Jess Walker

Freelance Sportswear Designer

Freelance Sportswear Designer, January 2016 – Present

Key Responsibilities

• Having direct contact with startup and professional active wear brands. My area of specialty includes gym-wear, athleisure, seamless and outerwear apparel design for women, men and children. 
• Acknowledging each brands different, unique identity, direction and consumer to come up with creative mood boards, inspiration boards and colour pages. 
• Creating detailed design pages which feature all views of the garment, plus product information including fabrics, trims, graphics & colours. Research shows the direction of the collection and how I got to certain design ideas. Clients will provide price points and give me design input where they wish to give it. 
• During the design process, there is a lot of presenting to the client, skype calls and sometimes face to face meetings where we go over the designs to discuss details, design options, fits, fabrics and next steps. 
• I provide technical specs ready for manufacturing. This includes measurements, fabric/ trim information, colour ups, graphic & logo pages, care labels, back neck logos and reference to fit. When clients request, I provide a fitting for the samples. Here I review the garment samples, check the fit, quality and update specs where needed. 
• Most of my work is apparel design based, however some clients require graphic work. I am able to advise on the best print technique or execution solutions depending on the garment and style.
• Brands I have worked for include Russell Athletics, CK, Physique apparel, Bombshell and Hayabusa. 
• Being a freelance designer means I am constantly looking over the latest trends and doing research every week to see new styles, colour, graphic updates and inspirations. I enjoy gym based sports myself, so having this passion certainly helps to stay in the know with what brands are doing. 
• I absolutely love the variety of the projects I get, it keeps me motivated and excited to take on each job. 

Puma, Herzogenaurach, Apparel Swim Beach & Outerwear Designer, May 2013 – January 2016

Key Responsibilities

• Contributing my input to the formulation of the annual product design plan for swim/beach and jackets, introducing and executing innovative design ideas, in order to achieve business targets and product category objectives. 
• Supporting the senior designer in the execution of innovative product design development aimed at continuous design innovation and achieving set goals. 
• Contributing to the quality of product design content in order to reinforce and strengthen the brand position and generate consumer demand. 
• Collecting market intelligence, providing all the involved with accurate and up-to-date information on design trends and developments and utilizing them effectively. 
• Launching innovative product design ideas in line with specific product strategies. 
• Trips to fabric fairs and inspirational trips to relevant cities to gain insight to new trends/prints/fabrics. New ideas/ any information needed for fabrics are handed to the material team for any developments. 
• Producing the apparel designs on sheets with all relevant information such as colour/ placements / execution for buyers and developers.
• Being efficient in illustrator and Photoshop to create design apparel. 
• Attending and creating design presentations for higher management and buyers- showing the new seasons range plan of new ideas and designs. 
• Working along side the pattern department to develop new silhouettes and fits.
• Attending sample and fit meetings- providing technical input and advice, communicating all changes required to suppliers/factories.
• Develop and prepare all garment specifications, which must meet the developer’s standards in Asia.
• Communicate with developers in Asia as necessary to ensure complete understanding of all design requirements. Traveling to Asia for handover and development trips. 

Key Responsibilities

• Attending all design meetings to discuss upcoming trends, new fabrics, colours, prints and trims.
• Choosing colours for the new season and ordering new colour swatches if needed.
• Researching retail- including customers we supply too and Adidas competitors. Looking at pricing, styling and all garment detailing to ensure you are designing to the correct price point. 
• Creating mood boards/ presentations under guidance of senior designer.
• Provide garment sketches to accompany garment specifications, prepare all kids garments specifications using Illustrator.
• Development of artwork for labels/ logos/ graphic placement.
• Sending off samples of products for the Asia team to work with.
• Attending sample and fit meetings- providing technical input and advice, communicating all changes required to suppliers/factories. 

Key Responsibilities

• Market/Trend research- using in house library to find images for creating prints. Looking through online blogs/websites for ideas. 
• Using photoshop/ illustrator to create and develop prints. 
• Taking part in design meetings to discuss direction and ideas for prints. 
• Working in the workshop and learning how to screen print.

Education

Sept 2008-2011- BA (Hons) Fashion, Kingston University, London 

Modules include; 2D and 3D design in Womenswear, Photography, Print & Styling

Sept 07-2008 - Art Foundation in Fashion & Textiles, BNU (BCUC), High Wycombe – Distinction 

Sept 00-2007 - GCSE & A-levels, St. Clement. Danes Chorleywood

• 10 GCSE - C grade & above,
• 2 A-levels – Art & Textiles, Grade A-B

Technical Skills

Advanced user of Microsoft Office, Illustrator and Photoshop