Senior Apparel Graphic Designer

About Ellsworth + Ivey

Ellsworth + Ivey is an expanding lifestyle brand celebrated for its premium knitwear, unique custom collections, and strong visual branding. The company operates through e-commerce, retail, wholesale, licensing, and strategic partnerships.

Role Overview

The Senior Apparel Graphic Designer is a creative leader who actively participates in developing custom artwork, shaping seasonal collections, and defining the brand’s visual identity. This role requires leading projects from conception to production-ready designs and mentoring a junior graphic designer. The position spans various channels including wholesale, custom partnerships, licensed products, resort, hospitality, sporting organizations, corporate programs, retail, e-commerce, and core collections.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide a clear creative vision for seasonal collections, custom initiatives, and brand projects.
• Collaborate with leadership, product development, production, sales, and marketing teams to develop seasonal and core collections.
• Contribute creative ideas for graphics, colorways, silhouettes, product storytelling, and seasonal themes.
• Develop mood boards, color schemes, graphic directions, artwork systems, and collection presentations.
• Identify opportunities to refresh core products, enhance best sellers, and introduce commercially appealing new designs.
• Ensure all collections maintain cohesion, distinctiveness, and relevance to the Ellsworth + Ivey customer base.
• Balance creative vision with production considerations like pricing, lead times, and sales feasibility.
• Create original custom artwork for wholesale accounts and clients, including knitwear, apparel, accessories, packaging, and branded events.
• Translate logos, mascots, locations, slogans, and brand elements into sophisticated wearable designs.
• Produce graphics, illustrations, patterns, typography, placement artwork, and various colorways.
• Develop scalable design systems and seasonal templates that allow for efficient customization.
• Follow licensing guidelines for collegiate, event, league, and partner products, and prepare artwork accordingly.
• Deliver precise production-ready files including technical layouts, color callouts, and placement instructions.
• Work closely with production to ensure successful implementation via knit, embroidery, appliqué, printing, and other techniques.
• Review samples, proofs, and production submissions, providing clear revision guidance.
• Maintain well-organized files, version control, approvals, and final production artwork.
• Lead or support collection graphics, product drop templates, and broader brand collateral.
• Partner with the Head of Brand & Marketing to translate brand strategy into unified visual communication.
• Collaborate with marketing on campaigns, presentations, social content, packaging, and event materials.
• Maintain visual consistency across typography, color, layouts, imagery, and graphic treatments.
• Create templates to support rapid sales and marketing needs.
• Supervise and mentor a junior graphic designer, managing assignments, workload, and providing constructive creative and technical feedback.
• Engage with sales to understand client needs and identify commercial opportunities.
• Coordinate with product development and production throughout all phases from concept to delivery.
• Support marketing efforts on launches, campaigns, digital assets, and presentations.
• Participate in seasonal planning, assortment discussions, creative reviews, and client presentations.
• Enhance internal custom-design processes from briefing to final production.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of experience in apparel graphic design, art direction, or product design, ideally within fashion, knitwear, licensing, lifestyle, or consumer goods.
• A robust portfolio showcasing original artwork, collection development, custom design, typography, patterns, and brand execution.
• Demonstrated strong creative perspective with knowledge of fashion trends, color theory, lifestyle, and commercial products.
• Experience contributing to seasonal product or collection creation.
• Expert skills in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.
• Proficiency in producing production-ready artwork and technical design files.
• Understanding of apparel production techniques including knitting, embroidery, appliqué, and screen printing.
• Preferred experience working with licensed, collegiate, wholesale, hospitality, sporting, or custom branded products.
• Experience mentoring or leading junior designers.
• Exceptional organizational, communication, presentation, and project management capabilities.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and revisions under tight deadlines.
• Strong attention to detail and capability to see projects through from concept to final production.

Success Indicators

• Seasonal and custom collections consistently demonstrate cohesion, distinctiveness, and commercial appeal.
• The role contributes a distinctive creative viewpoint influencing product and brand development.
• Custom artwork delivers originality, sophistication, accuracy, and alignment with account needs.
• Projects progress efficiently from ideation through approval and production stages.
• Junior designer receives clear guidance along with constructive professional growth.
• The Ellsworth + Ivey brand maintains a consistent, evolving visual identity across all channels.