Update 08.05.15
We are now closing submissions, as the position has been filled. Thanks again to everyone who applied!

Update 04.05.15
We wanted to take a moment to express our appreciation to everyone who chose to share their work and aspirations with us, in applying for this opening. We’ve had 125 portfolios submitted, and seen some really great work. However, we’ve only the 1 visual role to offer on this occasion, and if you have applied before today and we haven’t already contacted you privately to discuss next steps and shortlisting, then unfortunately, you’ve been unsuccessful this time.

We will still accept submissions for review from new candidates up to and including Friday 8th May, after which time we’ll be closing off applications for this particular role.

Again, thank you so much to everyone who has applied. We’ll update again once we’ve made further progress in filling the position.

The Opportunity:

We’re an Emmy Award winning music and sound company looking for a freelance inhouse Illustrator/Graphic Designer to work with us full time at our Bristol studio initially on a three month assignment, with strong possibility to evolve into permanent role. You’ll be a highly capable and flexible team player, willing to roll-up sleeves and get involved in everything we’re doing.

This is a perfect opportunity for a talented, hardworking, multiskilled visual creative to take charge and shape the visual branding, identity, and storytelling of our small, dynamic company. You’ll be the only visual specialist working amongst a team of audio creatives, and your day will involve:

  • Proactively and swiftly creating solutions to visual design tasks and problems we bring you
  • Understanding and interpreting our awkwardly expressed ideas into sketches, drawings, mockups, layouts, and fully realised visual assets, working with both still and moving image
  • Creating original branding and artwork for our multimedia and multichannel assets, both print and digital media
  • Organising and managing our visual asset library
  • Filming internal and remote location recording sessions
  • Creating and editing videos and photo libraries for website and other channels
  • Managing workflow with other external visual freelancers as required

Essential Skills

  • Illustrator
  • After Effects
  • Photoshop
  • Premiere (Video Editing)
  • InDesign
  • Ability to produce stunning creative in timely fashion
  • Hand Illustration
  • Artistic talent – this isn’t just a design/layout role. You must be able to create outstanding visual assets from scratch.

Useful Extras

  • Canon 5D still and moving photography
  • Front end web coding (HTML5/CSS3/Javascript)
  • Cinema 4D

How to apply:

  • First, watch the video above, read this job advert, and read through all the FAQs
  • Email jobs@radium-audio.com with the subject line format “1504 Illustrator/Designer (YOUR FULL NAME AND CELLPHONE NO)
  • Tell us where you saw this opportunity, and/or how you found out about it.
  • Tell us in the email what appeals to you about this role, what you’d bring to it, why you’d be really great at it, and approximate salary / equivalent you’d be looking for.
  • Share your portfolio with us by digital means. We’re going to leave it totally up to you how you do that. Make it relevant and easy for us. Aim to impress.
  • Submit as pdf attachments 4 examples of your hand illustrated art. These can be any style/s that you like, fantasy art, crazy cartoon, still life, anything that shows your artistic talent and range to best advantage. We suggest picking a style/s that you’re both good at, and that you enjoy the most.

Frequently Asked Questions

Section 1. Should I apply for this role?

Q. What level of experience do I need to apply?
A. We’re open to all levels of experience with this role. You might be a highly talented graduate, expert in all the skills we’ve listed who can come right in and hit the ground running. Maybe you have a few internships under your belt, or you already have experience in other inhouse or creative agency roles. Perhaps you’ve been working freelance from home and you’d like to switch to an inhouse role. Perhaps you’d like to move from working for many different clients to essentially telling many strands of a single story through still and moving image, using both digital and print assets. We’re open to all backgrounds.

Q. I’m really strong with my illustration and design skills but I’ve not done much in the way of photography and video recording. Can I still apply?
A. Yes, go ahead. As long as you’re willing to get in and learn quickly, you can pick up the photography and video recording on the job, we have others on the team who’ll show you the ropes.

Q. I’m really great behind a camera, but my design/illustration skills are weaker. Can I still apply?
A. The design/illustration skills are critical and not negotiable – the photography/video recording we have covered already albeit we will want you to pick that up on the job. So sorry, if that’s the case then this isn’t the role for you.

