Gary Ashley

Industrial Designer/Developer specializing in soft goods, backpacks, travel accessories, luggage, and protective cases for consumer electronics. Clients include Case Logic, Spire, Infantino, Tenba, Classic Accessories, Skyline Bag Works, Brenthaven, Skyway, Ricardo Beverly Hills, Kirkland Signature, Stephanie Johnson, Greater Pacific, and various small start-up companies.

Provided design support to team of 4 designers. Generated concepts and prepared tech packs and spec sheets for sample manufacture for Skyway, Ricardo and Stephanie Johnson brands.

Managed and executed new product design and development of soft side luggage and travel accessories for Skyway, Ricardo, Kirkland Signature and Rick Steve’s brands.

Led design and development processes from project brief to final production including market and trend research, concepts and tech pack creation, color, material and trim direction and component development.

Led sample reviews with upper management team, made revisions accordingly.

Coached design intern on various projects.

Daily communication with developers and factories in China managing project timelines, material and component sourcing and addressing cost issues.

Frequent Asia travel working directly with development team, factories and suppliers to ensure new products and collections launched on time, on budget while fulfilling design brief objectives. Addressed manufacturing and quality issues as needed.

Led pre-production meetings with Asia team and factories.

Attended annual trade shows and visited relevant material markets.

Designed backpacks, luggage, soft goods and travel accessories for Skyway, Ricardo and Kirkland Signature brands. Included market and trend research, concept generation and tech pack creation for sample manufacture.

Responsibilities included design and development of bags and protective cases (soft & hard) for the mobile technology category. Main channels included retail, corporate and education and specialty channels including bike bags and camera bag collections.

Lead designer on multiple strategic retail product launches at Apple and Microsoft stores and education collection generating 35% of overall business.

Experience with trend/market research, concept generation, packaging design, creating presentation boards for sales team, group presentations and generating detailed technical packages for sample manufacture.

Extensive Asia travel to China and Vietnam working direct with multiple factories and suppliers to develop and manage projects, meet target deadlines and maintain price points and guidelines called out in design briefs.

Attended annual trade shows and visited relevant material markets.

Designed protective cases and bags for laptops and digital technology.

Provided market and trend research, concept generation, tech pack creation, sample reviews and revisions.

Designed new products with focus on laptop bags and protective cases for digital technology in retail (Apple), corporate, and education channels.

Executed market and trend research, concept generation, tech pack creation, sample reviews and revisions.

Managed product pipeline to ensure product launches were on time, on budget and met design brief guidelines.

Responsibilities included market, trend and color research, concept generation, preparing tech packs for sample manufacture, sample reviews and revisions.

Contract designer with focus on protective cases for camera, audio, video, laptop, and automotive accessory categories. Included several high-volume products successfully sold at Target and Wal-Mart retail stores.

Gained world-class experience in market and trend research, blue-sky ideation, product line building, color, materials, finish (CMF) selection, and creation of technical drawings for sample manufacture.

Successfully worked on multiple projects simultaneously under challenging deadline constraints.
Sewed product mockups to prove design intent and directed fabrication of in-house cut and sew samples.