is an award-winning book designer, graphic designer and illustrator with more than 20 years’ experience working with major publishers and self-publishers in Australia and the UK. Find out more about Nada and her work at www.nadabackovic.com.
Quintet Publishing, part of The Quarto Group, is looking for a Junior Designer to join our busy team based in Brighton.
The Quarto Group is the world’s leading independent publisher of illustrated books; our mission is to educate, entertain and enrich the lives of readers. Quintet creates non-fiction books across subject areas ranging from creative technology and activity, to travel and design. Our titles maintain the highest editorial, design and production standards, and we work with co-edition publishing partners worldwide.
We are looking to appoint a creative and proactive Junior Designer as part of our in-house team. The ideal candidate will be enthusiastic about illustrated publishing and possess excellent InDesign skills. Bursting with ideas, you’ll be keen to make your mark on our successful and diverse list.
Assisting the Art Director with the creation of 50 live books and 80 new presentations annually, a key part of the role is liaising with freelancers and working closely with the editorial team. This varied role could see you creating PDFs for a sales presentation in the morning, conceptualising a cover design by lunchtime and preparing print-ready files in the afternoon.
Requirements:
• Good organisation and time-management skills
• Strong interest in illustrated non-fiction publishing
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Excellent knowledge of InDesign, Acrobat and Photoshop is essential, Illustrator would be a benefit
• Creative and keen to learn
To apply for this position please send your CV and cover letter to: james.evans@quarto.com(Deadline for applications: Friday 2nd February 2018)The successful candidate must possess the right to work in the UK. Quarto Publishing plc. is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and treatment, ensuring an inclusive and diverse environment.
I’m a book designer. When I introduce myself as such people often ask if I’m an illustrator. Some book designers are skilled illustrators, but, the focus in my work tends to be more concerned with type and layout.
Of course the cover is important – you don’t need me to tell you that, but I think the internal pages of a book are just as important. In this blog I’m going to advise about the internal design of books. There are plenty of designers, far better than me, who can advise on good cover design.
There are many sources offering practical advice to graphic designers but there is more to good design than knowledge and technical skills. Masterful grid and finest type hierarchy can’t bring a book to life on their own. So where does that element of “magic” in design come from? Here are some my observations that I have made when designing, reading, collecting and making books.
It’s a fact that posts which are illustrated have a much higher success and click-through rate than those that aren’t. If you want to create smart and legible social media graphics, just follow my 5 easy guidelines.
A lot of start-up companies worry about how much a professional business logo will cost, so they ask a friend who is good at art if they can help out. Eager to help, or perhaps just interested in a new challenge, the artist often produces an image of some sort based on a literal interpretation of the business activity or company name, or on the owner’s personal hobbies and interests. It may be a lovely piece of artwork, but that doesn’t mean it will work as a logo.
Kate Ellis is a freelance editor and runs Ellis Editorial, specialising in commercial crime, thriller and women’s fiction. She is also an editorial mentor for the WoMentoring Project.
For the trained eyes, there is nothing more annoying than looking at a book which is just one letter away from perfect. It is possible that you have made a capital mistake when not checking the rules of capitalization before publishing. It can be a tricky business, but nothing you cannot master by following a set of simple rules. In this article, we are writing about right capitalization and punctuation of titles (of your own books) on the cover and on the title page, with special regard to consistency.
It’s ironic that an event all about a good quality design brief started with me totally failing to pay attention to my own brief for the evening: after a long Tube journey, I rocked up at The Library, ready for BookMachine fun, only to discover everyone else had gone to The Driver at King’s Cross. So I arrived… a little late.
This week EMC Design launched a White Paper: “Managing your design processes within publishing and how to save costs”, written by the company’s founder, Mike Cryer. The paper has been created to shed light on the design process and help publishing professionals better understand how to work with freelancers, the information they need and how to cut and manage costs effectively.
How do you print white? In some complex cases a white ink is used on top of a foil or acetate but on the vast majority of our print jobs to get white you simply don’t print any ink.
