Entry-Level Greetings Card, Gift Wrap & Gift Bag Designer

Main Duties

• Create ‘house’ style cards and ancillary product in-line with the brand strategy.

• Innovate newness and develop existing ranges and designs for cards and ancillary product.

• Generate new colour palettes, drawing styles, patterns, fonts, and themes, synonymous with the brand.

• Initiate research trips and design workshops/courses to stay inspired.

• Utilise sales information to design commercial yet cutting edge designs.

• Work with the sales team to understand key national accounts and independent customers preferences to inform your designs and range building.

• Display a strong commercial awareness to design in accordance with a card’s topic, theme, type, and target market. (Who would send this card and why?).

• Understand target customers (both trade and retail) and new emerging markets from sales meetings with Buying/Merchandising and comp shops.

• Utilise sales information from the sales tracker to design the next ‘best seller’.

• Undertake frequent visits to review competitors’ ranges to stay ahead of the market (in store, online, trade shows), identifying shopping trends and gaps in the market.

• Manage own workload within the critical path, understanding time scales for each release and ensuring all deadlines are met.

• Ready approved designs for artworking, artwork each design and brief to the printers.

• Send artwork to print on time and relay relevant information to the Buying and Merchandising teams.

• Assist with the approval process for all printed stock, including printed cards, wrap and ancillary, and ensure the final product is satisfactory before delivery to warehouse.

• Attain solid working relationships with all main suppliers and gain a thorough understanding of their processes to create artwork in accordance with their specifications.

• Carry out design room admin tasks per release, to include issuing design work to ACID for data protection, archiving design work, creating an email-able PDF of every release and circulating it throughout the business, and updating release folders.

• Help in other areas or the design team and wider business as required.

Skills and Experience Required

• Previous entry-level industry experience

• A relevant design degree

• Strong Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign skills

• A genuine passion for design and quality

Disability Confident Employer

We can confirm that we are a Disability Confident Employer (Level 1-3) who can welcome a wide-range of disabled applicants within our level of training.

Equal Opportunities Statement

We are an Equal Opportunities Employer and welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds, regardless of their race, disability, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and belief, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and caring responsibility. We are committed to offering a working environment where everyone is valued and feels appreciated.