Since its launch in 1993 with a collection of six essential handbags, Kate Spade New York has always been colorful, bold, and optimistic. Today, it is a global lifestyle brand that designs extraordinary things for the everyday, delivering seasonal collections of handbags, ready-to-wear, jewelry, footwear, home décor, and more. Known for its rich heritage and unique brand DNA, Kate Spade New York offers a distinctive point of view and celebrates communities of women around the globe who live their perfectly imperfect lifestyles.
Kate Spade New York is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands committed to stretching what’s possible.
A member of the Tapestry family, we are part of a global house of brands that has unwavering optimism and is committed to being innovative and wholly inclusive. Visit Our People page to learn more about Tapestry's commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity.
The Novelty Designer plays an essential role in maintaining the creative vibrancy of the Kate Spade & Company product. They help determine the creative look and feel of products in all categories through the design and art direction of graphics and illustrations that support the seasonal vision. The ideal candidate is a highly creative individual with strong typographic sensibility, advanced Adobe Illustrator skills, and excellent illustration abilities, who welcomes the opportunity to design across multiple channels, work in a highly collaborative team environment, and embrace change as the brand grows and develops.
Essential duties and responsibilities:
- Design illustrations, graphics and typography for novelty concepts and line plans, aligned with seasonal vision and brand DNA.
- Apply strong typography skills to develop compelling graphic and typographic layouts
- Execute artwork across multiple product categories (e.g., handbags, accessories, apparel, gifts, home).
- Contribute creatively to seasonal ideation while independently owning assigned projects from concept through execution.
- Have deep understanding of the brand’s DNA and aesthetic, and how to translate it into successful product.
- Ensure assigned artwork is presentable for key meetings and mill-ready for submission by calendar targets.
- Create production ready, mill and factory ready artwork files and technical packages.
- Collaborate cross functionally with merchandising, product development and production partners.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Print Design, Illustration, or related field.
- 4+ years of experience in print, graphics, novelty, or illustration design.
- Excellent illustration skills with a strong hand drawing/painting skills and cohesive portfolio.
- Strong typography skills and graphic composition.
- Advanced proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop (InDesign is a plus)
- Strong understanding of how artwork translates to physical product
- Highly organized, detail oriented, and able to manage multiple projects in a fast paced environment
- Confident communicator with solid presentation skills
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment and build strong interpersonal relationships
Our Competencies for All Employees
Courage: Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and “actionable” positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.
Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.
Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.
Our Competencies for All People Managers
Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
Developing Direct Reports and Others: Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person's career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes people to accept developmental moves; will take on those who need help and further development; cooperates with the developmental system in the organization; is a people builder.
Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale and spirit in their team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.
Kate Spade. is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant’s or employee’s qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Tapestry, Inc. will provide applicants and employees with reasonable accommodation for disabilities or religious beliefs. If you require reasonable accommodation to complete the application process, please contact Tapestry People Services at 1-855-566-9264 or [email protected]
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Base Pay Range
$85,000.00-$100,000.00Here are some of the benefits that we offer: Medical insurance, Dental insurance, Vision insurance, 401 (K), Paid Paternity and Maternity leave, Commuter Benefits, Disability insurance and Tuition assistance. Please click here for a complete list of U.S Corporate Compensation & Benefits.
Top Skills
What the Team is Saying
What We Do
A tapestry is made of many threads woven into one story. So are we. Our global house of brands unites the magic of Coach and Kate Spade New York. By intertwining different people and ideas, we push ourselves in our work, pull out the unexpected in what we create, and expand the bounds of possibility. Our brands were created by dreamers who were determined to turn ideas into icons and, with passion, made it happen. We’ve grown by finding people similarly dedicated to the dream all over the world. We hold ourselves to high standards in every material, process, and person that plays a part in our work, and we embrace difference by design because diverse perspectives are at the heart of creativity. We find brilliance in the intersections—of beauty and function, of heritage and innovation, of accessibility and aspiration—which is how we break through with magic and logic in our culture and our craft. The result is that we stand taller together. Tapestry elevates the best in our people and brands. We use our collective strengths to move our customers and empower our communities, to make the fashion industry sustainable, and to build a house that’s equitable, inclusive, and diverse. Individually, our brands are iconic. Together, we can stretch what’s possible.
Why Work With Us
We believe that difference sparks brilliance, so we welcome people and ideas from everywhere to join us in stretching what’s possible. At Tapestry, being true to yourself is core to who we are. When each of us brings our individuality to our collective ambition, our creativity is unleashed.
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Tapestry - Coach and Kate Spade Teams
Tapestry - Coach and Kate Spade Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
