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Australian currently living in the Los Angeles area and looking for employment in the action sports area.  I have over 10 years experience in the fashion industry in the areas of creative direction, apparel design, merchandising and product development.  

Over the past six months as Creative Director at Insight USA I have been responsible for leading the team in the design and product development of seasonal ranges as well as driving the direction of sales and marketing assets.  

For 10 years prior to my time at Insight I was one of the brand founders and the Creative Director/Apparel Designer at Vanguard and was responsible for building an internationally recognised Australian lifestyle brand and the product design and development of over 5,000 unique styles across 30 seasonal ranges + SMU products.

As creative director, I was responsible for the aesthetic and directon of product
and content that defines the Insight 51 brand.
Role & Responsibilities:
• Identifying new trends and creating mood boards for seasonal ranges.
• Concepting photo shoots for seasonal lookbooks and campaigns.
• Identifying and liasing with team riders, key influencers and photographers/
videographers that fit with the Insight brand
• Creative direction of the marketing content and assets to be used across
the digital and physical platforms
• Concepting, Planning and Designing wholesales seasonal collections.
• Briefing graphic artists for yardage and placement prints.
• Briefing and designing trims packages for seasonal ranges.
• Designing mens apparel across all product categories.
• Liasing with Insight womens designer to realise a consistent brand story
across both departments.
• Implementing online marketing strategy across scoial media platforms
including instragram and facebook.

Creative Director

Brand Founder
As founder of the company I was exposed to the various responsabilities of a
director including setting up company structures & IP, finances, managing staff
and office expansions.
Role & Responsibilities:
• Concepting Vanguard IP including brand name, logo and wordmark
• Setting up company structure across Australia and USA
• Setting up and opening company headquarters in Brisbane, QLD in 2006
• Relocating company headquarters to Burleigh Heads, QLD in 2012
• Hiring and managing of graphic designers, sales reps and interns
• Overseeing the expansion into export markets including setting up offices
in Indonesia in 2010 and USA in 2012.

Creative Director
As creative director, I was responsible for the entire aesthetic and directon of
all product and content that defined the Vanguard brand.
Role & Responsibilities:
• Concepting & maintaining a consistent overall brand image and direction.
• Concepting & copy writing both brand & campaign language, slogans and
tag lines for product and content.
• Identifying new trends and creating mood boards for seasonal ranges.
• Concepting photo shoots for seasonal lookbooks and campaigns.
• Identifying and liasing with team riders, key influencers and photographers/
videographers that fit with the Vanguard brand
• Creative direction of the

Head Designer
As head designer my role was to design marketable, cohesive and price
pointed seasonal and SMU products across all branded categories. I was
responsible for adhering to agreed budgets, plans and timelines whilst liasing
with designers, technicians and suppliers to achieve this.
Role & Responsibilities:
• Concepting, Planning and Designing wholesales seasonal collections.
• Working with key retailers on designing men’s & women’s SMU products.
• Working to allocated budgets and target SKU costings.
• Working to timelines across sampling and production.
• Sourcing and liasing with manufacturers in Australia, USA, Indonesia,
China, India and Bangladesh.
• Sourcing and testing fabrications, washes and print techniques.
• Briefing graphic artists for yardage and placement prints.
• Briefing and designing trims packages for seasonal ranges.
• Concepting over 30 seasonal ranges.
• Designing over 5,000 unique styles.
• Designing mens apparel across all product categories.
• Designing womens apparel across numerous categories.

Apparel Designer
During my time with Vanguard I have developed thousands of products that
have been designed, teched, sampled and bulk produced with numerous
overseas and domestic suppliers. I have been responsible for the documentation
and correct delivery of these on a daily basis.
Role & Responsibilities:
• Drawing technical garment sketches in Illustrator
• Designing basic vector graphics in Illustrator
• Creating rendered CAD drawings in Photoshop
• Creating seasonal and SMU range documents
• Creating detailed garment tech packs using Clearstream fashion management
System
• Sending tech packs to suppliers for manufacture
• Checking proto samples
• Making comments for changes to fit, fabrication, wash and make quality
• Making production changes
• Checking PP samples against spec

Brand Founder / Creative Director / Apparel Designer

Find out detailed information about Sam Cottee,  in Los Angeles, CA

Sam Cottee: in Los Angeles, CA

Sam Cottee

Insight 51

Vanguard

Queensland University of Technology