Adobe Illustrator Automation Developer – Paid Proof of Concept

Adobe Illustrator Automation Developer – Paid Proof of Concept About Us We are Giftsinajiffy, a personalised gift retailer with a large catalogue of products sold across multiple online channels. You can find us online by searching for Giftsinajiffy to get a better understanding of our business, the types of products we sell and the scale of our personalised product range. We produce a high volume of personalised gifts and are now looking to significantly improve our artwork and production workflow through automation. Project Overview We are looking for an experienced Adobe Illustrator automation / scripting developer to help automate our existing personalised artwork production process. We already have established: Adobe Illustrator artwork files Product templates Engraving layouts Production jigs SKU structures Existing manual artwork processes At present, customer personalisation such as names, dates and messages is entered manually into Illustrator and then positioned onto production jigs. Our goal is to automate as much of this process as possible. This is not primarily a graphic design role. We already have the designs. We are specifically looking for someone who has experience in areas such as: Adobe Illustrator scripting JavaScript / ExtendScript Illustrator automation Variable-data artwork Batch artwork generation Production workflow automation Initial Paid Proof of Concept We would like to begin with a small paid proof of concept using one of our existing mug production jigs. The purpose of this initial project is to demonstrate that our real production workflow can be automated reliably before moving on to a much larger programme of work. The Current Mug Jig The Illustrator jig: Already exists in Adobe Illustrator Holds 15 mugs Contains 5 rows of 3 positions Has precise artwork locations for each mug Is designed specifically around the physical engraving process Because of how the mugs are positioned in the physical jig: Rows 1, 3 and 5 use artwork in the normal orientation Rows 2 and 4 require the engraving artwork to be rotated 180 degrees The jig layout is therefore effectively: Row 1 → Position 01 Position 02 Position 03 Row 2 ← Position 06 Position 05 Position 04 Artwork rotated 180° Row 3 → Position 07 Position 08 Position 09 Row 4 ← Position 12 Position 11 Position 10 Artwork rotated 180° Row 5 → Position 13 Position 14 Position 15 We will supply: The existing Illustrator jig file Sample personalised artwork Dummy customer names/orders A CSV or spreadsheet containing the personalisation data An explanation of the existing manual production process Proof-of-Concept Requirement We would like the successful applicant to create an Illustrator automation that can: Read customer/order information from a CSV, spreadsheet or similar structured data source. Insert each customer's personalised information into the relevant Illustrator artwork automatically. Place each completed personalised artwork into the correct position on the 15-position production jig. Maintain the precise positioning and alignment required for engraving. Automatically ensure that rows 2 and 4 are rotated 180 degrees. Leave unused jig positions blank where there are fewer than 15 orders. Automatically create additional jig files when there are more than 15 suitable orders. Save/export the completed production-ready artwork using an agreed naming convention. Preserve the original master Illustrator files so that the automation works from reusable templates rather than permanently altering the masters. For example: 8 orders = one jig containing 8 completed positions 15 orders = one full jig 16 orders = one full jig plus a second jig containing 1 order 34 orders = two full jigs plus a third jig containing 4 orders The initial proof of concept does not need to solve every possible production scenario. Its purpose is to demonstrate that the core process can be automated reliably and in a way that can later be expanded. Personalisation Our products can contain different types of customer personalisation, including: Names Dates Short messages Longer personalised messages Multiple names Optional second messages Front and back personalisation Different quantities of the same personalised product For the initial mug proof of concept, we will keep the personalisation relatively simple. However, the solution should ideally be designed with future expansion in mind. Our SKU Structure Our SKU system contains useful production information. For example: 1500728GB This can be broken down as: 15007 = product/item 28 = product colour GB = artwork/design Ultimately, we would like our automation system to interpret SKU information automatically. For example, the system could use the SKU to determine: Which physical product is being produced Which colour of product is required Which Illustrator artwork/design should be used Which production jig should be used Which orders can be grouped together How many products fit on a jig Which production batch an order should belong to Full SKU automation is not necessarily required in the first proof of concept, but we would like applicants to consider how their proposed solution could be expanded to support this. Longer-Term Objective The proof of concept is deliberately small because we want to identify the right developer before committing to the wider project. If the initial project is successful, there is potentially a significant amount of ongoing automation work. Giftsinajiffy has a large catalogue of personalised products, and we could ultimately have hundreds or potentially thousands of artwork templates and production processes that we would like to automate over time. Our product range includes items such as: Personalised mugs Make-up bags Chopping boards Flip flops Personalised gifts Engraved products Products with names Products with names and dates Products with multiple personalised fields Products with personalised messages on the front Products with personalised messages on the reverse Products produced in different quantities Products requiring different production jigs Sales Channels Our longer-term aim is for personalised orders from multiple sales