Apparel Graphic DesignerHybrid

Title: Apparel Graphic Designer 

Location: Beaverton, OR

Duration: 6 months contract

NIKE, Inc. does more than outfit the world's best athletes. It is a place to explore potential, obliterate boundaries and push out the edges of what can be. The company looks for people who can grow, think, dream and create. Its culture thrives by embracing diversity and rewarding imagination. The brand seeks achievers, leaders and visionaries. At Nike, it’s about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

The Nike Basketball Graphics team creates the future of sport with groundbreaking art and design for Nike branded basketball and key signature athlete footwear and apparel collections. This team brings inspiration and innovation to the world’s biggest athletes on the biggest stages, to basketball fans and consumers all over the world.

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

We are looking for an exceptional product graphic designer with proven design excellence, curiosity, problem solving tenacity, and a passion for making those around them better. This designer will play a key role in authoring powerful narratives that inspire athletes and basketball consumers worldwide. They thrive in ambiguity, are driven by curiosity and lead with optimism. Their creative talent is equaled by their ability to think strategically and consciously champion ground-breaking thinking and the ideas of their teammates. They play a key role in the conceptualization, design, and development of graphic elements across a wide variety of product collections. These designers have an affinity for world-building and storytelling through integrating art and visuals that resonate with the basketball consumer. 

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

You will be responsible for creating apparel and footwear graphics for multiple Nike branded and signature athlete basketball collections, by curating graphic visual centers, product trim suites, photoshoots and presentations. If this is you, you’ll be working with internal and external partners aligning on aesthetic, construction, development, insights, and various product creation gates. A typical week can range from leading brainstorm sessions, design seasons and reviews, product creation meetings, to athlete meetings, and one-on-one meetings with your design teammates and partners.

WHO WILL YOU WORK WITH?

You will work closely with cross-functional Basketball leadership and your product management, development, and materials triad team, to elevate graphic design across Nike Basketball apparel and footwear. You will be reporting directly to the Design Director and will be working closely with design partners internally as well as key athletes, artists and collaborators externally.

WHAT YOU BRING

• TO BE CONSIDERED, YOU MUST SUBMIT A CREATIVE DESIGN PORTFOLIO. PLEASE PROVIDE WEBSITE LINKS OR ATTACH PDF FILES WHEN YOU APPLY.
• Minimum of five years relevant design work experience in a related field.
• Bachelor’s degree in industrial design, product design, graphic design, or equivalent combination of relevant education, experience, and training.
• Well-curated portfolio showcasing a variety of projects that demonstrate a strong, effective methodology for research, inspiration, process, design development, problem solving, and final execution.
• Experience working directly with a diverse range of consumers and athletes.
• Contribution to the initiation, development and implementation of in-depth research leading to product storytelling.
• A positive attitude while working on projects with challenging briefs and through ambiguity to successful completion.
• Prioritizing workload across short-term and long-range projects with varying levels of complexity.
• Demonstrates self-awareness, with ability to articulate strengths, opportunities, and takeaways.
• Well informed and connected to sport, cultural and graphic design trends.
• Knowledge and ability in product design, including ideation, development, specification, and final execution of designs that balance innovation, performance, and style.
• High Degree of proficiency in design software and tools is a must, Adobe Creative Suite, AI, 3D tools are a plus.
• Creatively agile and adept in innovative thinking, visualization and problem solving.
• Strong desire to learn, grow and adapt is a must.
• Expert written, verbal and visual communication skills, including the ability to prepare and deliver project presentations to senior leadership and external partners.
• A deep understanding of typography, layout, color theory, brand identity, and design principles.
• Excellent ability to collaborate effectively across teams.
• Must have a passion for storytelling and the ability to translate narratives into compelling visual elements.