Surface Pattern Designer – Home & Lifestyle

About Profile

We’re looking for a Surface Pattern Designer with a strong product sensibility to join our product development team.

This role sits at the intersection of art, pattern, colour, material and product. We’re looking for someone who can create original surface designs and think about how those designs translate into beautiful, commercially relevant products for the home.

What you’ll do

• Develop original prints, patterns, illustrations, motifs and surface treatments across product categories.
• Build seasonal collections through strong colour stories, themes and design languages.
• Translate artwork into production-ready designs for products such as cushions, table linen, bedding, soft furnishings, wallpapers, accessories and other home categories.
• Create repeats, placements, colourways and production-ready artwork.
• Work closely with sourcing and vendors to take a product from concept → sampling → corrections → final production.
• Research global and Indian trends across interiors, fashion, textiles, art and lifestyle.
• Develop moodboards, collection concepts and product stories.
• Experiment with techniques including print, embroidery, weaving, texture, appliqué and other surface applications.
• Participate in sampling and ensure that the final physical product retains the intent and quality of the original design.
• Contribute beyond surface design to broader product development, packaging, materials and collection building.

We’re looking for

• Strong background in Surface Pattern Design / Textile Design / Print Design / Lifestyle Product Design.
• Excellent understanding of colour, composition, pattern, scale and materiality.
• Strong Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop skills.
• Ability to create technically accurate, production-ready artwork.
• Textile/home product development experience is strongly preferred.
• Experience working directly with manufacturers, printers, embroiderers or artisan/vendor networks is a major advantage.
• Someone who understands the difference between creating a beautiful graphic and creating a beautiful product people actually want to buy.
• Curious, experimental and extremely detail-oriented.
• Strong visual awareness of contemporary global design.

The person we’re really looking for

You should be someone who notices a print on an old tile, a strange colour combination on the street, an embroidery technique in a vintage textile or an illustration in a book—and immediately wonders:

“What could we make out of this?”

We don’t want someone who only executes briefs.

We want someone who can observe, interpret, design and turn ideas into products.

Experience & Technical Requirements

Experience: 3–5 years

Location: Mumbai

Employment: Full-time, in-office

Industry preference: Home & lifestyle / home textiles / furnishing / fashion textiles / product design / export houses

Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Textile Design, Surface Design, Communication Design, Product Design or a related design discipline.
• Graduates from design institutes preferred, but portfolio and demonstrated product ability will take precedence over institute.

Core Technical Skills

Surface & Print Design

• Strong understanding of surface pattern design, print development and repeat creation.
• Ability to create seamless repeats, engineered/placement prints and standalone motifs.
• Strong understanding of scale, proportion, composition and colour.
• Ability to develop multiple colourways and create cohesive collection palettes.
• Understanding of print techniques such as screen printing, digital printing, block printing and sublimation, where relevant.
• Knowledge of embroidery, appliqué, jacquard/weaving and other surface-development techniques is an advantage.

Software

• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Illustrator.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Photoshop.
• Comfortable preparing production-ready artwork, repeats, colour separations and specifications.
• Procreate / hand illustration skills are an advantage.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted design and visualisation tools is a plus.

Product Development

• Prior experience taking a product through the complete development cycle:

Research → Concept → Artwork → Material Selection → Vendor Brief → Sampling → Corrections → Costing → Production

• Experience developing products within categories such as cushions, table linen, bedding, soft furnishings, rugs, wallpapers, fabric, accessories and home décor preferred.
• Ability to prepare clear tech packs / specification sheets / artwork files for vendors.
• Understanding of fabric qualities, GSM, construction, trims, finishes and basic textile terminology.
• Comfortable reviewing strike-offs, lab dips, embroidery samples and production samples.
• Ability to identify and correct differences between the approved artwork and physical sample.

Commercial Product Thinking

The candidate should understand that this is not purely an artwork creation role.

They should be able to consider:

• Target customer
• Product category
• Selling price
• Material and production limitations
• Colour trends
• Collection architecture
• SKU development
• Production feasibility
• Cost implications
• Commercial viability

Vendor & Sampling Experience

Preferred candidates will have worked directly with:

• Printers
• Embroidery units
• Textile manufacturers
• Fabric suppliers
• Export houses
• Artisan clusters
• Home furnishing manufacturers

They should be comfortable communicating corrections directly to vendors and following a product until the final production sample is approved.

Portfolio Requirement

Portfolio is mandatory.

The portfolio should ideally demonstrate:

• Original surface-pattern work
• Repeat development
• Colourways
• Print/illustration development
• Collection building
• Physical products developed from the candidate’s artwork
• Sampling/process work
• At least one project showing the journey from initial inspiration to finished product

Ideal Candidate Profile

3–5 years of relevant professional experience, ideally with at least 2 years of hands-on product development exposure.

We are particularly interested in candidates who have worked with home furnishing brands, lifestyle brands, textile studios, export houses or design-led consumer brands.

The strongest candidate will combine three abilities:

A designer’s eye + a product developer’s practicality + a merchant’s understanding of what will sell.