Seeking Poster designer for the Edinburgh Radical Book Fair 2025!

Edinburgh’s Radical Book Fair is back in 2025! Taking place at the Roxy Assembly 6-9th November, the fair is a yearly meeting point for radical books, reading, thinking and feeling, as much as it is an opportunity for community-building and connections to facilitate crucial concrete action and organising.

Now we’re embarking on a search for this year’s poster design! Is this where you - designer/illustrator - come in?

We'll be commissioning the creation of an A3 poster for this year's fair, with elements of the design to be used both online and in print.

The theme

The theme for this year’s Edinburgh Radical Book Fair will be ‘Ecosystems of change’ or ‘Constellations of Change’. As an artist, we invite you to respond to whichever of the two alternatives speaks to you the most.

What the two have in common is the forging of coalitions as vital to meaningful change and to building the world we deserve. History shows us that when we come together across the boundaries of single issues, in embodied solidarity and with common goals, the most effective victories happen, with consequences far beyond what we imagined. Now, more than ever, we see the need for these ‘ecosystems/constellations’ of change - from the climate justice movement working in solidarity with Palestine to trans rights framed as a class issue. Siloed struggles play into the hands of oppressors - the opposite is the road to liberation.

We hope for the talks and panels in the programme to encourage and celebrate and explore the spaces where issues and groups meet to create movements.

The fee

We can pay a fee of £150 for the design of the poster. As a designer you would still be free to use any images and poster elements elsewhere. The deadline for the finished design would be 23rd July 2025.

What we need from you

If you'd be interested in designing a poster for us, please send an email with the following to rbf@lighthousebookshop.com

• A few samples of your (existing) work
• A couple of lines about why you'd be a good fit to create the poster for 2025's Radical Book Fair
• Please note that we're not asking for drafts or finished designs at this point - just a note of interest.
• Please send us this email by June 16th 5pm

In the image on the left you can glimpse the RBF posters from the last three years, designed by Lindsay Grime, Celeste John-Wood and Candice Purwin respectively.

Though not a requirement to apply, we're especially keen to work with and promote the work of artists based in Scotland or the North of England, who are familiar with the bookshop and share our values and ambitions for the Radical Book Fair.

We’re so excited to see your work and hope you will consider sharing it with us!