Overview
Christmas & Hard Goods Accessories Designer – 18 Month Fixed Term Contract Jobs in Leicester, England, United Kingdom at Next
Job Description
Working Pattern: Typically 3 days in the office, with core hours flexible between 8am-6pm.
The Role
As a Christmas Decorations & Hard Goods Accessories Designer, you will bring creative flair to both our magical festive seasons and our year-round home collections. This unique 18-month fixed-term contract is split into two exciting phases:
- The First 6 Months: You will dive straight into the festive season, acting as the creative architect behind our Christmas collections. You’ll translate global winter trends into commercial, high-quality products spanning ornate baubles, majestic trees, wreaths, garlands, and room decorations.
- The Remaining 12 Months: Your focus will transition away from Christmas as you pivot into designing our core, year-round hard goods and home accessories, shaping the everyday aesthetic of the Next Home range.
Working as a key part of our critical path, you will push the boundaries of seasonal and everyday decor, creating innovative designs that captivate our customers. You will work closely with our wider Home design team, buying, and merchandising partners, receiving full support from our Lead Designers to help you hit the ground running.
What You’ll Take On
- Dual-Phase Design: Spend the first 6 months creating original, trend-led designs for Christmas decorations, baubles, and festive foliage, before transitioning into developing core, year-round hard goods and home accessories.
- Trend Translation: Interpret both global festive trends and everyday interior lifestyle trends into tangible products, ensuring a balanced mix of contemporary and timeless styles.
- Technical Design: Produce detailed CAD work and technical specifications for both decorative items and hard goods to ensure designs are production-ready and meet Next’s quality standards.
- Collaboration: Partner with the Buying, Merchandising & Technology teams across both product phases to ensure designs are cost-effective, commercially viable, and hit critical path deadlines.
- Product Development: Oversee the journey of products from initial sketch to final sample, maintaining the "Next" level of detail and quality throughout the entire 18-month contract.
What You’ll Bring
- Versatile Creative Flair: A strong eye for aesthetics, form, colour, and texture, with the ability to design across multiple categories and materials (glass, ceramics, metal, wood, foliage, etc.).
- Technical Proficiency: Advanced skills in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop/Illustrator) for creating high-quality CADs and tech packs.
- Adaptability & Agility: The ability to seamlessly transition from the fast-paced Christmas critical path into the broader, year-round hard goods development calendar.
- Commercial Awareness: A grounded understanding of the Next Home customer and what makes both a festive decoration and an everyday home accessory a "must-have."
- Organisation: Strong time management skills to handle multiple projects and shifting product priorities over the 18-month period.
Portfolios
To help us get a feel for your style, please attach a digital portfolio to your application. We are looking for work that demonstrates a sharp eye for the future of XXX , how your ideas can be commercially viable for NEXT, and showcases your direct design and CAD work. To help you put your best foot forward, we’ve put together a few top tips on what makes a portfolio stand out to our team.
Applications without a portfolio will not be considered.
Sponsorship
Candidates wishing to apply who would require sponsorship for this role will be required to meet the Home Office sponsorship requirements. For further information please see: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa .
At NEXT, we believe the best work happens when there are no barriers to collaboration. That’s why we are a Google-powered workspace. From your very first day, you’ll be using the full Google Workspace suite; Docs, Drive, and Meet, to stay connected and move fast. If your previous experience is rooted in other software suites, don’t worry! We’ll point you to a digital Google toolkit the moment you join, packed with handy guides and insider tips to help you transition smoothly and hit the ground running.
We encourage early applications for our roles, as our recruitment process begins as soon as the role is advertised. If we successfully fill the position, this advert may close earlier than planned.
About Us
You know Next, but did you know we’re a FTSE-100 retail company employing over 44,000 people across the Next group. We’re the UK’s 2nd largest fashion retailer and for Kidswear we’re the market leader. At the last count we have over 450 stores, plus the Next Online and it’s now possible to buy on-line from over 80 countries around the world! So we’ve gone global!
About The Team
- 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
- Profit-related bonus – based on company performance
- Private medical insurance
- Sharesave scheme – make savings from your net pay to buy NEXT shares at a discount
- Pension – fixed contribution rates from both an employer and employee perspective, but you're also able to make additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) if you wish to save more.
- Life assurance
- Group income protection
- Wagestream – helping you make the most out of your money
- Salary finance – offers access to affordable loans repaid through salary, simple savings and free financial education.
- 25% staff discount on most NEXT products – plus discount on other products
- Direct to work – NEXT orders delivered free to the office for collection
- VIP sale – early access to the NEXT sale
- Access to NEXT staff shops
- Octopus energy – like cycle-to-work, but for electric vehicles
- Free parking (excluding London locations)
- Travel2NEXT – bus services dependent on location
- On site dining facilities (excluding London locations)
- National and local discounts on goods and services – this includes things like discounted cinema tickets
- Wellhub – includes access to discounted gym membership
- Simply health – a healthcare subscription service
- Aviva Digicare Workplace+ healthcare service – 7 Free services including Digital GP appointments and an annual health check.
- Onsite GP – Leicester Head Office
- Onsite Physio – Leicester Head Office
- A range of dedicated 3rd party wellbeing partners
- Free eye testing – voucher to use at specific locations
Conditions apply to all benefits. These benefits are discretionary and subject to change.
We aim to support all candidates during the application process and are happy to provide workplace adjustments when necessary. Should you need support with your application due to a disability or long-term condition, feel free to get in touch with us by email [email protected] (please include 'Workplace Adjustments' in the subject line), or call us on 0116 284 2486 and leave a voicemail.
Title: Christmas & Hard Goods Accessories Designer – 18 Month Fixed Term Contract
Company: Next
Location: Leicester, England, United Kingdom
Category:
