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Setting up outsourcers to work on DK projects

Outsourcer Procedures and Workflows

Last modified: March 8, 2023

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These guidelines are for anyone hiring out-of-house creative staff (designers, editors, illustrators) and to ensure that they have all the information they need to work on DK titles.

1/  Before any agreement is reached, DK creative should send the outsourcer a link to this page which details our technical requirements: https://www.dkhandbook.com/?p=6264  (We have had cases where outsourcers had to turn down a job after signing a contract because they did not have the required equipment/software and it was not worth their while buying new equipment).

2/  Make sure your outsourcer has access to a Mac and NOT a PC as the latter are not compatible with Fuse and its tools. Ensure they are using CC 2022 (InDesign v.17, Photoshop v.23, Illustrator v.26) and nothing before or after.

3/   Please check with the DK Typography team (fonts@uk.dk.com) that you have a free and available Monotype Fonts account to offer to a new/old outsourcer BEFORE signing them onto the project. If your team does not have a spare Monotype Fonts account that can be allotted to a new outsourcer, it may not be possible to provide access without first deactivating an existing active account. Please note, the on-boarding process for Monotype Fonts takes longer for a new outsourcer as a personalised software licensing agreement has to be made, read, and signed by the outsourcer before we can grant access. To supply the information required for the generation of this software licensing agreement, please complete this form.

4/  You will need to contact the Legal department (Jessica De Ferry) to draft the appropriate contract with the outsourcer.

5/ You will need to ensure that the HR process is followed to ensure compliance with IR35. For any questions about this, please contact the HR department.

6/  Your outsourcer will also need access to a Google account so that they have access to our Google Drive WIP folders.

7/  You should agree with the outsourcer on the tasks they will be doing and fill in the Outsourcer’s Brief (available in the “Briefing folder” in each Book Folder on Google Drive). It can also be downloaded here:

8/  The following DK people will need to be notified any time any outsourcers are hired whether they are designers, editors or illustrators and whether they are new or have worked with DK before. They will need to know the name and email address of the outsourcer and what title they are working on:

  • Sonia Charbonnier (for Fuse access and technical support)
  • Production Editor (for workflow, file management and general troubleshooting)
  • fonts@uk.dk.com (for access to our fonts via the MT Mosaic portal website and the Monotype Desktop Application)

9/  DK creative should brief their outsourcers on the different tasks required (i.e. co-editions, general file set-up, templates, SourceReport, Font Report, Font Checker, Fuse tools etc.). (Please note that we do not recommend that new freelancers create templates due to the specific way we want them set up and to avoid extra checking work).

10/  While our outsourcers have access to all our technical guidelines on DK Handbook, the following links are particularly important ones, especially for new outsourcers: