Contract Design Director. Currently working with Raj Overseas as Assoc. Design Director. Covering accounts in the home industry for Target, Lowes, Loloi, Kohl's, Kirkland's, and others. Providing trend, merchandising, creative direction and design, customer liaison, and product development. Categories include pillows, wall art, throw blankets, and floor coverings/rugs. https://rajgroup.in/

Relaunch of established 6 year freelance and design consulting business.https://www.modern-rocks.com/Freelance Designer providing services ranging from trend forecasting, mood boards, conceptualization, design, technical sketches, fittings, and tech packs. Specialization in yarns, knits, and sweater design/ accessory design as well.Zoom/video calls to work with customer directly on their vision and design needs.Close collaboration with designers and other creatives to build product and look to match their vision.Projects include:Modern Rocks Promos:Designing, developing, and sourcing custom promo collections and items like t-shirts, hats, notebooks, stickers, and other promotional items. Working with mortgage brokers and real estate agents to build product for their teams and promo products for their customers.MerchMake:Partnering with MerchMake (https://www.merchmake.com/) as their "go to" recommended designer for MerchMake customers looking for extra help design product graphics, overall product assortment, build in trend, and color direction, and to merchandise their lines.MerchMake Customers include:• Large to small independent artists and designers that license their work and want to build their own merchandise and sell direct.• #1 YouTube channel for kids cartoons• Non-Profit cancer awareness foundation• YouTube stars with huge followings working with me to build their own merchandise• Children's book author branching out to offer merchandise that ties back to their book characters.• Heritage gum brand looking to update their merchandise offering.And many more!Modern Rocks Jewelry Line:Unique jewelry pieces for customer specific requests and direct to consumer line.Modern Rocks Books:Coloring Book Illustrations.Illustrating, Writing, and building a children's coloring and activity book for Flamingo Gardens, a botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary.

Partnering with MerchMake (https://www.merchmake.com/) as their "go to" recommended independent contract designer for MerchMake customers looking for extra help design product graphics, overall product assortment, build in trend, and color direction, and to merchandise their lines.Check out our website at https://www.modernrocks-merchmake.com/MerchMake Customers include:• Large to small independent artists and designers that license their work and want to build their own merchandise and sell direct.• #1 YouTube channel for kids cartoons• Non-Profit cancer awareness foundation• YouTube stars with huge followings working with me to build their own merchandise• Children's book author branching out to offer merchandise that ties back to their book characters.• Heritage gum brand looking to update their merchandise offering.

https://jayatplay.comThe Jay@Play team (a customer of my former employer Weihai Luda) recruited me after seeing the full line and assortment of Boxy Girl accessories that I developed for Weihai Luda. Jay@Play is the innovative leader in dolls, plush, youth electronics, collectibles, and craft products. Clients include Walmart, Target, Dollar General, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohls, Michaels, Family Dollar, Costco, and Hobby Lobby.I built, supervised, and managed the budget for a team of 10+ freelance designers who enabled cost-effective flexibility for changing business needs. My group maintained 20+ product lines, including Boxy Girls/Boxy Baby, Flip a Zoo, Lullabrites, Happy Nappers, Jambrites, Lumiluvs, Magic Kidchen, Mushabelly, Mushmillows, Stuffaloons, Vibe Girls, and Wish Me.My team’s responsibilities involved establishing trend direction, including doll clothing, accessories, and hair/makeup, as well as packaging, and overall look for dolls and plush. We created graphics, logos, packaging, and presentations, using Adobe Illustrator and PowerPoint.I communicated daily with factories for product development, approvals, sample timing, and final deadlines. I also traveled to Hong Kong to oversee and direct product photoshoots and styling, attended Toy Fair, met with vendors, and vetted new toy inventions.Highlights:* Created and designed Vibe Girls, a new fashion doll line, from concept through production, incorporating the president's vision and customer needs.* Architected and established product development management system and archives from the ground up.* Designed and built supporting doll accessories and stickers to maximize revenue opportunities.

I set up all business operations associated with building a new design team for this Chinese company in licensed and private label home, men's, women's, kid's, belts, small leather goods, accessories, cold weather, and headwear products. My responsibilities included processes, material sourcing, product development, and merchandising.For the design team, I recruited and expanded the US staff from one freelancer to 15 full-time and freelance designers. I established NY and Minneapolis-based designers, as well as remotely based design teams across USA and UK.I provided creative and strategic leadership, including in-store and online assortments of accessories, home, and hardlines. My supervision involved guiding accessory and graphic/textile designers to create original concepts for Target, Old Navy, GAP, Superdry, Primark, Athleta, and other US, and international clients.I sourced new factories, traveled to Canton Fair, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai multiple times annually, and sourced materials directly in Mainland China for in house development and customer requests. I trend shopped in Tokyo, London, NY, Miami and many others multiple times a year. Also, I helped launch the NY showroom.Highlights:* Secured new business and grew existing accounts, such as increasing the Target business by more than $7M in five months in 2018 and increased Target business from $100M to $120M from 2018 to 2019.* Leveraged prior relationships to secure and grow business across all categories, including men's accessories and gift sales by 97% in 2017.* Opened new business in Target's Hearth and Hand/Magnolia, resulting in nearly $1/2M increase in the first quarter.* Expanded business at Old Navy in womens handbags/accessories and men's bags.* Launched new license business with high-end runway headwear designer Albertus Swanepoel, Atari, and Boxy Girl for such products as jewelry, backpacks, small accessories/lanyards, wallets, belts, bags, headwear, and cold weather.

