Graphic Designer, Apparel & Merch (Part-Time)

Location: New York City

Hours: 15–20 hours per week, across 4 days

Rate: $70–$80 per hour

Company Description

Sniffies is a location-based, interactive web app designed to help gay, bi, and curious individuals connect in a safe, judgment-free environment. Using an innovative map interface, users can discover nearby individuals and popular meetup spots, and participate in live video chats. The platform is accessible on any device with a browser, allowing users to engage without requiring downloads. Sniffies fosters an open, team-driven culture that focuses on creativity, collaboration, and a commitment to positively impacting the community.

About the role

We launched our store five years ago and have grown it into a fully custom apparel line sold globally. We develop and produce 70–100 SKUs per year across tees, fleece, headwear, underwear, swimwear, and accessories, including licensed capsules and brand collaborations. Every product we make carries a graphic, and the graphic is what sells it.

This is first and foremost a graphic design role. You will take each season's creative direction from our core creative team and turn it into artwork with a clear point of view, autonomous, from start to finish: concept, illustration, type, color separations, and print-ready files across every decoration method we use. We are looking for someone whose work has a recognizable voice of its own, who can hold that voice inside a brief, and who does not need an art director in the room to get from a theme to a finished graphic.

Apparel product development is part of the job, but the smaller part. You will decide how a graphic lands on a garment, including placement, scale, colorways, and decoration method, and you will work with our Head of Merchandise and Production Director, who carry the technical and production side of the line. You will be the direct point of contact for our overseas factories on samples and revisions, so you need to be comfortable writing clear comments and pushing back when a sample comes back incorrect. You do not need to have built a tech pack from scratch. You do need to understand enough about how apparel is made that your artwork is designed for the product it will sit on, not adapted to it afterward.

This is the only position of its kind on the team. There is no design group, no art director, and no project manager behind you. It suits a designer who has spent years executing other people's ideas and would rather be the one whose graphics end up on the product.

Key Responsibilities

Graphics

• Create all prints, artwork, and embellishment across every category, from concept through separations to factory-ready art files.
• Bring a clear point of view to each season's creative direction, developing original illustration, typography, and lettering that carries the brand's voice.
• Deliver artwork for licensed capsules and brand collaborations, working within partner guidelines and approval processes.

Artwork on Product

• Own placement, scale, and colorway decisions for every graphic, and provide art specs and callouts for tech packs.
• Help translate each season's creative direction into a merchandised line alongside the Head of Merchandise, covering silhouettes, colorways, and trims.

Factory Communication and Sampling

• Serve as the direct point of contact with our overseas manufacturing partners on samples and revisions.
• Review prototypes, write comments, and drive rounds through to an approved sample, with the Production Director carrying the technical and production side.

Files and Self-Management

• Keep a season of art files, separations, callouts, and revisions organized and current without a project manager.
• Manage several graphics at different stages at once, with limited oversight, across a calendar of 70–100 SKUs a year.

Qualifications

• A strong graphic design portfolio with a clear, recognizable point of view, and demonstrable range across illustration, typography, and lettering.
• Proven ability to take artwork from concept to finished, print-ready files autonomously, without an art director directing each step.
• Apparel or merchandise in the portfolio. This does not need to be the majority of your work, but we need to see graphics that were made for garments and produced on garments.
• Deep fluency in Illustrator, including color separations, and Photoshop.
• Comfort communicating directly and professionally with overseas factories on samples and revisions.
• Enough organizational discipline to hold a season of files, callouts, and revisions with limited oversight.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in streetwear, tour and band merch, action sports, or any category where the graphic is the product.
• A working understanding of tech packs and the fundamentals of apparel production.
• Prior work with knits and cut-and-sew, or with underwear and swim.
• Experience on licensed capsules or brand collaborations.

Please include a portfolio with your application.