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Art editor

  • Hours

    35-40 per week

  • Starting salary

    £18,000 + per year

Art editors make sure that magazines look good and are easy to read.

To be an art editor, you should have creativity and commercial awareness. You will need excellent IT skills. You will also need to be able to work to tight deadlines.

There are no set entry requirements. You would need to show work that you’ve done to employers. They may consider your ability and experience more important than qualifications.



The work

As an art editor, your tasks would typically include:

  • laying out pages and making sure the most suitable graphics and photographs are used
  • discussing ideas with colleagues such as journalists and editorial staff
  • commissioning, and working with, freelance designers, illustrators and photographers
  • producing cover designs
  • setting an overall style for the publication and making sure that each issue follows this style
  • redesigning the publication to keep up with trends.

In some jobs you might oversee photo shoots.


Hours

You would usually work normal office hours, Monday to Friday. Extra hours may be needed to meet deadlines, particularly when an issue is about to go to press (which could be weekly or monthly).

Based in an office or design studio, you would do most of your work on a computer. There may be some travel, often to attend meetings. If your job involves overseeing photo shoots, you could travel further afield, including overseas.


Income

Starting salaries can be around £18,000 a year.

With experience earnings can be from around £25,00 to over £32,000.

Figures are intended as a guideline only.


Entry requirements

There are no set entry requirements. You would need a portfolio of work to show to potential employers, who may consider your ability and experience more important than qualifications.

In practice, however, many art editors have a degree, BTEC HND or foundation degree in a subject such as graphic design, illustration or fine art; some employers expect this type of qualification.

Completing one of these courses would help you develop your skills, make contacts and start to build a portfolio.

To search for courses, visit the UCAS website. You should check with colleges and universities for their entry requirements.

Several universities run postgraduate courses in graphic design and similar subjects, which could be useful for developing your skills. To search for postgraduate courses see the Postgrad website.

For specialist magazines, you would have an advantage if you have an interest or qualification in the subject of the publication.

The design and art direction group D&AD runs workshops for graduates. These would help you build a portfolio and make contacts in the design industry – see their website for more details.

Unpaid work experience will also give you the chance to develop your portfolio, make contacts and impress potential employers. See the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) website for advice on finding work experience.


Training and development

As a start, you could join a magazine as a designer and perhaps progress to deputy art editor, then art editor.

You may receive in-house training in areas such as copyright and IT packages like InDesign.

Throughout your career, it will be important to keep up to date with developments in the industry and in relevant computer software.

Professional organisations such as the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA), the Chartered Society of Designers and D&AD run courses and workshops for members, which are useful for professional development. For example, D&AD runs Workout, a range of one-day development courses.

Membership of this type of organisation will also give you the opportunity to make contacts in the industry.


Skills and knowledge

To be an art editor, you should have:

  • creativity
  • commercial awareness
  • confidence to present your ideas
  • the ability to work to tight deadlines and within budget
  • excellent IT skills, including the use of software such as Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Illustrator and InDesign
  • the ability to explain your ideas clearly to other staff
  • attention to detail
  • organisational and time management skills
  • the ability to work well in a team.

More information

Creative Skillset (Opens new window)
Focus Point
21 Caledonian Road
London
N1 9GB
www.creativeskillset.org

Creative Skillset Careers (Opens new window)
Tel: 08080 300 900 (England and Northern Ireland)
Tel: 0845 850 2502(Scotland)
Tel: 08000 121 815 (Wales)
www.creativeskillset.org/careers

Professional Publishers Association (PPA) (Opens new window)
Queens House
28 Kingsway
London
WC2B 6JR
Tel: 020 7404 4166
www.ppa.co.uk

Chartered Society of Designers (CSD) (Opens new window)
1 Cedar Court
Royal Oak Yard
Bermondsey Street
London
SE1 3GA
www.csd.org.uk

D&AD (Opens new window)
9 Graphite Square
Vauxhall Walk
London
SE11 5EE
Tel: 020 7840 1111
www.dandad.org


Opportunities

Larger publishing companies are mainly based in London and the south east of the country.