Q. I’m up on all the essential skills, but I don’t have any of the useful extras. Can I still apply?
A. Yes definitely! You can learn the camera on the job, we already have someone to do the coding although if you can learn enough to interface easily with them that would be great, and we get that Cinema 4D is a specialist tool, so it won’t disadvantage you not to have those boxes ticked up front.

Q. You have an amazing client list! Will I be creating visual assets for them?
A. Just to be super-clear, no you won’t. The clients you see on our website come to us for audio creative, not visual creative. You will be working on the visual identity and storytelling of Radium and our associated channels, not those of our audio clients.

Q. Will I need to supply my own equipment?
A. No. There’s a brand new Mac Pro and full fat Adobe Creative Suite with your name on it. Anything else you need, we’ll supply that too.

Q. What level of remuneration are you offering?
A. Salary/equivalent will be offered on individual basis at a level in line with ability, experience, and value brought to the team at time of hire. We’ve asked you to let us know what level of pay you’re looking for as part of your application. Please don’t view this as an opportunity to aim high and negotiate down afterwards, because part of our decisionmaking process will be based around whether we can afford you, and we’re going to take you at your word and presume you won’t take any less than what you’ve set out should we offer you the position. Just to be clear – we’re not just looking to bring in the lowest bidder. We aim to pay the going market rate for similar positions/ability/experience levels so that you feel fairly rewarded for your work and involvement with us.

Q. You say this is a three month fixed term position, but then you also say that the term could be extended and could even become permanent? Why can’t you be more definite about what you’re offering?
A. We’ve never had an inhouse dedicated visual designer before. We’ve mainly handled our visual and web needs inhouse, with the occasional help from design freelancers. But we’ve been so busy as an audio team for a while now, that we’ve not had any time to address the visual creative requirements of the business, so we’ve got loads of work stacked up on that side of things we’ve not been able to get to. We think it’ll take a good 3 months to get that up to date. After that time it could be that you’ve become such an integral part of the team that we’ll ask you to stay on, but we can’t say for sure things will go that way up front. It’s happened a few times before with temporary/fixed term team members – for example, one of our former interns is now running the studio 3 years later, and a second intern has gone on to run the sound recording side of things inhouse, so we’re not ruling anything out.

Q. I collaborate with one or more creative partners. Can we apply collectively?
A. Unfortunately that won’t work. Right now we have a full time position for 1 person, who will need to carry the entire skillset for the job themselves.

Q. I don’t live near your studio right now, but I’d be willing to relocate if I got the job. Can I still apply?
A. Yes you can, most of the application process can be completed remotely. However if you make it through to the final shortlist, you will need to travel at your own expense to attend the studio in person for final interview & demo stages, and to relocate promptly if offered the position.

Q. I don’t live in the UK, but I’m an EU citizen and I have the right to move to the UK and take employment without any restrictions. Can I still apply? A. Yes you can. Most of the application process can be completed remotely. However if you make it through to the final shortlist, you will need to travel at your own expense to attend the studio in person for final interview & demo stages, and to relocate promptly if offered the position.

Q. I don’t live in the UK, and I also live outside the EU. Can I still apply?
A. You will need to demonstrate to us with your initial application that you have the unrestricted right already in place to live and work in the UK, as we are not able to assist with immigration issues and work permit applications. Most of the application process can be completed remotely. However if you make it through to the final shortlist, you will need to travel at your own expense to attend the studio in person for final interview & demo stages, and to relocate promptly if offered the position.

Q. I don’t live near the studio, but I’d be willing to work remotely. Can I still apply?
A. Sadly, no. For this position, we’re really looking for someone to join the inhouse team. Given the highly fluid and organically creative nature of what we do, we feel the best results can only be achieved from being physically and mentally present and together as a team. So unfortunately remote working doesn’t fit with what we’re looking to achieve from this role.

Q. I’m not looking for a full time inhouse position, but I’d be interested in freelancing for you as and when. Can I still apply?
A. This is not an external freelance position, we are definitely looking for someone to work with us inhouse full time. We will advertise for freelancers when we have a specific requirement for that.

Q. I’m not right for this role, but could I apply for an internship or some work experience, or just spend some time in studio observing?
A. We’re often working on projects for clients which are highly confidential, so while we don’t want to be anti-social, mostly we try to avoid having observers in studio who are not directly working on projects in progress. Sometimes we do have opportunities for internships or work experience, and we ALWAYS advertise these as it has happened in the past that the occasional intern has come in, blown us away with energy, commitment, talent and usefulness, and progressed eventually to a permanent position on the team. So we want to throw the net as wide as we can. You can sign up on our Radium Careers page to be notified of any opportunities that come up.

