Sonja Williams

 | 570-772-1175 | sonja.williams.2015@gmail.com|

Education

B.A. | KENT STATE UNIVERSITY

·   Major: Fashion Design

·   Minor: Marketing

·   Scholarships: Karen and Kenneth Connelly Award for Fashion Design, Trustee Scholarship, University Award

Skills & Abilities

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE

·   Throughout my collegiate and professional careers, I consistently use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to sketch all styles in development, create pattern fills, build line sheets by season and month, as well as create full scale artwork for tech packs. Additionally, using Adobe Illustrator, I create development and assortment cards for all accessories to send to the vendors. I have included examples of this in my portfolio.

MICROSOFT SUITE

·   In my professional career, I use Microsoft on a daily basis to send emails via outlook, messages/video calls via teams, and using excel to fill out product development charts. During the pandemic for easy editing, I switched to mostly using google drive which has also helped me to broaden my knowledge of this program.

PLM

  • While working in my design roles, I have been exposed to various versions of PLM, which I use on a daily basis. For sweaters, PLM is where I build out the tech packs, track samples, and send out yarn and color development. I have a strong comfortability using PLM, and have trained multiple freelancers with how to use it during my time at J. Crew. Additionally, during my time with Golden Touch Imports, I have been continuously using PLM to build out tech packs and communicate with the factories. With my experience, I have been able to provide feedback to the Tech Pack team to implement improvements and strategies.

 Experience

DESIGNER | G&W Kids | FEB. 2024 - PRESENT

  • While in this role I have been able to dip my toes into multiple brands and categories. I have worked on both girls and boys apparel from age ranges on infant-16 years old. I have been able to create trend boards, lead color development for the season, and develop into trends the buyers would like. My key categories include children’s swimwear, outerwear, sleepwear, as well as active. I am involved throughout the entire process of concept through production, which includes fitting, strike off approvals, and design updates. I have been able to increase the speed at which I work as well as maintaining organization while working on multiple categories.

ASSISTANT DESIGNER | J. CREW | JAN. 2021 - JAN. 2024

  • While in this role I have been able to sharpen my skills, and expand my knowledge of the sweater design process. I am fully involved in the process from concept to product development, working with our cross functional partners. During my time, I have assisted in training 3 different freelance coordinators to help with sample tracking, tech pack set up, creating sketch and photo libraries for products, and keeping track of all changes during fittings. Additionally, I created a chart to easily track any color/yarn development from season to season, giving visibility to our production and color lab teams. Additionally, I have taken on the design role for all girl’s accessories - including bags and backpacks, belts, shoes, socks, sunglasses, jewelry, hair, hats, and cold weather accessories.

FREELANCE COORDINATOR | AMERICAN EAGLE | NOV. 2020 - JAN. 2021

  • Assisted all women’s and men’s departments in organizational duties. I helped track packages and create photo libraries of all products as well as organized them by department, season, and fit. During this time, I also prepped for the quarterly design x merchandising meeting to ensure the showroom had every product from denim to swim, and everything in between, for both men’s and women’s in the correct order, labeled, and hung for the Pittsburgh and NYC team members.

ASSISTANT DESIGNER | ADPL | SEPTEMBER 2020 - NOVEMBER 2020

  • Assistant Woven’s designer for Preston and York. Created new developments to send to factories, sketched CADs via Adobe Illustrator, approved proto samples to SRS, worked cross functionally with production, sales, and tech departments.

ASSISTANT SWEATER DESIGNER | TOMMY HILFIGER/GIII | JUNE 2019 – JULY 2020

  • Worked with Tommy Hilfiger sweaters team to design sweaters from concept to production. I helped with three labels: Blue Label, White Label, and Tommy Jeans. Worked on CAD sketches, stripe layouts/artwork, PLM, attended fittings, developed trims, ordered all yarn and approved lab dips, trend research, color cards, tech packs.

MARKETING ASSISTANT | UNIVERSITY OAKS APARTMENTS | OCTOBER 2018 – JUNE 2019

·   Organized social gatherings, lead on campus marketing events, scheduled and gave tours, designed flyers

FASHION DESIGN INTERN | LANE BRYANT | JUNE 2018 – AUGUST 2018

·   Interned with the Lane Bryant Design Team in New York City. While at my internship, I worked with the Trend Forecasting team, the Fabrics team, and the Lane Bryant Outlet Design team.