Color Manager
| Company | GAP |
|---|---|
| Location | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| Salary | $Not Provided – $Not Provided |
| Type | Full-Time |
| Degrees | Bachelor’s |
| Experience Level | Senior, Expert or higher |
Requirements
- College Degree-BS/BA in Apparel/Product Design
- Must have a superior discrimination with the Farnsworth Munsell Color Hue Test
- Proficient in Color Evaluation Program & Spectrophotometer (iQc) & Natific ASAP Program a plus
- Proficient in Oracle Finance Program a plus
- Dynamic, team-oriented attitude; positive energy with an ability to take feedback
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, being able to juggle multiple seasons at one time
- Well-crafted communication and organizational skills; strong detail orientation, project management and prioritization skills
- Self-leadership skills with passion to mentor and coach junior Color Analysts
- Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop + InDesign, Microsoft applications
- 8+ years’ experience in fashion/product/color design; bachelor’s degree or higher
Responsibilities
- Color Palette Concept & Development
- Execute color trend research & analysis seasonally to inform color palette direction and development
- Own trend service facilitation by organizing presentations, ordering & storing trend service materials.
- Work closely with men’s and women’s LT to provide color direction, tears and monthly palette ideas during seasonal concept.
- Support palette color recommendations by issuing fabric dye stuff limitations surrounding colorfastness testing & metamerism in the developmental stage to avoid production issues
- Create brand appropriate, inclusive color names, assign PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) color #, and upload all colors for bill of material creation
- Create and organize seasonal palette information, color records to be accessible and retrievable for Designers, cross functional teams, Global International Sourcing Production teams, graphic screen-printing vendors, and materials vendors/mills
- Create & distribute seasonal design tool color palettes for Design, Merchandising, Marketing and Visual teams for key dates (Ideation, Alignment, Adoption)
- Order physical color standards for seasonal color evaluation (Global sourcing Color Teams, Brand Color) and for cross functional seasonal color reference tools
- Manage and create purchase orders in finance program to initiate ordering of color libraries, color standards and design tools for seasonal color palettes
- Work closely with our certified color service providers (CSI, Coloro & Pantone) to achieve custom color standard development, fabric & dye limitation direction, organization, and vendor/mill/supplier distribution; as well as distributing the non-certified color standards (physical and electronic color standards) to GIS colorists and vendors/mills when needed
- Provide collaboration, color support, technical expertise for special projects/ collaborations
- Oversee & Manage lab dip/ production color evaluations
- Provide technical support for the lab dip and production evaluations using spectral/visual data for color accuracy, cross color fabrications, color execution and providing feedback to mills/vendors within development timelines
- Work closely with GIS colorists, mills & cross functional partners to assist in color re-formulation
- Review lab dips & bulk across BR & BRFS men’s and women’s categories including: TSD, outerwear, knits, sweaters, suiting, pants and shirting.
- Work closely with our X-Rite partners for spectrophotometer & lightbox maintenance.
- Provide color recommendations involving: Shade band approvals for garment shipments, Color recommendations for materials including trims for standard matching, Thread matches for seasonal color standards, BR Timeless Classics heathers & cashmeres, Pantone # (PMS) matches for seasonal color standards for labels, paper goods, accessories when needed.
- Manage & maintain physical & digital color libraries
- Manage physical & digital master color libraries containing over 3,000 color standards of various materials and substrates.
- Manage the ordering and inventory of color library, working carefully to control metrology in the storage of materials.
- Ensure that the library is well maintained with regular upkeep, cross referencing PLM information and discarding any outdated, worn, or damaged standards.
Preferred Qualifications
- Proficient in Color Evaluation Program & Spectrophotometer (iQc) & Natific ASAP Program a plus
- Proficient in Oracle Finance Program a plus