channels to feed into the artwork automation system. These include: Etsy Amazon eBay Shopify Ultimately, we would like an order to move through a process similar to: Customer places order ↓ Order and personalisation data received automatically ↓ SKU identified ↓ Correct Illustrator artwork selected ↓ Customer personalisation inserted automatically ↓ Artwork positioned on the correct production jig ↓ Production batch created ↓ Production-ready artwork exported ↓ Only exceptional orders require human intervention The marketplace/API integration does not need to form part of the initial proof of concept. Our priority is first to prove that the Illustrator and production-jig automation works reliably. Future Automation Requirements If the first project is successful, future stages may include: Automatic SKU interpretation Automatic selection of Illustrator master artwork Automatic jig selection Automatic grouping of orders into production batches Automatic text resizing for long names Maximum artwork width checks Automatic line wrapping Automatic front and reverse artwork generation Optional artwork elements Automatic processing of multiple quantities Multiple designs on the same physical production jig Automated production manifests Automated order-to-jig position tracking Automated file naming Automatic export of production-ready files Error handling and manual-review queues Integration with e-commerce marketplaces Integration with internal order-management systems Skills Required Essential Applicants should have strong experience with: Adobe Illustrator Illustrator scripting and automation JavaScript / ExtendScript or an equivalent Illustrator scripting technology Illustrator DOM/object manipulation Working with Illustrator text frames programmatically Positioning Illustrator artwork through code Scaling Illustrator artwork through code Rotating Illustrator artwork through code Working with coordinates and object bounds CSV / JSON / structured-data processing Batch processing Automated artwork generation Automated file saving/exporting Useful but Not Essential Experience in any of the following would be useful: Adobe Illustrator APIs Adobe Creative Cloud automation Python Node.js / JavaScript REST APIs Shopify API Etsy API Amazon Selling Partner API eBay APIs Make.com Webhooks Variable-data printing Laser engraving Personalised-product production Manufacturing workflow automation Automated production batching Important: This Is an Automation Project We are not looking for someone to manually prepare individual customer artwork. We want to create a reusable system that allows our existing Illustrator templates and production jigs to be populated automatically from customer/order data. The successful solution should be designed so that additional: Products Jigs Designs Personalisation fields Production rules can be added later without rebuilding the entire system. Source Code and Ownership The successful applicant must provide us with: The working automation/script Full source code Any supporting configuration files Any template setup instructions Basic technical documentation Instructions explaining how the automation operates Information explaining how additional products/jigs could be added in future We need to retain access to and ownership of the scripts and source code created as part of the project. We do not want a solution that can only be maintained by the original developer or that depends on inaccessible proprietary code. Initial Budget We are proposing an initial paid proof-of-concept milestone in the region of £200–£300, although we are happy to consider proposals from experienced developers who believe a different budget is appropriate. The initial milestone is intentionally limited in scope. The purpose is to demonstrate that one real production jig can be automated successfully. If the proof of concept is successful, we would then discuss further paid milestones and a potentially substantial longer-term project. What We Will Provide For the proof of concept, we can provide: Our existing Adobe Illustrator jig Existing artwork/design files Example customer personalisation Sample order data Explanation of our SKU structure Explanation of how the physical jig is loaded Explanation of our current manual workflow Feedback during testing What We Want to See From Applicants Please begin your proposal with the words: ILLUSTRATOR AUTOMATION This is simply to help us identify applicants who have read the project description properly. Please answer the following questions in your proposal: What experience do you have automating Adobe Illustrator? Have you written Adobe Illustrator JavaScript / ExtendScript or similar automation scripts before? Please provide examples of relevant Illustrator automation projects you have completed. Have you previously worked with variable-data artwork or personalised-product automation? How would you approach automatically filling a 15-position Illustrator production jig from CSV/order data? How would you handle the requirement for artwork on rows 2 and 4 to be rotated 180 degrees? How would you handle customer names that are longer than expected and may exceed the available engraving area? How would you structure the system so that additional Illustrator templates and production jigs could be added later? If we eventually had hundreds or thousands of artwork processes, how would you avoid having to write a completely separate script for every product? Are you comfortable providing all source code and documentation created during the project? What would you charge for the initial proof of concept? What timescale would you estimate for completing it? Potential Long-Term Opportunity We are particularly interested in finding someone who could become a long-term automation partner for Giftsinajiffy. The initial mug jig is only a proof of concept. If we find the right person and the first automation works reliably, there is potentially a substantial programme of further work across our existing personalised product catalogue. We are therefore interested not only in whether you can make the initial test work, but also in whether you can build automation in a structured, scalable and maintainable way.