Creative Director, Apparel & Merchandise

Hiring Creative Director, Apparel & Merchandise About Us We are building a large-scale t-shirt marketplace focused on unique, high-quality designs across multiple collections, niches, and licensed opportunities. This is not a typical Shopify store. We are looking for a highly creative leader who understands branding, apparel design, merchandising, consumer trends, and marketplace management. Your job is to ensure our storefront always looks fresh, relevant, and exciting while maintaining a premium brand experience. If you have experience building apparel brands, curating product collections, identifying trends before they happen, and creating designs people actually want to wear, we'd love to talk. Role Overview We're looking for a Creative Director who can take ownership of the visual direction of our marketplace. You will be responsible for managing collections, curating featured products, creating new designs, identifying trends, building seasonal campaigns, and ensuring the entire customer-facing experience feels modern, fresh, and highly engaging. This is both a strategic and hands-on role. You should be equally comfortable reviewing a collection strategy, designing apparel graphics, building mood boards, and planning future licensed merchandise opportunities. Responsibilities Marketplace Creative Management * Own the overall visual direction of the marketplace * Review collections and ensure featured designs are high quality and relevant * Continuously refresh homepage collections and featured products * Create seasonal, holiday, and trend-driven merchandising campaigns * Identify underperforming collections and recommend improvements * Maintain brand consistency across all customer-facing experiences Apparel Design * Create original t-shirt designs and graphics * Develop new collection concepts from scratch * Improve and refine existing designs * Build cohesive collection themes and visual systems * Work with AI, illustration, typography, and graphic design tools as needed Trend Research * Monitor apparel, pop culture, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, and social media trends * Identify opportunities before they become saturated * Research emerging niches and audience interests * Develop concepts around holidays, seasonal events, and cultural moments Brand Development * Help define and evolve the visual identity of the marketplace * Create collection naming conventions and merchandising strategies * Develop style guides and creative standards * Ensure every collection aligns with our long-term brand vision Licensed Merchandise Opportunities * Develop merchandise concepts around potential licensing opportunities * Create presentation-quality mockups and collections * Build apparel concepts for celebrities, athletes, public figures, entertainment brands, and strategic partnerships * Help us create compelling creative assets that can be used to pursue licensing relationships Requirements Must Have * Strong graphic design portfolio * Experience designing apparel or merchandise * Strong branding and creative direction experience * Ability to both create and critique design work * Understanding of merchandising and product presentation * Experience with Adobe Creative Suite or equivalent tools * Strong typography and layout skills * Ability to spot design trends and consumer opportunities Preferred * Experience with large apparel brands * Experience managing marketplaces or large product catalogs * Experience with licensed merchandise * Understanding of print-on-demand workflows * Experience creating collections around sports, entertainment, celebrities, or cultural brands * Experience using AI-assisted design tools What Success Looks Like * The homepage always feels fresh and relevant * Collections are visually cohesive and well curated * New designs are consistently being launched * Seasonal and trend-based opportunities are executed quickly * Product presentation improves conversion rates * Customers feel like there is always something new to discover * The marketplace develops a recognizable and premium brand identity When Applying Please include: * Portfolio of apparel or merchandise design work * Examples of brands you have helped build * Examples of collections you created or managed * Your favorite apparel brands and why * A brief explanation of how you would keep a large t-shirt marketplace fresh and relevant throughout the year Bonus points if you include examples of licensed merchandise, celebrity merchandise, sports merchandise, or entertainment-related projects.