Freelance Designer providing services ranging from trend forecasting, mood boards, conceptualization, design, technical sketches, fittings, and tech packs. Specialization in yarns, knits, and sweater design/ accessory design as well. Projects include:Accessories design and development for multi million dollar direct to retailer overseas factory.Textile design and conceptualization for pieces of a baby bedding line for an established bedding company selling to big box retailers and online.Unique jewelry pieces designed to complement new swimsuit designs for a collaboration with an emerging Miami swimwear designer.

Reporting directly to the VP, Private Label Brands, I provided creative and strategic leadership across categories and products for this privately owned company specializing in licensed and private label men's, women's, kids, accessories, headwear, sleepwear, headphones, belts, and small leather goods. I directed the sourcing team to develop innovative styles, fabrications, and patterns to support trend direction, and managed the team to meet all calendar deadlines throughout the full product development cycle.As director, I headed a six-member team of accessory and graphic/textile designers creating original concepts for Free Authority, Tallia Orange, Forever 21, Old Navy, Macy's, Urban Outfitters, Target, Kohl's, JCP, Spencer’s, Hot Topic, Gander Mountain, Nordstrom, Hat World/Lids, Burlington Coat Factory, T.J.Maxx (US & Europe), Walmart, and ShopKo brands.Among my responsibilities were talent and succession planning, coaching and mentoring, and recruitment. I oversaw the team on technical execution of product, ensuring customer satisfaction in quality fit and make, and I identified must-have trends and items through market analysis, extensive trend research, and domestic and international travel.Highlights:* Generated up to $75M in annual in-store and e-commerce retail sales.* Secured private label business from Walmart for most of men's fashion headwear for all of 2013, increasing to more than 1.7 million units.* Maintained and protected Walmart business by offering new trend-right ideas that were appropriate for their customers.* Assisted in opening Forever 21 men's business that grew to 300,000+ units a year in less than three years.

During my tenure, I directed fabric development for all in house brands and Missoni, including men's, women's, and kids and created collections for men’s cut & sew and fully fashioned sweater knits. I traveled to Hong Kong and Mainland China to work directly with vendors, yarn suppliers, and knitters.I sourced and developed yarns and stitches, effectively developing and leveraging yarns in different stitches/gauges for all categories. This work supported the Target team by working with yarn suppliers to negotiate discounts on large orders.

During her tenure at Target Corp., Heather designed Men's hats, head & hand, bags, belts, socks, and small leather goods and the strategies included merchandising by brand and an improved wear-now strategy. She put together trend direction, recieved sign off from the buyers and worked with accessories vendors to develop trend right & target appropriate product as well as oversaw 2-3 people who were assistants working on personally designed lines. Additionally, she collaborated with TSS and DM to create an executable realistic calendar and maintained calendar throughout process.She was also involved in driving the shift of C4 ’10 Head and Hand from vendor assist to internal design for all but 2 impressions in assortment. She was responsible for managing & coaching Assistant Designer and guiding her in internally designing a variety of wallets in both Mossimo and Merona, driving $14.8 million in sales. She successfully made the following achievements:Innovated head and hand category, delivering approx. $2.7M sales / 17% above previous yearSupported a Hatzone strategy which delivered sales $1M over plan and GM $300,000 over plan and resulted in a 50% decrease in space & a 29% reduction in average inventorySupported merchant strategies to right size belts that resulted in sales above plan, leading to a gross margin of $500,000Received merchant buy-in to internal design idea with no push back from buyersDesigned initiated the OPP bin strategy which resulted in a $3.6M pickup in sales & a 53% mature in OPP.Shifted vendor designed fashion socks in house and designed entire assortment resulting in a 2% mature for the category in December as well as increased sales dollar increases of 7% mature & sales unit mature of 63%

Created collections for men’s cut & sew and fully fashioned sweater knits.• Drove overall style and artwork direction for each season.• Planned long term strategies, business direction, and budgets.• Provided direction regarding edits, big ideas, and volume drivers.• Seasonal International travel for factory visits, fabric, yarn and trend research.Contributed to increased sales in sweaters and knits business.• Contributed to Merona’s approx. 40-45 million dollars in sales.• Knits and sweaters were approx. 90% of the top 15 sellers for season.• Thermal sales delivered approx. 16% over previous year.

Unique position of special projects designer. Heather would move to teams with urgent design needs to complete special projects if teams were building new categories, a team member was out on extended leave, or for unfilled positions. She was the first softlines designer of this position at Target. With the position a success, Target later rolled out a team of SWAT designers fulfilling similar rolls.Heather designed for a wide range of categories from accessories/handbags, infant/toddler, men's active, sweaters, and RTW sleepwear, often designing two vastly different categories within the same time frame.