Graphic Designer: Patterns & Publications

At GE Designs, we bring success, joy, and community to quilters through curated tools, fast fulfillment, and total support. Everything we sell, we designed. Gudrun Erla has been designing quilts for more than 20 years, and her work is rooted in the landscape and craft traditions of Iceland, where she is from.

We are headquartered in Chaska, MN with a warehouse, offices, and a creative studio on-site, and we operate on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).

At GE Designs, we bring success, joy, and community to quilters through curated tools, fast fulfillment, and total support. Everything we sell, we designed. Gudrun Erla has been designing quilts for more than 20 years, and her work is rooted in the landscape and craft traditions of Iceland, where she is from.

We are headquartered in Chaska, MN with a warehouse, offices, and a creative studio on-site, and we operate on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).

We are looking for a graphic designer to take on the print side of our business. Patterns, books, booklets, packaging, and the photography that goes with all of it.

Gudrun designs the quilt. You help turn it into something a quilter can buy, open, and follow. That means supporting Gudrun in writing and laying out patterns in InDesign, building the illustrations in Illustrator, photographing the finished quilt, designing the cover, and getting a clean file to the printer. You will do the same work for our books, our subscription booklets, and for the independent designers we publish.

Pace and flexibility are part of our core identity as a business. The product calendar is full, the print schedules need to be on-time, and priorities move when there is a better idea on the table. We want someone with drive and an entrepreneurial spirit who likes working that way.

• Support Gudrun in writing and laying out quilt patterns in InDesign, making sure every instruction is accurate and easy to follow
• Build quilt mock-ups and technical illustrations in Illustrator
• Design and lay out our books, subscription booklets, and special project titles
• Photograph finished quilts and products for covers, patterns, and books, then edit and retouch the images
• Design packaging, inserts, and print assets for new product launches
• Prep files for press. Bleed, color profiles, and talking to the printer are yours
• Proofread patterns and books before they go to print. Catching an error here saves a reprint and a lot of frustrated quilters
• Lay out patterns and reformat catalogs for the independent designers we publish, held to the same standard as our own work
• Keep our print work consistent and on brand

• 2 to 4 years of graphic design experience
• Real depth in Adobe InDesign, plus Illustrator and Photoshop
• Working knowledge of print production: bleed, color profiles, file prep
• Strong writing and proofreading
• Hands-on quilting knowledge. You quilt, or you have deep roots in the quilting/crafting community, and you understand construction and technique
• Highly organized, able to run several titles at once without dropping any
• Photography and photo editing skills
• A portfolio

• You work at pace and you have drive. This business moves quickly and you need to move with it
• You have an entrepreneurial spirit. You would rather build the thing than wait for permission to build the thing
• You're a self-starter who takes ownership and thrives in autonomy. You don't wait to be told what to do
• You care that it is right. A pattern with an error in it is a real problem for a real quilter at their machine
• You can move between creative work and detail work in the same day without losing either one
• You take feedback on your design work well, and you give it thoughtfully
• You're coachable, curious, and hungry to grow. You ask great questions and love learning

• You own the pattern queue. Patterns and publications go to press on the launch dates and nobody has to chase you for them
• Gudrun hands you a design and trusts that what comes back is ready
• Errors get caught before the press run, not after
• Our print work looks like it all came from one company
• You are a real part of the Creative Development team, in the room when we plan what is coming next for our business
• You like working in a fast, collaborative, flexible creative environment, and the team likes working with you