At L.L.Bean, we believe the outdoors brings out the best in all of us. We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging and creating safe, inclusive spaces where everyone feels welcome—both here and Outside. We value individual differences and are dedicated to maintaining an inclusive work environment where everyone can bring the best of their experience and talents and truly thrive.
Bring your passion for exceptional products, outdoor inspiration, and timeless style to L.L.Bean. We’re seeking a creative Designer II specializing in Accessories and Home to join our talented team in Freeport, Maine—where iconic design meets an authentic outdoor lifestyle. If you’re inspired by creating beautiful, brand-right products and excited by the opportunity to live and work in Maine, we’d love to hear from you. ***This position requires relocation to Maine and 4+ days in the office.
As a Designer II, you’ll help shape the aesthetic of L.L.Bean’s Accessories and Home collections, influencing color, pattern, silhouette, materials, and trim. You’ll collaborate closely with Product Development and Merchandising to research market trends, define seasonal concepts, build color palettes, and create distinctive, brand-right designs that support our product and business strategies.
Responsibilities:
Strategy (Product Aesthetic, Seasonal Concept Direction, Product Strategy)
- Creates seasonal concepts and mood boards that define key looks, trends, colors, fabrics, trims, and silhouettes.
- Develops commercially viable product ideas that align with the brand.
- Creates seasonal trend direction, product presentations, and vendor decks.
- Defines and communicates seasonal color palettes.
- Supports execution of the corporate seasonal product design strategy.
- Accessories includes Headwear, Neckwear, Handwear, Belts Socks and Base layer.
- Home includes Bed and Bath, Pet, Impulse items, and Holiday.
Market Research Aesthetic Inspiration and Trend (Conduct Market Research, International Travel)
- Researches and develops brand-appropriate trends and product ideas.
- Researches markets and competitive brands through domestic travel and trade shows.
- Travels to Asia to meet with mills and vendors, conduct research, develop products, and ensure products meet the highest commercialization standards.
- Partners with Corporate Merchandising Managers to validate product viability and identify assortment opportunities.
- Defines fabric direction for hand feel, drape, and aesthetic, partnering with Product Development to meet design, margin, and target-price objectives.
- Partners with color and trend services to establish seasonal concepts and trends.
- Partners with print and pattern vendors to establish seasonal surface-pattern direction.
Core Work
- Ensures product consistency and cohesion, aligning Accessories and Home aesthetics with other categories.
- Introduces new, on-brand silhouettes and styling details each season.
- Collaborates with Product Design on materials and with the lab to ensure trims pass testing.
- Partners with the Graphics team to establish graphic and surface-pattern direction.
- Presents fresh, commercially viable colors and patterns for key items and relist programs each season.
- Partners with mills and vendors to ensure fabrics and surface patterns meet the highest standards.
- Distributes color cards and approves lab dips, strike-offs, and related materials.
- Develops print, pattern, and graphic packages for products.
- Presents sketches and prototype samples at key check-ins and meetings.
- Creates and maintains accurate pre-production bills of materials (BOMs) and color combinations (CCs) in Lawson.
- Communicates repeat requirements for patterns and prints.
- Partners with Product Development to finalize product details with vendors.
- Collaborates with Product Development to create comprehensive development specification packages and select fit blocks appropriate for each wearing occasion.
- Ensures a thorough handoff to Technical Design.
- Attends fittings and reviews, providing feedback on fit and styling to preserve the design aesthetic and ensure alignment with the selected fit block.
- Participates in retail walkthroughs to ensure presentations reflect design intent.
General Meetings/M2M Meetings Responsibility
- Prepares presentations, rigs, and mannequins for key meetings to communicate seasonal direction and product ideas; supports milestone success; and aligns with partners on M2M strategies, initiatives, and actions.
Health and Safety Requirement: Every employee is responsible for contributing to a safe and healthy workplace. Employees are expected to be active participants in health and safety by following all safety policies and procedures, reporting unsafe conditions or at-risk behaviors to leadership, and conducting work in a safe manner. Those in a leadership role are also expected to model safe behaviors, evaluate risk, and ensure that risks are reduced to acceptable levels.
Skills & Qualifications
- BA/BS required.
- 5+ years relevant experience required.
- Advanced cross functional communication skills.
- Proven ability to build strong partnerships with team members and vendors.
L.L.Bean uses a market-based compensation approach. The anticipated starting base pay for this position is $98,100.00-$122,600.00. Individual compensation may vary based on factors such as a candidate’s experience, qualifications, education, geographic location, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role.
If you care about the outdoors, joining L.L.Bean is a great way to feel good about what you do. Our benefits package makes a good thing even better, with programs and perks designed to support your health and financial goals. Plus, maintaining a healthy work-life balance and re-charging outside are all part of the plan.
If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you'd be great at this role, we'd love to learn more about you! At L.L.Bean, we believe the outdoors brings out the best in all of us. We strive to reflect this every day in our commitments to employees and partners and in our efforts to promote belonging.
