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- San Francisco, California
About
The Color Manager sits within the RD Team - their focus lies in the art and the science of color execution, color quality and a compelling consumer experience at retail. They will drive color excellence through materials execution, in connection with the conceptual vision. They are instrumental in establishing Banana Republic's expression of color, considering quality limitations and recommendations specific to fabrication, surface novelty, and trim. The role requires close cross-functional partnership to ensure our products are beautiful, technical, and sustainable.What You'll Do
- Color Palette Concept & Development
- Execute color trend research & analysis seasonally to inform color palette direction and development
o Own trend service facilitation by organizing presentations, ordering & storing trend service materials.
o Work closely with men's and women's LT to provide color direction, tears and monthly palette ideas during seasonal concept.
o Support palette color recommendations by issuing fabric dye stuff limitations surrounding colorfastness testing & metamerism in the developmental stage to avoid production issues
o Create brand appropriate, inclusive color names, assign PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) color #, and upload all colors for bill of material creation
o Create and organize seasonal palette information, color records to be accessible and retrievable for Designers, cross functional teams, Global International Sourcing Production teams, graphic screen-printing vendors, and materials vendors/mills
o Create & distribute seasonal design tool color palettes for Design, Merchandising, Marketing and Visual teams for key dates (Ideation, Alignment, Adoption)
o Order physical color standards for seasonal color evaluation (Global sourcing Color Teams, Brand Color) and for cross functional seasonal color reference tools
o Manage and create purchase orders in finance program to initiate ordering of color libraries, color standards and design tools for seasonal color palettes
o Work closely with our certified color service providers (CSI, Coloro & Pantone) to achieve custom color standard development, fabric & dye limitation direction, organization, and vendor/mill/supplier distribution; as well as distributing the non-certified color standards (physical and electronic color standards) to GIS colorists and vendors/mills when needed
o Provide collaboration, color support, technical expertise for special projects/ collaborations
- Oversee & Manage lab dip/ production color evaluations
o Provide technical support for the lab dip and production evaluations using spectral/visual data for color accuracy, cross color fabrications, color execution and providing feedback to mills/vendors within development timelines
o Work closely with GIS colorists, mills & cross functional partners to assist in color re-formulation
o Review lab dips & bulk across BR & BRFS men's and women's categories including: TSD, outerwear, knits, sweaters, suiting, pants and shirting.
o Work closely with our X-Rite partners for spectrophotometer & lightbox maintenance.
- Provide color recommendations involving:
o Shade band approvals for garment shipments
o Color recommendations for materials including trims for standard matching
o Thread matches for seasonal color standards, BR Timeless Classics heathers & cashmeres
o Pantone # (PMS) matches for seasonal color standards for labels, paper goods, accessories when needed.
- Manage & maintain physical & digital color libraries
o Manage physical & digital master color libraries containing over 3,000 color standards of various materials and substrates.
o Manage the ordering and inventory of color library, working carefully to control metrology in the storage of materials.
o Ensure that the library is well maintained with regular upkeep, cross referencing PLM information and discarding any outdated, worn, or damaged standards.
Who You Are
- College Degree-BS/BA in Apparel/Product Design
- Must have a superior discrimination with the Farnsworth Munsell Color Hue Test
- Proficient in Color Evaluation Program & Spectrophotometer (iQc) & Natific ASAP Program a plus
- Proficient in Oracle Finance Program a plus
- Dynamic, team-oriented attitude; positive energy with an ability to take feedback
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, being able to juggle multiple seasons at one time
- Well-crafted communication and organizational skills; strong detail orientation, project management and prioritization skills
- Self-leadership skills with passion to mentor and coach junior Color Analysts
- Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop + InDesign, Microsoft applications
- 8+ years' experience in fashion/product/color design; bachelor's degree or higher
Nice-to-have skills
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
Work experience
- Product Designer
Languages
- English