The Associate Designer, Crate & Barrel Textiles is an important designer role within the brand’s Design and Development department that helps build the future vision of Crate & Barrel through innovative product design. This position will own design and support the creation of a specific product category in support of Associate Director, and help manage the daily functions of the design area including the ownership of technical development briefs, and sample development management.

This is an on-site position (Monday through Thursday) based out of our Northbrook, IL office with the flexibility to work remotely on Fridays.

A Day in the Life of an Associate Designer, Crate & Barrel Textiles...

• Own the product design process for textile categories in Entertaining, Kitchen, and Doormats 

• Responsible for overall assortment; develop into sustainable needs, adherent to set trends

• Oversee individual products during the research, communication, spec, development and approval stages, within a set calendar

• May attend trade shows and attend vendor meetings on a seasonal basis, and manage the sampling and design requests to the vendors

• Create presentations for key cross-functional design milestones, digital and physical

• Work collaboratively with the Hardgoods team to ensure cohesive tablescapes and kitchen stories

• Perform renderings, digital design work and CAD for the product line, that reflects the provided mood

• Own the development of technical product design specifications and CADs

• Own product amendment comments for design and color, and revisions through the design development and sampling process

• Maintain seasonal concept documents and design records, digital and physical

• Maintain color boards relevant to categories; physical and digital

• Manage design samples through their entire lifecycle

What you'll bring to the table...

• Passion for design, style and decorating and knowledge of design and art history

• Understanding of home trends and current fabrications as it relates to the current market trends

• Ability to interact and collaborate with senior members of the team and major vendors with experience on product development

• Ability to make decisions on operational matters that impact the effectiveness of the work

• Ability to translate business and design objectives into successful products

• Strength in building effective cross functional relationships to achieve results

• Support and model excellent service to internal and external customers in all forms of action and communication

We'd love to hear from you if you have...

• Must provide Portfolio link (including password) on resume or link to PDF samples

• 3 years experience designing textiles for home furnishings

• Experience developing knits, wovens, and prints for home furnishing markets

• Understanding of different yarns, fibers, dyes, fabrics, knitting, weaving, and printing techniques

• Experience with technical design and design brief creation

• BFA or MA in Textile Design or any related design field

• Strong knowledge of design and art history

• Must have excellent computer skills in Illustrator and Photoshop to communicate design ideas through CADS and Specs

• Must have experience working with vendors and mills to execute design

• Excellent communication and organizational skills to relay design ideas to merchants

• Must pass a Munsell Color test to perform color approvals

Starting Rate: $68,000.00 - $90,000.00