Creative Product Designer for Headwear & Apparel Brand

Creative Product Designer for Headwear & Apparel Brand

We are looking for a talented creative product designer to help create original designs, product mockups, and ecommerce listing images for a growing headwear and apparel brand.

This role is mainly for a designer with strong creative taste. We are not looking for a general VA or someone who only makes basic Canva graphics. We need someone who can take a rough product idea and turn it into clean, professional, marketable designs.

Experience with Etsy, Shopify, Printify, Printful, or other POD platforms is helpful, but secondary. The main priority is creative design ability.

1. Main Responsibilities

You will help create:

• Original hat designs
• Shirt and apparel graphics
• Patch and badge design concepts
• Typography-based designs
• Product mockups before production
• Product mockups after production
• Etsy listing image sets
• Shopify product image layouts
• Clean product presentation graphics
• Product colorway mockups
• Ecommerce-ready images using real photos, mockups, or a mix of both

The focus is product design and ecommerce visuals, not general social media posting.

2. Brief Workflow:

In many cases, we will provide the niche, phrase, theme, product idea, or general direction.

From there, your job will be to explore the idea visually and create strong design options. We will review the designs, give feedback, and continue improving in the best direction.

Some designs will be used as pre-production mockups to help d ---------- what products to make. Other designs and mockups will be used after production to create strong listing images for Etsy, Shopify, and other ecommerce platforms.

We are looking for someone who can think creatively, not just follow exact step-by-step instructions.

Important Production Awareness

You do not need to digitize embroidery files or prepare final production files. However, you should understand the basic limits of embroidery and apparel production. Since many products will be hats, designs should be created with real-world production in mind.

For example, very tiny details, overly thin lines, small text, complex gradients, and cluttered artwork may not work well for embroidery. We need a designer who can create beautiful designs that also make sense on real products.

Design Style We Like. Our preferred style is:

• Clean
• Premium
• Minimal
• Modern
• Strong typography
• Sharp spacing
• Marketable
• Ecommerce-friendly
• Not cluttered
• Not generic
• Not overly templated

The goal is to make products look desirable and professional online.

Tools & Skills:

You should be comfortable using design tools such as:

• Canva
• Kittl
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Figma
• AI design tools
• Or similar software

We care more about strong design taste and results than one specific tool.

Secondary Skills That Are Helpful

These are a plus, but not the main focus:

• Etsy experience
• Shopify experience
• Printify or Printful experience
• POD product setup knowledge
• Etsy SEO titles, descriptions, and tags
• Basic ecommerce product research
• File organization

What This Role Is Not

This role is not mainly for:

• Social media management
• Customer service
• General admin work
• Posting daily content
• Creating random sales posters
• Preparing embroidery digitizing files

The main focus is product design, mockups, and listing images.

Hours & Schedule

Hours are flexible and negotiable.

We are open to part-time or full-time depending on the candidate’s skill level, availability, communication, and quality of work. Reliability, communication, and completing work on time are more important than a fixed schedule.

Design Test

To apply, please complete this short design test. This test is for evaluation only and will not be used commercially unless we hire you or pay you for the work.

Test Task: Product Design + Mockup

Create a product design concept for a faith-forward trucker hat.

• Product: Trucker hat
• Design niche: Fishing
• Audience: Outdoors, fishing, boating
• Style: Clean, premium, minimalist
• Use: Product mockup and ecommerce listing image

Please create:

1. One original hat design concept
2. One digital hat mockup showing the design
3. One ecommerce listing-style image for the product

Your design should show:

• Strong typography
• Clean spacing
• Good product presentation
* A design that could realistically work on a hat
A professional ecommerce look

Please submit:

1. Final images as PNG or JPG
2. A short explanation of your design choices
3. The tools you used
4. How long did the task took you
5. Any relevant portfolio examples

Bonus points if you include:

1. One alternate design direction
2. Etsy SEO title
3. Short Etsy product description
4. 13 Etsy tags
5. Notes on how you would prepare this product visually for Etsy or Shopify

Application Questions

Please answer these questions when applying:
1. What design tools do you use?
2. Please share your portfolio or examples of your best design work.
3. Have you designed hats, shirts, patches, or apparel graphics before?
4. Have you created product mockups before?
5. Have you created Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, or ecommerce listing images before?
6. Are you comfortable creating original designs from a niche, phrase, or rough idea?
7. Are you comfortable receiving feedback and making revisions?
8. Do you understand basic embroidery limitations for hat designs?
9. Are you familiar with Etsy? If yes, explain your experience.
10. Are you familiar with Shopify? If yes, explain your experience.
11. Are you familiar with Printify or Printful? If yes, explain your experience.
12. What hours are you available to work?
13. Are you looking for part-time or full-time work?
14. What is your expected hourly rate?
15. Please include the word DESIGN at the top of your application so we know you read the full post.

What We Value

We are looking for someone creative, dependable, detail-oriented, and self-motivated.

The right person has strong design taste, understands clean ecommerce product presentation, and can help turn rough ideas into products that look professional and sellable. This role may grow over time for the right person.

Thank you for your interest and I look forward to meeting you.

Best Regards,
Tony