Senior Product & Apparel Designer

THE COMPANY

Rome Pays Off is a NYC-based boutique brand at the intersection of fine art and premium lifestyle products. We hold product licenses with visual artists, collaborating to translate their iconic work into premium casual and streetwear-inspired apparel, accessories, and a diverse range of lifestyle goods — from stationery and toys to homeware. We believe in the integrity of the artist's vision and the meticulous, editorial execution of the products that carry it.

Read on to find out what you will need to succeed in this position, including skills, qualifications, and experience.

The role

We are looking for a hands-on Senior Product & Apparel Designer who specializes in hard goods and can manage product creation from A to Z. You are a true hybrid designer-developer, equally comfortable setting up line plans, building precise specification/tech packs, reviewing prototypes, navigating artist archive, moral rights and usage restrictions, and working directly with overseas factories, museum partners, and artists and artist estates.

Strong graphic design is central to this role, not a support skill. Our products begin with artists' artwork, and this designer is the person who turns that artwork into product — adapting, placing and engineering graphics across three-dimensional, printed and formed surfaces, and producing the print-ready files factories and printers work from.

This is a senior-level role: 5+ years in, you own your programs end-to-end without day-to-day supervision. You understand how to bridge high-concept art translation with commercially viable, production-ready manufacturing — including the tooling costs, minimums, lead times, safety testing and packaging that hard goods require — while holding the aesthetic integrity of the artists we represent.

You will report to the CEO and work day-to-day with our Design & Production Manager, alongside a small team of designers, operations staff, and sales and marketing colleagues.

This role is in-person Mondays-Thursdays; remote on Fridays in our West 27th Street studio.

Key Responsibilities

Design:

- Own the end-to-end product design for each assigned hard goods program, from concept to launch.

- Create sketches, renderings, dimensioned drawings and mock-ups to refine concepts, ensuring alignment with each artist's usage guidelines.

- Translate artwork and graphics onto three-dimensional and printed products — scale, placement, colorways, surface finish and decoration — expanding the archive and facilitating the design approval process.

- Create and adapt graphic treatments for product and packaging: surface graphics and patterns, decoration and paint applications, typography and layout for stationery, packaging and skateboard decks, holding color and fidelity to the original artwork across very different materials — ceramic, vinyl, paper, wood and plush.

- Prepare production-ready graphic files for factories and printers — correct formats, CMYK / Pantone color, dielines, bleed, separations and print specifications — and review print, decoration and paint proofs against the artwork.

- Research and identify materials, processes, product forms and packaging appropriate to each artist and program.

Product Development & Production:

- Produce precise specification / tech packs for hard goods, including dimensioned drawings/mechanicals, material and finish callouts, color / Pantone and decoration specifications, tolerances, BOMs (Bill of Materials) and packaging requirements.

- Develop products across hard goods categories, including: Homeware and home objects,

Molded figurine toys and collectibles, Stationery and paper good, Plush (designed in partnership with our outsourced plush specialist, who manages plush production and safety testing. Your role is the design: concept, artwork and graphics, materials and color direction, and pattern and construction input — then reviewing and approving prototypes and production samples through that partner.)

- Manage mold and prototyping costs and schedules as part of the product cost, and cost product to target margins including tooling amortization, minimum order quantities and freight / packaging impact.

- Work directly with overseas and domestic hard goods factories, sculptors / model-makers and prototyping vendors through development, sampling and production, protecting design intent and quality at every stage.

- For the categories we produce directly, coordinate applicable product safety and compliance testing (labeling and warnings as applicable; food-contact and Prop 65 considerations where relevant), working with third-party testing labs — compliance is designed in from the start, not checked at the end. For toys and plush, safety testing and production are handled by our outsourced specialist partner; your role there is to supply complete, accurate design packages and support that partner through sampling and approvals.

- Design and specify retail and protective packaging for fragile, molded and three-dimensional products as part of the product, not as an afterthought.

- Review and approve prototypes, pre-production samples and production samples, in coordination with the Design & Production Manager, who owns the production calendar, approval trafficking and sample management.

Cross-Functional:

- Work closely with other designers in product development and marketing from concept to launch.

- Provide line sheets and product visuals for sales pitch decks.

- Work with marketing to ensure the product as marketed is accurate to the product as developed.

- Participate in brand strategy discussions and opportunity identification.

What It Takes to Be Successful in the Role

- Bachelor's degree in design, product development or a related field preferred.

- 5+ years of hands-on design and product development experience in hard goods / consumer products, owning product from concept through production. Experience in at least two or three of: homeware, molded toys / collectibles, plush, stationery / paper goods, skateboard decks or comparable printed / formed products. You do not need to have done every category — you do need to have taken hard goods all the way through factories, tooling or prototyping, sampling and production.

- Strong graphic design skills and a graphic design portfolio to show for them: experience applying graphics and artwork to physical products — three-dimensional, printed and formed products that have gone into production — including typography, layout, surface pattern and packaging graphics.

- Expert Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop skills — this role builds its own specification / tech packs and production-ready graphic and print files. Print production knowledge (CMYK / Pantone, dielines, prepress) is required.

- Working knowledge of manufacturing processes, tooling, plastics and other hard materials, print production and, for the categories we produce directly, consumer product safety. Deep toy / plush safety and production expertise is *not* required — plush testing and production sit with our outsourced specialist — but you must be able to give that partner clean, complete design packages and make sound prototype and sample decisions with them.

- Ability to read and work with 3D development — sculpts, renders and model files — and to direct sculptors / engineers. Hands-on 3D modeling (e.g. Rhino, SolidWorks, ZBrush) is a strong plus, not a requirement.

- Strong knowledge of costing and margin, including tooling, minimums and packaging costs.

- A sophisticated aesthetic sense, with a deep interest in contemporary art and premium design.

- An entrepreneurial spirit, and a team player in a small, fast-moving company.

- Strong verbal and written communication skills, creativity, attention to detail and problem-solving ability.

- Experience designing under a licensor or artist-estate approval process is a strong plus.

To Apply

A portfolio is required, and it must show graphic design applied to physical products, not screen or brand work alone. Please include your portfolio and 2–3 complete specification / tech packs — at least one for a hard goods product that went into production.

Compensation and Benefits

Annual salary will range between $95,000 and $115,000 plus full benefits. Our benefits package includes:

• Time off: 15 days of PTO and 5 sick days per year
• 401(k): 4% company match, eligible after 180 days of employment
• Health coverage: Medical, dental, and vision begin after 90 days. xhqgsiq The company covers 80% of the base medical plan.
• Life insurance: $10,000 policy, fully paid by the company
• Commuter benefits

Our commitment to creating equal opportunity employment

Employment opportunities at SPQR Partners LLC (dba Rome Pays Off) are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established under law.