Graphic Art Director - Children's Apparel

Graphic Art Director – Children’s Apparel Overview

The Graphic Art Director leads the graphic aesthetic and visual identity across multiple brands, genders & size ranges with a focus on the children's market. This role covers sizes 0-18 and requires a versatile understanding of the baby, kids & juniors market alongside the mass retail landscape. Key responsibilities include ensuring artwork is trend‑right, brand‑appropriate, production‑ready, and aligned with merchant and design goals.

This role oversees all graphic development—screen prints, all‑over prints, and appliqués & embellishments—and manages workflow between apparel design, retail partners, and overseas vendors.

The ideal candidate combines strong creative direction, technical execution, and leadership in a fast‑paced, high‑volume mass‑market environment.

• Aligns with the Senior Design Director on seasonal graphic direction to drive the visual identity, color point of view, themes, and art styles across categories and brands in line with established guidelines.
• Partner closely with Designers to translate product direction into cohesive graphic identity for mix & match apparel businesses.
• Drive innovation in techniques, execution alongside AI implementation opportunities
• Review, critique, and elevate artwork created by in‑house artists, freelancers, or vendors.

• Oversee creation of placement graphics, engineered art, repeats, typography, and novelty artwork tailored to mass‑market consumer preferences.
• Collaborate with Design, Merchandising, Product Development, and Sourcing to meet cost, margin, and delivery goals.
• Executes all artwork following factory capabilities, print technique limitations, embellishment standards, and cost requirements.
• Develop clean, accurate, production‑ready files with precise callouts for color, scale, technique, and execution.
• Align with Design to prevent late-stage changes and ensure all graphics are feasible for production.
• Work with overseas vendors to troubleshoot execution and maintain quality across multiple factories.
• Oversee legal review for IP compliance

• Manage the graphic calendar, deadlines, and workflow to support high‑volume SKU counts typical of mass‑market apparel.
• Establish and maintain an efficient art request / intake system with clear priorities and timelines.
• Ensure timely delivery of colorways, revisions, and factory‑ready files.

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of graphic designers, print artists, and production artists (team size depends on business scale).
• Set quality standards and provide ongoing coaching to ensure consistent, brand‑aligned output.
• Manage freelancer assignments, workload balancing, and seasonal resource planning.

• 7–10+ years of graphic design experience, with at least 3 in a senior or art director role within apparel, mass‑market, kids, juniors, or related product categories
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• Deep experience with factory‑ready artwork and high‑volume production environments.

• Expert proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Strong understanding of screen printing, technical knowledge of different print techniques & execution, appliqué, embroidery, puff, foil, glitter, and mixed‑media techniques common to mass‑market product.
• Excellent color sense, typography, and storytelling ability.
• Strong organizational and leadership skills; ability to manage multiple tracks of work simultaneously.
• Creative yet highly practical; understands cost constraints.
• Fast, adaptable, and comfortable with rapid turnaround cycles.
• Highly collaborative; able to guide Designers while also supporting retailer priorities.

• BFA / BA in Graphic Design, Illustration, Surface Design, or related field preferred.

• Reports to: Senior Design Director