With experience, you could progress to a more senior position such as art director, or move to advertising agency work. You could also use your experience and industry contacts to become self-employed or set up your own design agency.

You may find the following links useful for vacancies and general reading (links open in new window):

Job profiles are based on the latest information supplied to us by industry bodies, such as Sector Skills Councils. Please be aware that with the introduction of the Qualifications and Credit Framework (Opens in a new window) there has been, and will continue to be, changes to vocational qualifications. For more information, please check with industry bodies directly.

We do not accept responsibility for the content of external sites.


Related industry information

Industry summary

The publishing industry is part of the creative industries, which is represented by Creative Skillset. This includes: advertising; animation; computer games; corporate and commercial production; fashion and textiles; film; interactive media; photo imaging; publishing; radio; and television.

Publishing is made up of many different sub‐sectors, including: books; journals (including electronic journals); newspapers; news agencies; magazines and business media; directories and databases; and newsletters and reports. Newspapers, covering both national and local newspapers, are the largest sub‐sector employing over 60,000, around 30% of the sector. The smallest sub‐sector is News Agencies, which employs 24,000 and comprises 11% of the sector.

Key facts:

  • There are over 200,000 people employed in the publishing industry, representing less than 1% of all those working in the UK.
  • Over 60,000 of the publishing workforce is employed in newspapers.
  • The publishing industry generates a turnover of £8.3 billion Gross Value Added and is one of the biggest earners for the UK creative media industries.
  • 85% of business have less than 24 employees, 3% have 200 or more employees.
  • The majority of companies are based in London and the South East of England.
  • Around 45% of the workforce has a degree.

Jobs in the industry include: Editor, Illustrator, Journalist, Indexer, Licensing Manager, Commissioning Editor, Managing Editor, Production Editor, Sales Executive, Marketing Manager, Publicity Assistant.


National and regional data

The main geographical area of employment is London and the South East. The North West (including Merseyside) is next, followed by Scotland, the South West and the West Midlands. In Wales and Northern Ireland the sector is predominately made up of small publishers and news media.

East Midlands – There are approximately 9,000 jobs in publishing. The industry is primarily focussed around consumer, business and professional journals & periodicals, as well as newspapers

East of England – There are approximately 25,000 people employed in the East of England. This is clustered around book publishing, newspapers, as well as consumer, business & professional journals & periodicals.

London – London has the largest publishing workforce with approximately 52,000 employed. Consumer, business & profession journals & periodicals makes up the largest employment sub sector at 20,000, but there is also a substantial workforce of 10,000 in both book publishing and other publishing activities.

North East – Approximately 16,000 people are employed in publishing in the North East comprised of 8,00 in newspapers, 4,000 in other publishing activities, 2,000 in both book publishing and consumer, business & professional journals & periodicals.

North West – There are currently no statistics for this region.

South East – The South East employs around 25,000 people in the publishing sector. Much of this work is clustered around book publishing at 11,000 and newspapers at 9,000 (more than any other region).

South West – 19,000 people are employed in the publishing sector in the South West. Other publishing activities makes up 6,000 of the total and book publishing and consumer, business & profession journals & periodicals have around 5,000 within each.

West Midlands – Approximately 6,000 people are employed in publishing in the West Midlands, predominately in newspaper publishing at 4,000.

Yorkshire and the Humber – The Yorkshire and Humber has a workforce of around 6,000 people predominately in newspaper publishing.

Northern Ireland – Northern Ireland has a relatively small publishing industry at around 1,000 people, all in the area of newspapers.

Scotland – Scotland has a publishing workforce of around 9,000 people mainly in newspapers at 7,000 and a further 2,000 in book publishing.

Wales – Wales has a small publishing workforce of around 2,000 employees mostly working in newspapers.

National and Regional information on the publishing sector in the nations and regions is based on the Labour Force Survey (ONS) Apr‐Jun 2009.


Career paths


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