KEY DETAILS
Reports to: Senior Educational Content Lead
Hours: Full time with flexible hours – core hours are 10:00-16:00
Location: Hybrid – London, Embankment, and remote working
Salary: £30,000-£34,000 per year, depending on experience
Closing date: June 17th 2022
HOW TO APPLY
Please submit the following to TiffanySmyly@economist.com:
- CV
- cover letter
- PDF portfolio or link to portfolio website
Please note: applications omitting any of the above will not be considered.
ABOUT THE ECONOMIST EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
We are an independent charity that was set up by staff from inside The Economist newspaper in 2012. We enable disadvantaged young people to join inspiring discussions about the news which teach them to think critically, communicate effectively and understand what’s happening in the world. Building these competencies can change young people’s lives; it sets them up to succeed in school, in future work and as citizens.
We are a small, dynamic and creative organisation (currently a team of eight with a turnover of under £1m) with big plans to grow. We sit within the larger Economist Group and work with teams across the company.
THE ROLE IN SUMMARY
We are looking for a versatile, curious and creative mid-weight graphic designer with demonstrable skills in layout and information design.
You’ll work on a wide range of content for our team, from creating all our inspiring classroom resources, to designing vibrant marketing materials that will help to grow our reach.
Our head designer will be on Maternity Leave from October 2022 until July 2023. You’ll have an initial 4-6 weeks handover with them and then you’ll report to the Senior Educational Content Lead until they return. Note that this position is not a maternity cover – as we pursue our ambitious growth plans, we’re growing our team and need another full time designer to join our passionate team.
We deeply value diversity in all respects and encourage applications from candidates from all backgrounds.
THE ROLE AND WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU
Your work will have a global reach with a real impact. We work with over 4,000 teachers globally, so the resources that you design will be used around the world by tens of thousands of young people. We especially reach out to schools who serve young people who face socio-economic disadvantages.
The chance to play a central role in a passionate, high-performing team. Design is consistently at the core of everything we do and is what sets us apart from our competitors.
Responsibility for designing our world-class educational content. We never talk down to the students who use our resources, so we don’t design down to them either; our activities never look childish, there’s no Comic Sans and it’s a clip-art free zone.
The creative freedom of a small organisation combined with the advantages of a larger company and leading media brand. You will have access to Economist Group benefits including private medical insurance and great training and mentoring opportunities.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Designing Topical Talk Classroom resources for young people (60%)
You’ll be responsible for bringing the news to life by designing inspiring, accessible resources that will captivate young people and help them to access and break down complex global news stories. You will source on-topic imagery and layout easy-to-follow lesson guides that will empower teachers to engage their students in high-quality discussions and develop their critical-thinking skills.
Every resource is different, and you’ll rise to the creative challenges for each new topic. One resource might need an infographic that depicts the potential pathways for the future of the NHS, while the next might require you to photoshop green scales and purple eyes onto a cat to help students see the need to understand the bigger picture.
- You’ll design weekly lessons and more detailed special-edition resource packs regularly. Sample topics include: Refugees and responsibility, Big corp power, Gender bias, Cancel culture and Building back greener.
- You’ll design additional resources to help teachers in the classroom; including skills posters, checklists and guides.
- You’ll whip up social posts, website images and email banners to match each resource so we can promote them to our audience.
- You’ll design materials for one-off current affairs events for young people and teacher training workshops.
- Designing Topical Talk Festival materials (20%)
In October, we’re launching Topical Talk Festival: an exciting programme that will engage students in high-quality online discussions with young people in other communities and countries. The Foundation has ten years of experience designing creative in-person and online events for young people to immerse them in news stories, and your design-work will be invaluable to bring the Festival to life. Your involvement will include the design of:
- Posters and flyers to promote the festival
- Invitations and award presentations
- Event marketing materials and slides
- Certificates, awards and prizes
- Marketing materials for the Foundation (10%)
You’ll work with the Marketing Manager on a variety of marketing materials to grow our audience and expand our reach. This could include:
- Creating website visual assets and making site updates
- Display and retargeting ads for digital mediums
- Email templates and imagery
- Flyers and brochures
- Social posts
- Print advertising
- Impact reports (10%)
Every year we create an impact report to demonstrate the effect our programmes have had on young people around the world and to highlight our growth plans for the coming year. You’ll create a data-led, vibrant and engaging impact report that will tell the story of our charity and highlight our successes.
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE AND ATTRIBUTES
Experience
- A minimum level 3 qualification in graphic design e.g. degree, diploma or apprenticeship.
- You have at least three years of experience of working in a design role, either in an in-house creative studio or as a freelancer.
- While a lot of our content is digital-only, you’ll have experience in creating perfect print-ready files.
Required skills
- Excellent skills in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator
- Proficient in PowerPoint
Bonus skills
- Photography
- Figma
- Video editing (Premiere Pro or similar)
- Animation (After Effects or similar)
- MailChimp
- Canva
Attributes
- A portfolio of work demonstrating the ability to respond to briefs creatively.
- An understanding of the principles of design, including typography, colour, layout and illustration and the ability to make design accessible.
- An awareness of the importance of brand consistency and standards. You will be the brand guardian while the Head of Design is on maternity leave, and responsible for maintaining the Economist Foundation brand and ensuring we align to The Economist Group standards.
- Creative thinker: You are able to design classroom activities and news content which inspire young people and help them to understand complex global issues. You can take an abstract concept and translate it into strong visual imagery that inspires deeper understanding.
- An impeccable eye for detail.
- Excellent organisational skills: You have demonstrated an ability to successfully juggle multiple deadlines, prioritise effectively and coordinate different colleagues or stakeholders to deliver projects on time.
- The drive, adaptability and initiative to move projects forward when things don’t go to plan or obstacles arise. You are able to work in a self-directed way in a dynamic organisation where you will have the freedom to manage your own projects, workload and approaches.
- A strong team-worker: You are open to different perspectives and approaches and able to make use of ideas and input from a range of people. You take ownership of your work and enjoy working collaboratively and contributing to a supportive team.
This role will involve working with young people, so you will need to have a DBS check (which the Foundation will organise).