Dyehard Fan Supply, headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, is a start-up entity specializing in providing Retail Merchandise at sporting and entertainment events for its clients. Dyehard is growing rapidly from a combination of recent and pending acquisitions as well as organic growth through acquisition of new clients.

The Creative Designer is a driven individual and passionate for College and Professional sports. This position has overall responsibility for creative direction and graphic design developments for Private Label brands managed by Dyehard Fan Supply. With support of VP of Merchandising, the successful candidate will build licensed apparel, headwear and accessories' assortments through visual storytelling and apparel graphics that connect with a fan’s soul. We seek a designer with a strong understanding of brand identity, color, graphic design, and production art techniques. This highly organized and creative individual must thrive in a fast-paced, deadline sensitive environment, while delivering strong product assortments to advance in competitive market.

This is a game-changing opportunity in the collegiate and licensed sports business. You will be able to directly contribute to building a brand impression and having consumers recognize wide portfolio of Private Label brands designed to accompany them throughout consumer lifestyle.

Responsibilities:

• The following reflects the essential functions for this position, but does not restrict the tasks that may be assigned:
• Responsible for creating apparel graphics and preparing art plans and art files for licensing submission, corresponding with the Clients, Buying team, and Licensing Coordinators to execute any changes if necessary.
• Collaborate with Clients, Merchandising, and Production to deliver art packets and art templets to support business need.
• Analyze the trends in sports apparel and sports/pop culture, consumer insights, new business opportunities, and competitors in the market to influence design aesthetic and strategy through the development of mood, trend, and ideation boards
• Bring fresh perspectives that will enhance creativity and promote new ideas through written and verbal communications to internal and external clients
• Identify Hot Market opportunities and design creative art packet, prep licensing submissions, revisions, production art to support the rapid Hot Market launch dates.
• Build visual presentations and assortment plans to support sales team to communicate with the properties.
• Build, maintain, and update the creative assets library, create all graphic templates, graphic pages - partnering with the production art team and the printing mills.
• Manage creative lifestyle and blanks product photoshoots including color scales and post production image editing.
• Manage web image creation and build templates for the art production team to scale from.
• Directly responsible for the creative design process from concept to final product, including the development, art and color approval
• Build art size and art placements matrix
• Develop a strong graphic portfolio, mood boards and trend forecast.
• Design and develop brand identity for each managed property.
• Develop and create design art templates to use to create the production art every season.
• Develop and maintain presentation decks and collection boards
• Create hot market art and special request graphic concepts
• Local trend shopping, reference and research and development for multiple apparel embellishment techniques, including: screen print, heat transfers and appliques, embroidery, etc.
• Apply Intermediate to advanced-level typography skills for font research, development and implementation in apparel graphics

Required Skills:

• Ability to multitask, be detail oriented, and flexible.
• Team player and work well in partnership with cross-function teams
• Experience in apparel product development for e-commerce and in-venue business.
• Computer literate. Intermediate to advanced skills in Microsoft Office, strong in Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign
• Advanced skills in typography
• Strong knowledge of color theory, composition, and concept development, adhering to brand guidelines
• Ability to deliver ideas and creative decisions in a collaborative and professional manner
• Must be organized and self-motivated
• Must be able to work effectively and cross-functionally across all teams and departments
• Strong negotiation communication skills including written and verbal.
• Previous experience working with vendors is a plus.
• Thrives in a changing and dynamic environment.
• Agile and thinks outside-of-the-box
• Resilient to change while processes are developed and mainstreamed
• Traditional and digital illustration knowledge highly preferred

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree (B.A.) from four-year College or university
• 2+ years of professional experience in a Graphic Design position
• 1+ years of licensed product graphic design experience required
• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills
• Ability to prioritize and complete multiple tasks while managing interruptions
• Highly knowledgeable of U.S.-based College and Professional sports
• Professional portfolio showcasing a wide range of design skills/abilities