Associate Designer-Consumer Product Design

Aquent; San Diego (CA); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Retirement matching

Flexible spending accounts

Job summary

Aquent is seeking an Associate Designer to support a fast-paced consumer product design team across diverse categories, including soft goods, plush, hard goods, and molded products. The role blends hands-on design with development, documentation, and final handoff.

The ideal candidate has 3–5 years of product design experience and a portfolio showcasing hand and digital design. Strong organizational and collaboration skills are required for cross-functional teamwork and milestone-driven projects.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Product Design or related design discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Approximately 3–5 years of product design and/or product development experience.
• Strong portfolio showing hand and digital design capabilities.
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Cloud applications: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign.
• Strong communication and organizational skills; ability to document feedback and revisions clearly.

Responsibilities

• Research trends and translate insights into new concepts.
• Develop product concepts through rapid ideation, hand and digital sketching.
• Create/refine illustrations and concepts using Adobe tools.
• Support development of a range of consumer products across categories.
• Document prototype feedback and design revisions clearly.
• Prepare materials for design and product meetings.

Skills

Hand sketching

Digital drawing

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe InDesign

Adobe Creative Cloud

Microsoft Office

Excel

PowerPoint

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Product Design

Tools

PLM

Smartsheet

3D design/rendering software

AI-assisted design tools

Job description

We are seeking an Associate Designer to support a fast-paced consumer product design team responsible for developing products across a variety of categories, including soft goods, sewn products, plush, hard goods, and molded products.

This role combines hands‑on product design with product development and design administration. The Associate Designer will support the product lifecycle from trend research and early concept development through sketching, prototype reviews, technical documentation, and final handoff.

The ideal candidate has 3–5 years of product design experience, a strong portfolio demonstrating both hand and digital design capabilities, and experience working across multiple consumer product categories. This individual should be highly organized, collaborative, adaptable, and comfortable balancing creative design work with detailed documentation and project support.

Key Responsibilities

• Research industry, consumer, product, color, and design trends and translate relevant insights into new and existing product concepts.
• Develop product concepts through rapid ideation, hand sketching, and digital sketching/rendering.
• Create and refine product illustrations and design concepts using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Support the development of a range of consumer products, including soft goods, sewn products, plush, hard goods, and molded products.
• Participate in product and prototype reviews with cross‑functional partners.
• Document prototype feedback, sample changes, design revisions, and next steps clearly and accurately.
• Maintain design and product‑development information within spreadsheets and other tracking systems.
• Develop and update technical specifications, product illustrations, design layouts, specification drawings, materials information, and bills of materials.
• Prepare presentations, product line sheets, technical specifications, samples, sketches, research boards, and other materials for design and product meetings.
• Support product development milestones and key design handoffs while managing multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Review and organize material, fabric, and color submissions as applicable to assigned product categories.
• Collaborate closely with designers, product development, merchandising, and other cross‑functional partners to identify and resolve product and prototype issues.
• Utilize and/or learn AI‑assisted rendering tools to support product visualization and concept development.
• Contribute ideas that support long‑term product innovation and brand growth.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Approximately 3–5 years of product design and/or product development experience.
• Strong ability to communicate product concepts visually through both hand sketching and digital drawing.
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Cloud, particularly:
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe InDesign
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and email‑based communication.
• Experience developing or supporting technical product documentation.
• Ability to review prototypes and clearly document design feedback and required revisions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, and deadlines in a fast‑paced environment.
• Strong collaboration skills and comfort participating in in‑person product reviews and design discussions.
• Professional, adaptable, and able to remain solutions‑oriented when priorities or product requirements change.
• Portfolio or website demonstrating relevant product design work is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing across multiple consumer product categories rather than specializing exclusively in one category.
• Experience with soft goods, sewn products, plush, accessories, hard goods, molded products, or similar consumer products.
• Background within a mass retailer, consumer products organization, private‑label environment, or similarly broad product design organization.
• Experience with product lifecycle or project tracking systems such as PLM or Smartsheet.
• Experience with 3D design/rendering software.
• Experience using—or willingness to learn—AI‑assisted design and rendering tools such as Gemini.
• Experience collaborating with merchandising, product development, and other cross‑functional partners.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Product Design or a related design discipline, or an equivalent combination of education, professional experience, and training.

Work Environment

This is a hybrid position requiring three days onsite and two days remote per week. Standard working hours are approximately 8:00AM–5:00PM PT.

The initial assignment is expected to be approximately three months, with the possibility of extension.

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About Skill

Skill connects the best professional, IT, engineering, financial and administrative talent with the world’s biggest brands. Our eligible talent get access to benefits such as health benefit contributions, retirement plans with match and flexible spending accounts.

Skill is an equal‑opportunity employer.

We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.

We’re about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.