Senior Creative Apparel Graphic Designer & Illustrator

Senior Creative Apparel Graphic Designer & Illustrator Custom Artwork /
Sports Apparel / Illustration / Seamless Patterns

$12–$20 USD/hour | Long-Term | Approximately 15–25 Hours/Week

We are looking for an exceptionally creative, senior-level graphic
designer and illustrator to join our team on an ongoing freelance basis.

CREATIVITY IS THE #1 REQUIREMENT FOR THIS ROLE.

This is not primarily a production design position. We are not looking
for someone who simply places logos on templates, follows detailed
instructions, or waits to be told exactly what to create.

We need an outstanding visual designer who can be given very limited
creative direction and develop the idea themselves.

Your primary responsibility will be creating custom artwork and product
graphics based on customer logos, brands, themes, and design requests.

A typical project may begin with nothing more than:

A customer’s logo + a few colors + a short sentence describing what they
want.

From there, you are the creative.

You will be expected to determine the visual direction and create the
patterns, illustrations, icons, typography, supporting graphics,
layouts, and other artwork necessary to turn that limited information
into an exceptional finished collection.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

- Interpret customer requests with very little creative direction
- Develop original visual concepts independently
- Create original graphics and artwork for apparel and other products
- Design cohesive collections across multiple products
- Determine how artwork should merchandise across different products
rather than simply repeating the same design
- Create original vector illustrations, icons, badges, logos,
typography, and supporting artwork
- Create sophisticated seamless repeating patterns
- Work with customer logos and existing brand assets
- Recreate low-resolution customer logos as clean vector artwork when
necessary
- Develop artwork specifically for sublimated sports/performance
apparel
- Adapt creative concepts across apparel, accessories, and other
products
- Use AI intelligently to accelerate portions of the creative process
when appropriate
- Take feedback well and quickly develop revised creative solutions

CREATIVITY IS ESSENTIAL

We cannot emphasize this enough.

We are looking for someone with excellent taste, strong visual
instincts, and the ability to generate ideas independently.

If you require detailed creative briefs, sketches, or step-by-step
instructions before you can begin designing, this will not be the right
position for you.

We want someone who can look at a customer’s brand, understand its
personality, and think:

“Here are five interesting directions we could take this.”

Not:

“What exactly would you like me to make?”

You should be comfortable making creative decisions yourself and
presenting strong solutions rather than waiting for someone else to
solve the creative problem for you.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

Adobe Illustrator — EXPERT LEVEL

You must be an exceptional Adobe Illustrator user.

You should be able to work quickly and confidently with complex vector
artwork without assistance.

You must have your own licensed access to Adobe Illustrator.

We will train you on our internal processes. We will not train you on
design software.

Illustration — STRONG/EXPERT

You must actually be able to illustrate.

This includes creating:

- Original vector graphics
- Icons
- Logos and badges
- Custom typography
- Mascots/characters when needed
- Graphic elements
- Pattern assets
- Supporting collection artwork

We are not looking for someone whose primary skill is arranging stock
assets.

Seamless Patterns — ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED

You must know how to professionally create seamless repeating patterns
in:

Adobe Illustrator AND Adobe Photoshop.

This is a core requirement of the position.

Sports / Sublimated Apparel Experience

You should have professional experience designing for sports,
performance, or sublimated apparel.

Experience with categories such as golf, cycling, running, outdoor, team
sports, or similar products is highly desirable.

You must understand how artwork interacts with garment panels and how to
design a collection that works across multiple product types.

AI EXPERIENCE

We actively use AI as a creative accelerator, and you should be
comfortable doing the same.

You should understand how to use modern AI creative tools to help:

- Explore concepts
- Generate reference material
- Develop supporting assets
- Accelerate illustration
- Explore compositions
- Generate ideas faster

However, the finished work cannot look AI-generated.

AI is a tool—not a substitute for design ability.

You must have the taste and technical ability to recognize poor AI
output, refine/rebuild assets when necessary, and turn generated ideas
into polished, professional artwork.

A great designer using AI should become faster and more capable, not
produce generic AI artwork.

THE PERSON WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We want someone who is:

- Extremely creative
- A genuinely strong visual problem solver
- A senior-level designer, not someone still learning their craft
- An excellent illustrator
- Highly self-sufficient
- Fast in Adobe Illustrator
- Comfortable starting with very limited direction
- Able to take constructive feedback without becoming dependent on
direction
- Capable of switching between completely different visual styles
- Excellent at color, typography, composition, and pattern
- Able to understand a brand quickly
- Organized and reliable
- Comfortable managing multiple custom projects
- Excited about making genuinely cool artwork

Creativity and portfolio quality matter more to us than years of
experience or formal education.

HOURS & COMPENSATION

This is intended to become a consistent, long-term working relationship.

Our target is approximately 25 hours per week at $12–$15 USD/hour,
depending on experience, speed, and portfolio quality.

However:

We are willing to pay up to $20 USD/hour for an exceptional designer,
even if that means fewer guaranteed weekly hours.

We would rather have 15–20 hours from an incredible designer than 25
hours from an average one.

During busy periods, there may also be opportunities to take on
additional projects/hours for additional compensation or performance
bonuses, based on availability.

PORTFOLIO REQUIRED — NO EXCEPTIONS

Do not apply without a portfolio.

Your portfolio is the most important part of your application.

We especially want to see:

- Your most creative work
- Sports/performance apparel graphics
- Sublimated apparel
- Complete coordinated collections
- Seamless patterns
- Original vector illustration
- Logos, badges, and icons you personally created
- Projects where you developed the creative direction yourself

We are not particularly interested in portfolios dominated by social
media graphics, corporate presentations, UI/UX, Canva templates, or
generic branding projects.

We want to see ARTWORK.

TO APPLY

Please include:

1. Portfolio link — REQUIRED
2. Show us the 3 projects that best demonstrate how creative you are.
3. Show us a sports/apparel collection you personally designed.
4. Show us at least 2 seamless patterns you personally built and tell
us what software you used to create them.
5. Show us examples of your original vector illustration work.
6. Describe your experience with sublimated apparel.
7. Tell us which AI creative tools you currently use and how they fit
into your design process.
8. Confirm that you have your own licensed access to Adobe Illustrator.
9. Confirm your weekly availability and desired hourly rate.

FINAL CREATIVE QUESTION:

Imagine a customer gives you only their logo, brand colors, and the
words “retro tropical golf.” They want a collection but provide no
additional creative direction.

Briefly describe the first 3 visual concepts you would explore.

Applications without a relevant portfolio will not be considered.