Associate Product Designer - Accessories

Associate Product Designer – Accessories About Little Words Project

At Little Words Project, we believe in the power of small words to create meaningful connections. What started with bracelets has grown into a brand built around positivity, self-expression, gifting, and community.

As we continue to grow, we're expanding our product assortment beyond bracelets into accessories, gifts, and lifestyle products designed for both our own customers and leading retail partners.

About the Role

This is a physical consumer product design role focused on accessories, gifting, and related products from concept through production. The position requires experience designing tangible products, including materials, components, specifications, prototypes, and packaging. It is not a digital product design, UX/UI, or software design role.

We're looking for a creative, detail-oriented Associate Product Designer to help bring our growing accessories assortment to life. This position is hybrid and reports to our corporate location in Mountainside, NJ.

Working closely with our Design Director, you'll support the design and development of products from initial concept through production. You'll help translate trends, customer insights, and the LWP brand into products that feel fresh, thoughtful, and commercially relevant.

This role is a great opportunity for a designer who enjoys the intersection of creativity, physical product design, retail, and product development and wants to see their ideas become real products.

You'll work across categories that may include bag charms, jewelry and accessories, soft goods, paper goods, gifting, packaging, and other lifestyle products.

What You'll Do Design & Concept Development

• Support the design and development of new accessories collections from concept through production, under the creative direction of the Design Director.

• Execute channel-specific and retailer-exclusive product designs as briefed by the Design Director and leadership team, tailored to the assortment, customer, and price architecture of key retail partners.

• Translate brand vision, trend insights, and retail customer profiles into compelling accessories designs across categories including bag charms, paper goods, soft goods, and giftable add-ons.

• Track trend, material, and competitive activity across the beauty, fashion, and lifestyle accessories landscape, including products and assortments performing at target retailers, to inform new product concepts.

• Create sketches, renderings, and prototypes to clearly communicate design intent to internal teams, retail buyers, and vendor partners.

• Support material, color, component, and finish selection with consideration for quality, cost, and brand alignment across retail price points.

Product Development & Production

• Create detailed spec sheets, tech packs, and production-ready files for factory and vendor partners, including complete Pantone/color references, dimensions, component standards, and other design specifications.

• Maintain organized, editable working files (.ai) with clear version control to ensure internal teams, factories, and external partners have access to current artwork.

• Review samples, manage design revisions, and provide clear, actionable feedback throughout development cycles to support retailer delivery timelines.

• Partner with Product Development to ensure designs are manufacturable, cost-effective, and scalable to wholesale volumes.

• Support cost-engineering efforts by adjusting materials, components, and construction to meet target costs without compromising design intent.

• Design with retailer-specific compliance, testing, labeling, and quality requirements in mind, partnering with Product Development, which owns verification.

Retail, Packaging & Merchandising

• Support packaging and merchandising formats designed for retail environments, including peg, planogram, counter display, gift sets, and shelf-ready presentation.

• Develop retailer-ready product and packaging concepts aligned to specific channel requirements, price points, and merchandising needs.

• Prepare presentation-ready concepts, renderings, and samples to support retailer line reviews, pitch meetings, and seasonal market appointments.

• Collaborate with external packaging designers as needed to execute packaging concepts and deliverables.

Licensing & Brand Standards

• Work within licensor brand guidelines (i.e. Disney) and support artwork through partner approval workflows, incorporating licensor and retailer feedback through multiple review rounds while maintaining production timelines.

• Support licensed product development by ensuring artwork and product designs meet applicable licensor requirements and approval standards.

• Uphold LWP design standards as the product assortment expands across categories and retail partners.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with Product Development, Creative, Merchandising, Sales, and Operations throughout the product development process.

• Communicate design intent, specifications, revisions, and production requirements clearly with internal teams, factories, vendors, and external creative partners.

• Incorporate feedback from internal stakeholders, retail partners, vendors, and licensors while maintaining the creative direction and objectives of each project.

• Bring forward new ideas, accessory formats, and product concepts proactively to support the continued growth of the LWP product line.

What You'll Bring

• 4+ years of experience in physical product or accessory design, ideally within jewelry, fashion accessories, beauty, lifestyle, gift, or a similar consumer product category.

• Experience designing products for retail or wholesale distribution preferred.

• A strong understanding of physical product design and development from concept through production.

• Experience working with vendors and/or factories, including overseas partners.

• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, particularly Illustrator and Photoshop.

• Experience creating sketches, renderings, presentations, spec sheets, and production-ready artwork.

• Knowledge of materials, color, components, finishes, and manufacturing considerations.

• Experience with 3D modeling software such as Rhino, Blender, or similar is a plus.

• Experience with licensed products or licensor approval processes is a plus.

• Strong attention to detail and an ability to translate creative concepts into clear, actionable design specifications.

• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to receive feedback and work effectively across teams.

• Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.

• Portfolio required demonstrating physical product, accessories, packaging, or related consumer product design work.

What We're Looking For

We're looking for someone who is creative, curious, collaborative, and hands-on. You don't need to have every answer, but you should be excited to learn, solve problems, contribute ideas, and see your work come to life.

If you're passionate about design and want to help build the next chapter of a growing lifestyle brand, we'd love to meet you.

Come help us create products that give people a little something to hold onto.

Salary Range: $75,000 annually