Senior Art Director

HCCP is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and highly values diverse backgrounds and insights that fuel our innovation.

This position is with a top-five publisher to create Children’s books for some of the most influential authors and biggest children’s brands in Christian publishing. HarperCollins Christian Publishing is seeking a Senior Art Director for children’s books, Bible storybooks, devotionals, and middle grade and YA fiction works.

The position designs as well as provides conceptual and creative direction for covers and marketing pieces, commissions external illustrators, designers, vendors, maintains art budgets, and manages a robust title list.

This position includes communicating and working with outside and internal designers as well as hands on design work. It is important for the Senior Art Director to stay relevant with emerging design trends (color, format, fonts, illustrators). A successful Senior Art Director will work well with marketing and editorial departments and recommend overall visual direction for each book to link marketing and editorial strategies to the theme of the product and the text.

• Concept, develop, design, and create award-winning book covers
• Commission and contract illustrators to develop interior art and book covers
• Manage multiple projects while maintaining high standards of quality control, production schedules, budgets and sales cycles
• Manage and control all aspects to acquired artwork or photography through the utilization of the team members and outside vendors
• Secure illustrators and outside designers within budget
• Route cover designs for copyediting and print preparation
• Communicate cover designs with the publisher and lead conversations with the sales force about art and covers
• Maintain provided budgets for art direction expenses; code and route invoices for work performed
• Provide print ready files to the pre-press/production department and upload final images to our internal system for the feed to external vendors
• Create and produce sales conference and marketing materials including samples and booklets

Knowledge: Expert knowledge of graphic design, working knowledge of publishing and book manufacturing processes

Work Experience: 7+ years minimum of graphic design and art direction experience required. All candidates must provide design samples and/or a link to an online portfolio for consideration

Education:  Bachelor’s degree in graphic design or related field

Industry Knowledge: Knowledge of publishing and book manufacturing is required, and knowledge of children’s publishing is preferable. Must possess a keen eye for market trends, fashion, and children’s and teen design

Skills:

• Above-average skill level in Creative Cloud Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign), Adobe Creative Suite (MAC), Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point)
• Proven project management and organizational skills
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects with a variety of deadlines and complexity simultaneously
• Extremely detail oriented
• Collaborative problem solver and strategic thinker who is quick to brainstorm potential solutions to any problem presented
• Strong verbal and written communication skills and negotiation skills
• Strong relationship-building skills both externally (illustrators and agents) and internally with fellow team members and across divisions
• Team player who is willing to step up when needed to help the team achieve overall goals
• Ability to prioritize, multitask, manage resources across multiple projects, and meet right deadlines
• Ability to anticipate needs, plan ahead, and effectively problem solve
• Meticulous attention to detail

HarperCollins Christian Publishing is an Equal Opportunity Employer