Senior Designer, Workman Publishing, Children's

Hachette Book Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 65,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Hachette Book Group’s Workman Kids division seeks a Senior Designer to lead cover and interior design for children’s books across formats. You’ll craft original IP and brand extensions, collaborating with editors, art directors, illustrators, and production teams to deliver visually compelling titles.

Ideal candidates have 5–7 years in publishing, a strong portfolio, and excellence in typography, color, and layout.

Qualifications

• At least 5-7 years of design experience in book publishing.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating typography, color, and visual storytelling.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to present and incorporate feedback.
• Experience in developing series branding.
• Ability to work with editors, art directors, illustrators, and production teams.

Responsibilities

• Design innovative, eye-catching covers.
• Ideate and develop full interior layouts for new projects in any format
• Develop brands and logo designs
• Partner with the design staff, editors, and publisher to manage multiple book projects from start to finish
• Researches and oversees freelance illustrators and designers
• Prepare cover mechanicals, from initial layout to final production (working with production mangers on materials and setup; prepress, color correction, and file setup; reviewing, correcting, and approving proofs; and providing final files for print)
• Prepare galley covers, following a similar process
• Work with colleagues in the marketing department to create original promotional materials, including social media assets
• Open to mentoring junior staff

Skills

Creative design

Collaboration

Mentoring

Time management

Tools

InDesign

Photoshop

Illustrator

Acrobat

PDF workflow

Prepress

Job description

SUMMARY

Workman Publishing’s children’s department is seeking acreative and collaborative Senior Designerto join our dynamic team. This role will focus on developing innovative trade books for children across a wide range of formats—including board books, novelty, middle grade, graphic novels, activity books, and workbooks.

As Senior Designer, you’ll play a critical role in shaping our list by creating standout designs for both original IP and brand extensions of beloved backlist titles. You will partner closely with editors, art directors, illustrators, and production teams to bring high‑quality, visually engaging books to market.

Key responsibilities:

• Design innovative, eye‑catching covers
• Ideate and develop full interior layouts for new projects in any format
• Develop brands and logo designs
• Partner with the design staff, editors, and publisher to manage multiple book projects from start to finish
• Researches and oversees freelance illustrators and designers
• Prepare cover mechanicals, from initial layout to final production (working with production mangers on materials and setup; prepress, color correction, and file setup; reviewing, correcting, and approving proofs; and providing final files for print)
• Prepare galley covers, following a similar process
• Work with colleagues in the marketing department to create original promotional materials, including social media assets
• Open to mentoring junior staff

Qualifications:

• At least 5-7 years of design experience, primarily focused in book publishing
• A strong portfolio demonstrating an eye for design, typography, and color, as well as sharp conceptual thinking and visual storytelling
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate on creative projects, present work, and discuss feedback in group settings
• Able to take direction from written or spoken ideas and convert them seamlessly into high‑design book interior layouts
• Adept at problem‑solving when a book needs some extra TLC
• Experience in developing and designing series branding
• Creativity, originality, willingness to experiment, learn, grow and share knowledge with the design and editorial teams
• Understanding of the commercial market and design trends, branded series and commercial book covers
• Proficiency in InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat
• Experience with prepress production, preparing files for 4‑color printing using a PDF workflow
• Strong knowledge of typography including paragraph, character, object, and GREP styles; parent pages highly desired
• Professional experience designing and laying out long‑form book interiors is required
• Knowledge of book structural elements and proofreading marks.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to work quickly and independently to meet deadlines

Join us at Workman Kids, where we’re growing our list with bold ideas, smart design, and a commitment to innovation that honors our Workman roots. If you’re excited by the opportunity to design books that spark imagination and curiosity in young readers, we’d love to hear from you.

As a leading book publisher, we believe that including and representing diverse voices in all aspects of our business is fundamental to what we do. Our publishing programs must reflect the broad range of backgrounds, experiences, political views and ideas that shape our society and publish books for all readers. Hachette Book Group provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. The compensation for this position is $65,000-$75,000. Salary can vary based on a number of factors including skills, experience, and location — talk with your recruiter to learn more. There may be times that you will be required (or requested) to work overtime due to the nature of your role or exceptional workload issues or special projects.