Q. I’m not really right for this role, but can I just send you my work speculatively? Do you have other opportunities happening soon and will you remember me when they come up?
A. Given that we’re expanding, we will definitely have further opportunities to come soon. We wouldn’t say “no, don’t send us your work” because we take it as a compliment that you’d choose to share it with us. But realistically, we’re flat out most of the time and while we review speculative applications occasionally, given the volume we receive it’s difficult to make an ongoing commitment to review all of them. Also, if you’re sending us a general email about your work, you’re essentially shooting blind. Whereas if you’re responding to a specific callout we’ve made, you’ll be able to shape what you send us so that it fits with what we’re looking for at that time, and we do commit to reviewing EVERY submission when it’s for a role we’ve advertised. You’re more likely to grab our attention if you submit something we’ve specifically asked for, in the way that we’ve asked for it, at the time we’re looking for it.

Section 2 . Ok I’ve decided I’m going to apply, and I’m preparing my submission …

Q. I have a large portfolio and I’m trying to decide which parts of it to submit. Can you give me some guidance on styles/types of design you’re looking for?
A. We have a lot of asset production to catch up on, projects in the pipeline, and showreels well overdue for an update requiring your skills and attention. We’re expecting that if you come on board with us, depending on your ideas and level of experience you could have have quite a lot of input into the creative direction so to a certain extent much will depend on what you’re bringing to the table. However, if you wanted to reach out to us by email before you send your formal application, with a bullet pointed list of styles/asset types you’d like us to choose from, we’d be happy to respond individually to let you know what we’d be most interested in seeing, whether that should turn out to be all of it or just some specific parts.

Q. How should I submit my portfolio?
A. Digitally to start with. We can look at any physical examples you’d like to show us if you reach interview stage. How you handle the digital submission is totally up to you. It’s an opportunity to show us how great you are at managing pitch opportunities, because inhouse you’d be working on those with us as well.

Q. I have some material to share but it’s not totally all my work although I contributed. Is it ok to submit?
A. Ideally all work submitted should be completely your own, not a collaboration. If you are submitting a piece you’ve jointly worked on with someone else, please make it clear to us what your contribution was.

Q. Is it an advantage to get my application in really early?
A. Yes. We need to find someone to work with us as quickly as possible. As soon as we find the right person, we’ll be inviting them to join us and applications will be closed.

Q. When do applications close?
A. When we’ve either found the right person, or we’re confident that we have a shortlist that will lead to a definite hire. We will announce updates both here and on Facebook to keep everyone in the loop at all times.

Section 3: I’ve sent in my submission. What happens now?

Q. Ok so I’ve applied for the position following all the guidelines given. What happens next?
A. We will begin reviewing and shortlisting applications. EVERY application we receive is reviewed. After an initial shortlist is compiled, our internal team review these and decide upon a final Stage 1 shortlist. Those people will then be contacted by phone to discuss next steps. Also, we post updates on Facebook, so we’ll let everyone know when we’re getting close to a shortlist and some follow up phone calls.

Q. Did you get my email?
A. You should receive an auto–responder from us confirming receipt of your email. If you haven’t:

  • Check your spam or junk mail in case it landed there
  • Check you have only sent your submission to jobs@radium-audio.com and not directed to or included any other address
  • If neither of the above applies, email us again without any attachments or links with “NO RECEIPT RECEIVED” inserted at the end of your original subject line. We’ll then check our autoresponder to be sure it’s working properly, and let you know if we received your original mail.

Q. Should I phone just for a quick chat to follow up my application?
A. Please don’t be offended, however we’d really prefer if you didn’t. If we’re blown away what you’ve sent us, we’ll definitely be phoning you!

Q. Will you let me know about the outcome regardless of whether or not I’ve been successful?
A. Yes, once we’ve found someone, applicants who didn’t hear from us by phone will receive a standard email notification. Also you can keep up with progress on our Facebook and Radium Careers pages where we will post status updates as they become available for any advertised role.

Thanks and good luck – we’re looking forward to reviewing your submissions!