Associate Designer

Duffield Lane; Grand Rapids (MI); On-site; USD 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

Duffield Lane, an apparel brand headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI, seeks an Associate Designer to grow into a full design role. You’ll own process-driven design work and collaborate with our in-house design team, with mentorship and opportunities to advance to lead design.

This in-office role (occasional WFH) focuses on tech packs, fittings, and CAD development, building toward independent category ownership as the team expands.

Qualifications

• 2-4 years of apparel design or technical design experience.
• Proficiency in Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Comfortable with tech packs, spec sheets, and garment measurement.
• Solid sketching fundamentals with room to grow toward construction-accurate, realistic sketching.
• Able to work independently on process-driven tasks.
• Knitwear or children's apparel experience a plus.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain tech packs, track and organize samples, and check production against spec.
• Create design mockups for our custom sweater program in Photoshop.
• Support fit sessions and help process fit comments.
• Handle routine factory follow-ups on sampling and approvals.
• Assist with photo editing for product and marketing imagery.
• Grow into concept sketching, CADs, direct factory communication, and independent ownership of a category over time.

Skills

2-4 years apparel design experience

Independent work

Sketching fundamentals

Knitwear or kids' apparel experience a

Tools

Illustrator

Photoshop

Tech packs

Job description

Associate Designer Duffield Lane · Grand Rapids, MI · On-site · Full-time

Duffield Lane is a women's coastal and lake lifestyle apparel brand, born out of a love for the water, warm-weather style, and the easy, insider feeling of a favorite summer place.

We've been in business for 13 years, with a strong wholesale presence in 300 specialty boutiques alongside a rapidly growing ecommerce and custom sweater business.

We're headquartered in Grand Rapids, where our full team, shipping and fulfillment, sales, marketing, and design, works under one roof.

It's a fun, energetic, entrepreneurial team, and we're excited about where we're headed.

About the role

We're looking for an Associate Designer to grow into a full design role over time. You'll start by owning process-driven design work independently, then build your creative and technical range through hands-on mentorship as you take on more responsibility. This is an in-office role (occasional WFH) working closely with our in-house fabric library and design team. For the right person, this role is a real path toward owning a full category as our next Designer, working alongside our Lead Designer, as our team continues to grow.

• Build and maintain tech packs, track and organize samples, and check production against spec
• Create design mockups for our custom sweater program in Photoshop
• Support fit sessions and help process fit comments
• Handle routine factory follow-ups on sampling and approvals
• Assist with photo editing for product and marketing imagery
• Grow into concept sketching, CADs, direct factory communication, and independent ownership of a category over time

What we're looking for

• 2-4 years of apparel design or technical design experience
• Proficiency in Illustrator and Photoshop
• Comfortable with tech packs, spec sheets, and garment measurement
• Solid sketching fundamentals with room to grow toward construction-accurate, realistic sketching
• Able to work independently on process-driven tasks
• Knitwear or children's apparel experience a plus

Compensation: Commensurate with experience