Apply to be a Print or Digital Designer at The Ubyssey
The Ubyssey is making a significant investment in the design of our products, the print or digital mediums where people read our journalism. As a part of that, we're creating dedicated, formalized teams for that work.
This application form closes on January 15 at 8 p.m. We welcome applications from members of marginalized communities.
Your privacy is important to us. The information collected by us using this form will only be used by and disclosed to relevant editors to process your application. If you are selected, when we meet you in person, we'll ask to see your UBC Student Card to verify your identity, but we will not be collecting that information here. Artificial intelligence will not be used in processing your application in any way, and all decisions will be made by our team of real people.
Designers will work as part of a coordinated group that integrates both digital and print. You can work with either part of the team, but the goal is to create a unified aesthetic and experience across both print and digital form over the next year.
The role requires about five hours of volunteer service per week.
There are opportunities for advancement with both positions. In March, we'll be hiring for a Design Editor, Digital, and a Design Editor, Print. Both will be open to members of the product department and will be part-time. Part-time editors are paid minimum wage for 16.5 hours per week and get a dedicated desk in our office all year round.
Print Designers make and assemble our print newspaper every two weeks. It's usually around 16-20 pages, and you'll be assigned anywhere from 3 to 6 pages, depending on the complexity of the compositions needed within a 24-hour turnaround time.
Print Designers will need to be available on Wednesday nights throughout the semester — including during midterm season — to ensure the newspaper continues publishing on time, as generations of students have ensured since 1918. Our office will have a dedicated space for you to do that work.
Familiarity with Adobe InDesign, the software we license to design our print product, is appreciated. Training in this software (and page layout generally) will be provided. Further information can be found in the Print Designer position description.
Print Designers will need to be available for the mandatory training session on Saturday, January 17, from the morning through to the late afternoon.
Digital Designers will make continuous visual and experience adjustments to our website, and prepare special, ad-hoc designs for individual articles. This might include creative data visualizations, a pull quote, a photo, or audiovisual integration. Our home page, article pages, section page, author pages, and meta-content pages all need your attention.
Familiarity with CSS and HTML is required. Experience with Figma is appreciated. Further information can be found in the Digital Designer position description.
What pronouns do you use?
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What is your email address?
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Which product are you interested in working in?
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What is your program of study?
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Please detail your major(s) and any minor or certificate programs, etc.
Please detail any relevant experience and interests.
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If you have work samples, please send them to deputymanaging[at]ubyssey.ca and managing[at]ubyssey.ca.
Please complete the applicable skill assessments and upload them as separate files in PDF format. Kindly use the naming convention: UBSY_HRF_FullNameApplicationPart[A or B]-YYYY-MM-DD.
Part A: Compare our
website's home page, article pages, section pages, author pages, and meta-content pages with those same pages on
The Tyee's website and
The New York Times' website, and comment on their relative strengths and weaknesses.
We want you to be critical of our current design.
Part B: Choose one of those kinds of pages and redesign it with Figma (or a similar service).
Part A: Compare a copy of our print newspaper on
Issuu to both the
New York Times and
Globe and Mail. You can access the covers and select pages from both of the latter newspapers' January 4 print editions
here. In a separate document, comment on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the three designs.
We want you to be critical of our current design.
Part B: Propose a change to any aspect of our current print design, and briefly detail why it is superior to our current product for readers.
