Profession leather goods designer

Leather goods designers are in charge of the creative process of leather goods. They perform fashion trends analysis, accompany market researches and forecast needs, plan and develop collections, create concepts and build the collection lines. They additionally conduct the sampling, create prototypes or samples for presentation and promote concepts and collections. During the collection development, they define the mood and the concept board, the colour palettes, the materials, produce drawings and sketches. Leather goods designers identify the range of materials and components and define the design specifications. They collaborate with the technical team.

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Personality Type

• Artistic / Enterprising

Knowledge

• Leather goods materials

  The wide range of materials used in leather goods production: leather, leather substitutes (synthetics or artificial materials), textile, etc; the way of distinguishing among various materials based on their properties, advantages and limitations.

• Footwear and leather goods marketing planning

  The principles and methods used in creating a marketing plan and how a company can best position itself compared to its competitors, taking into account the specifities of the footwear and leather goods market. 

• Footwear creation process

  Footwear creation projects starting from inspiration to technical design and manufacturing by following several stages. Latest trends in footwear materials, components, processes, and concepts.

• Leather goods manufacturing processes

  The processes, technology and machinery involved in the leather goods manufacturing.  

• Ergonomics in footwear and leather goods design

  The principles used in the design of various styles of footwear and leather goods for the correct anatomic and ergonomic proportions and measurements.

• Leather goods quality

  The quality specifications of materials, processes, and final products, the most common defects in leather, quick tests procedures, laboratory tests procedures and standards, and the adequate equipment for quality checks. 

• Leather goods components

  The various procedures and methods in the processing of leather materials and leather goods components like manufacturability and properties.  

Skills

• Implement footwear marketing plan

  Implement marketing plans according to company specifications, complying with market demand.

• Apply development process to footwear design

  Understand the needs of the consumer and analyse the fashion trends. Innovate and develop the footwear concepts from an aesthetic, functional and technological point of view by using a wide range of methods and techniques, selecting materials, components and suitable technologies, adapting new concepts to manufacturing requirements and transforming the new ideas into marketable and sustainable products for mass or customised production. Communicate visually the new designs and ideas.

• Use communication techniques

  Apply techniques of communication which allow interlocutors to better understand each other and communicate accurately in the transmission of messages.

• Sketch leather goods

  Be able to use various sketching and drawing techniques, including artistic representation, by hand or by computer, being aware of proportion and perspective, to sketch and draw leather goods in an accurate manner, both as 2D flat designs or as 3D volumes. Be able to prepare specification sheets with details of materials, components and manufacturing requirements.

• Apply fashion trends to footwear and leather goods

  Be able to stay up to date on the latest styles, attending fashion shows and review fashion/clothing magazines and manuals, analysing the past and present fashion trends in areas such as footwear, leather goods and clothing market. Use analytical thinking and creative models to apply and to interpret in a systematic way the upcoming trends in terms of fashion and life styles.

• Communicate commercial and technical issues in foreign languages

  Speak one or more foreign languages in order to communicate commercial and technical issues with various suppliers and clients.

• Use IT tools

  Application of computers, computer networks and other information technologies and equipment to storing, retrieving, transmitting and manipulating data, in the context of a business or enterprise.

• Create mood boards

  Create mood boards for fashion or interior design collections, gathering different sources of inspirations, sensations, trends, and textures, discussing with the people involved in the project to make sure that the shape, design, colours, and the global genre of the collections fit the order or the related artistic project.

• Develop leather goods collection

  Transform leather goods design ideas and concepts into prototypes and, finally, a collection. Analyse and check the designs from various angles like functionality, aesthetics, performance and manufacturability. Manage the development process of all the leather goods prototypes in order to meet the customer’s needs and to properly balance quality with production costs.

• Practice innovative thinking in the footwear and leather goods industries

  Innovate and create in the footwear and leather goods sector. Evaluate new ideas and concepts to turn them into marketable products. Use entrepreneurial thinking in all stages of the product and process development to identify new business opportunities for the targeted markets.

• Develop footwear and leather goods marketing plans

  Be able to develop marketing plans and provide directions for marketing strategies of the company, as well as be able to identify potential markets and to perform marketing activities to promote the footwear products of the company.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB