Design Assistant

Are you a graduate with a motivated and hardworking attitude? Join the Ultimate Products Graduate Development Programme this Summer and kickstart your career!

Ultimate Products are looking for talented and career-driven Design graduates to join our development programme. We recognise that graduates fresh out of university have often developed a brilliant array of transferable skills but lack job-specific experience. That’s where we come in! The UP graduate programme combines on the job training with regular reviews, mentoring and development plans to give our grads the best possible first step on the career ladder. With the help of our employee mentoring programme, each of our graduates is given one-on-one support and guidance to help them reach their highest potential.

Key Responsibilities

• Produce print-ready creative layouts across a wide range of design projects, predominantly branded packaging and instruction manuals.
• Photographic art direction, retouching and image manipulation for packaging.
• Typeset branded instruction manuals and occasionally assist with error checking of all artwork and instruction manuals in line with specified guidelines.
• Ensure all technical and print specifications are met, including checking spot colours, image resolution, text and legal requirements.
• Communicate effectively with the Buying teams to guarantee that artwork is produced in line with the brief.
• Day-to-day admin ensuring all workflow and file tracking is kept up to date.

The UP story

From a spark in Oldham to a global success. We’re the cogs in the retail machine, designing, manufacturing and distributing innovative branded products at the best prices to a mass market. Our brand portfolio includes Salter, Beldray, Kleeneze and Progress. Each has a reputation for high quality and on trend design, and they’re faithful household names – some that even your grandparents love.

Ultimate Products has been bringing branded kitchen and laundry products to the market since 1997. Now a public limited company, our annual turnover exceeds £100 million. We’ve established strong working relationships with Internationally recognised retailers, including Tesco, Asda and Primark, filling the shelves of the world’s favourite stores across 38 countries. Despite our continued growth, strong corporate values remain at UP’s core; we are committed to supporting local charities and initiatives to give back to the community that helped build us.

Our people are a key driver to our success and we are proud of creating an environment that enables our colleagues to thrive both professionally and personally, which is why we recently invested £1.6M in a brand new office at our Oldham headquarters. With newly implemented employee mental health and environmental committees, we are dedicated to empowering our people to have a voice and share their views. In a 2021 survey, 86% of our employees said that they would recommend Ultimate Products as a great place to work, a figure that we’re hoping to improve even further in 2022!

What we look for

• A creative degree qualification at 2:1 or above. Graphic Design is advantageous.
• Creative and enthusiastic, with an interest in packaging
• Excellent organisational and layout skills are vital
• A keen eye for detail with an ability to multitask
• Confident Mac user with a good working knowledge of Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign
• Capacity to follow instructions and work to a defined brief
• Ability to work as part of a team and independently
• Good communication skills for everyday internal interaction with other colleagues
• A willingness to learn and ask questions
• Local to Greater Manchester

What is in it for you?
We care about your progression:

• Structured training and personal development plan during your career with us
• Ongoing salary reviews as you take on more responsibility and progress your career
• Employee Save As You Earn share save scheme
• Optional salary sacrifice pension contribution of an additional 10% on top of your standard pension contribution

We invest in our people:

• New £2M state of the art office in Oldham
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays after your first 12 months
• Access to wellbeing support, including 24-hour access to Employee Assistance Helpline
• Charity, Environmental and ESG committees, created to encourage positive change within the company and our wider community
• Every UP employee is authorised to complete a day of paid charity work volunteering
• High levels of employee satisfaction- Glassdoor rating of 4* and above

We celebrate in style:

• Annual Christmas party paid for by the company
• Flowers or a gift for landmark birthdays, weddings, and births
• £250 towards a wedding cake