Designer

Jakks Pacific•Santa Monica, CA

21d•Onsite

About The Position

JAKKS Pacific is seeking an experienced, energetic, self-starting Designer to join its Boys Division at the Santa Monica, California headquarters. The Designer joins a creative team and holds the creative vision for projects from conception through production. Reporting to the Senior Manager of Design, the Designer develops and implements product design, play patterns, and technical aspects of product development while ensuring that brand vision, cost, and schedule requirements are met. The role involves researching trends, consumer insights, pop culture, and potential licenses; creating product concepts and play patterns; and visualizing designs through sketches, renderings, graphics, 3D models, mockups, control drawings, material selection, color specifications, and flow charts. The Designer works with third-party creative vendors and internal departments, defines product features in documents and diagrams, prepares presentation materials, participates in trade show setup and teardown, and creates or reviews instruction sheets as needed.

Requirements

2–3 years of design or product development experience in the consumer product industry; toy industry experience is preferred.
Degree in design, illustration, or industrial design.
Strong sketching, illustration, and rendering skills.
Proficiency in Photoshop and Illustrator.
Flexibility, creativity, enthusiasm for, and love of the creative process.
Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
Self-starting, self-motivating, and self-managing approach, with strong teamwork skills.
Strong organizational skills.
Excellent creative problem-solving skills.
Ability to work to strict deadlines and adapt to rapid changes in direction and priorities.
Comfort presenting product lines and speaking in groups.

Nice To Haves

Ability to work with 3D programs such as Rhino, Maya, SolidWorks, and KeyShot.
Experience with articulated figures, anime properties, and playsets.
Toy industry experience.

Responsibilities

Research trends and consumer insights to identify new ways to play, explore design trends and pop culture, and identify potential licenses.
Develop innovative products and play patterns through collaborative brainstorming and exploration.
Create product designs using sketches, renderings, graphics, 3D models, foam core mockups, control drawings, material selection, color specifications, and flow charts.
Work with third-party vendors, such as sculptors, painters, and illustrators, as needed for projects.
Define product features through written documents, diagrams, and internal project management systems.
Prepare 2D and 3D presentation materials, including boards and samples, for internal and external meetings.
Participate in trade show setup and teardown.
Create and review instruction sheets as needed.
Collaborate with internal departments, including Executive Leadership, Costing Engineers, Creative Services, the Hong Kong support team, Marketing, Packaging, and Sales.
Guide ideas from conception through development and into production while meeting brand, cost, and schedule requirements.