Home and Gift Design Lead

We are looking for a Design Lead to join the Home and Gift Design in our Support Office on a 12 month maternity cover contract.

Leading the product design and development and creating innovative ranges that bring the OB vision to life, you will shape fresh design concepts and work with the wider team to execute designs that deliver distinctive, trend-led products and move OB forward as a design-led retailer. Leading home and gift categories including tabletop, textiles, home accessories, furniture, lighting, bath & body, travel accessories and stationery, you will bring strong design judgement, proven team leadership, and confidence with print and colour.

This is a fast-paced, creative role that calls for strong self-awareness, excellent organisation, and the ability to influence and inspire others.

You will collaborate closely with Founder Olly, alongside the design, buying and merchandising teams, to develop ideas and products that are aligned with the brand and customer.

Our Support Office is based in Tolworth, near Chessington, only a 30-minute journey from London Waterloo. We offer hybrid working with a split of 3 days in the office and 2 days home working per week.

At Oliver Bonas (OB), our values of Work Hard, Play Hard & Be Kind are integral to everything we do. Collaboration, imagination, curiosity, and teamwork are key to our success, and everyone has their part to play in making OB a special place to work.

Having fun is key, and a playful and positive approach creates an optimistic environment. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are serious about what we do.

Our team knows their stuff. They’re confident and creative and unafraid to challenge convention to find solutions, taking accountability for their actions, but always with kindness and humility.

• Collaborate with Olly to ensure the OB vision is translated into design concepts
• Drive the design vision and thinking across the Home & Gift department
• Identify lifestyle trends and put forward and execute new product opportunities for the brand
• Develop a key understanding and affinity with the OB core customer
• Collaborate with wider design team to develop and decide on the design concept for the season
• Have a visual overview of the whole H&G designs and deliver visually balanced design ranges to keep it evolving
• Set the design tone for H&G with seasonal design concept and trends for different home & gift areas. Support the visual ideas with research on lifestyle trends
• Partner with the Head of Buying to deliver commercial and design-led ranges that maximise sales and strengthen OB’s design identity
• Lead the design and development of cohesive multi-product collections across the home and gift categories
• Demonstrate strong expertise in manufacturing processes and procedures, with the ability to rapidly build effective relationships and gain a comprehensive understanding of OB's supplier base. Committed to working with the design team to continuously improve and ensure the successful delivery of high-quality products that support key business objectives
• Work with marketing team to create design content for social media

• Work closely with our supply base to understand and develop capability
• Have extensive product development and technical material knowledge to support design development across the different categories
• Communicate with suppliers on design developments, materials and understand value engineering of products
• Work with the QA team to understand technical requirements and to ensure they are met at the design stage
• Coordinate and communicate seasonal design concept and trends with the buying team and the wider design team to ensure all…