Designer (Print and Pattern- Accessories)

Designer (Maternity Cover) 

Location: Hybrid (Minimum 2-3 days per week in our Handforth office)

Contract Type: 12 months FTC

About the role:

This is a rare opportunity to join a market leading business as a versatile and commercially minded designer for our pet accessories department. This role covers the full spectrum of pet lifestyle products, including toys, collars, leads, and fashion. Reporting to the Creative Design Manager, as Designer you will create print, pattern and character work for our non-food/accessories categories. You will be integral to the design and development process, so someone who fits into our culture and can work well with others is just as important as your skills and experience. As well as the Creative Design Manager, you will work closely with the accessories buying team to help design and brief successful product ranges. This is a full-time role with the benefit of hybrid working with a minimum of 2/3 days in the office.

Role responsibilities

• Support with the creation of print, pattern, illustration, character design and colour palettes.
• You must possess a keen eye for detail, ensuring all artwork and repeats are technically accurate, perfectly aligned, and fully production-ready before being sent to suppliers.
• The ability to apply designs to product artwork and silhouettes as well as create new product templates is a major bonus!
• Conduct trend research to ensure our ranges remain relevant and market-leading and feeding this back through reports and team updates.
• Support the Creative Design Manager in the creation of trend packs to ensure our non-food product range is commercial, trend-led, and innovative.
• Be forthcoming with new ideas where gaps have been identified within our current product offering.
• Manage timelines and ensure tasks are completed in line with the critical path.
• Have an organised approach with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple projects.
• Our culture is very important, so the ability to build relationships with cross functional teams including buying and technical teams is vital to our success.
• This is a small team so the willingness to provide essential support beyond design, including general admin, coordinating travel, planning trade show visits, and organising samples for review sessions.

Experience we’re looking for

• You will already be a Designer or an established Junior Designer ready for the next step.
• 3+ years’ experience in a product/fashion design role. (Fashion, Homeware, Childrenswear etc)
• You will have a proven track record of creating, designing and launching commercial product collections.
• A broad and commercial design style and ability to create illustrations, characters and print and pattern for several customer types and tastes.
• Strong working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and ideally a basic understanding of InDesign.
• Good understanding of MS Office skills such as outlook, word and excel.

A bit about you

• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to speak positively to instil confidence and influence at all levels.
• Positively minded with a flexible approach.
• A proactive attitude and a willingness to "get stuck in" to tasks outside the traditional design remit.
• A strong focus on teamwork.
• Good presentation skills.
• And finally, a love for animals and wanting to create the best products for our pets!

Please be sure to include a link to your portfolio when applying.

Pets just see people. They aren’t biased and they don’t discriminate. We take our inspiration from pets, and we value and respect difference in all its forms. Our aim is to reflect the diversity of the communities we operate in, and every colleague can help us achieve this. We encourage our people to be themselves so even if your skills and experience don’t perfectly align, if you think you can make a unique contribution through your values and behaviours, we want to hear from you!