Catapult is looking for a Design Department Assistant to join our group. Reporting to the creative director, this person will set-up book cover mechanicals and execute on related tasks for our Catapult, Counterpoint, and Soft Skull imprints. This is a great opportunity to work in a vibrant independent publishing atmosphere.

People of color, disabled people, and LGBTQIA+ candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. Remote can be considered for candidates residing in California, Oregon, and the New York metro area.

Responsibilities
- Preparing production cover mechanicals for our hardcovers and paperbacks
- Setting up files to template
- Routing mechanicals to appropriate departments on deadline
- Executing mechanical edits on deadline
- Collecting files for print and sending final files to printer
- Adjusting mechanical files for reprints
- Obtaining, flight checking and tracking deliverables from freelance designers
- Formatting digital assets for each title and uploading to asset library and database
- Archiving final mechanical files
- Licensing artwork and maintaining related spreadsheet
- Tracking invoices and submitting to Accounts Payable department
- Following up on invoices when needed and communicating with freelancers and vendors
- Conducting art research for more senior design team
- Remaining current on art, design, and publishing trends
- Attending art department meetings
- Maintaining deadlines for the team, including need-by dates for key company meetings, communicating with editors regarding cover routings, and sending reminders as needed to keep the team on track
- Assisting the creative director with any needed tasks

Experience and Skills
- Some experience laying out book cover mechanicals preferred
- Broad knowledge of typography
- Excellent communication and organization skills
- A desire to work collaboratively
- Strong attention to detail
- Ability to multitask and meet tight deadlines in a fast paced environment
- Fluency in InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator

ABOUT CATAPULT
Catapult, Counterpoint, and Soft Skull Press have distinct editorial teams but share marketing, publicity, design, and production resources. Our Catapult list offers a space for risk-taking writers from all over the world to collide and be in conversation, bringing you literary fiction and artful narrative nonfiction from voices, emerging and established, that honor the craft of writing and broaden the literary landscape in America and beyond, serving the needs of a diverse and serious literary readership. The Counterpoint list covers a wide array of genres and fiction (both story collections and novels) and nonfiction (both narrative and subject-driven), all of which collectively focus on current affairs and politics, counterculture, history, the environment, memoir, literary biography, religion, and philosophy. Soft Skull Press publishes books of every genre that engage art, culture, and current events in new and radical ways. All three imprints are committed to publishing diverse voices and literature in translation and have received numerous literary awards. Counterpoint's main office is in Berkeley, California. Catapult and Soft Skull are based in NYC.