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Join our family-owned team in Mission Viejo!
Apparel Production & Design Associate
We’re hiring for two positions!
The Shirt Cannery is located in Mission Viejo, CA. We are a family owned business that has served the greater Orange County area for 50 years. We offer custom apparel printing and embroidery services. We also do custom rhinestone lettering and athletic teams names and numbers.
We’re looking for someone with hands-on apparel printing or graphic design experience who is comfortable working directly with customers and moving quickly between design, production, and order management.
This is a hands-on position. You may be preparing artwork in CorelDRAW one moment, helping a customer select garments the next, and then producing their order using a heat press, vinyl cutter, DTF printer, or other equipment.
What You'll Do
- Work directly with customers to discuss their ideas, artwork, garments, quantities, deadlines, and production options
- Create quotes and help customers select appropriate garments and embellishment methods
- Prepare, edit, resize, and clean up customer artwork for production
- Set up files for heat transfer vinyl (HTV), DTF printing, vinyl cutting, stickers, and other production methods
- Operate heat presses, vinyl cutters, printers, embroidery equipment, and related production machinery
- Apply graphics and transfers accurately to shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and other products
- Inspect finished products for placement, color, print quality, and overall consistency
- Manage multiple customer orders while meeting daily production deadlines
- Keep artwork, order information, and production files organized
- Maintain a clean and organized production workspace
- Assist with general retail responsibilities, including customer service and checkout
We're Looking For
Applicants should be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment where attention to detail and time management are crucial.
Strong candidates will have experience with one or more of the following:
- Heat transfer vinyl / HTV
- DTF or other apparel printing methods
- Embroidery production
- Vinyl cutting and weeding
- Heat press operation
- Print or sign production
- Custom apparel production
- Graphic design or production artwork
Design Software Experience
Previous experience with graphic design software is strongly preferred. You should be comfortable working with vector and raster artwork and making basic production ready edits without extensive software training.
Experience with the following is especially valuable:
- CorelDRAW
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
You should understand basic concepts such as:
- Vector vs. raster artwork
- Resizing and positioning graphics
- Working with text and fonts
- Converting or outlining artwork when necessary
- Removing backgrounds and making basic image adjustments
- Preparing clean artwork for printing, cutting, or embroidery
Experience with CorelDRAW is especially helpful, as it is a major part of our existing production workflow.
Customer Service
This is not strictly a back-of-house production position. You will regularly work directly with customers to turn their ideas into finished products.
Strong communication skills, patience, professionalism, and the ability to explain production options clearly are important.
Because many of our orders have short turnaround times, you should also be comfortable setting expectations, organizing priorities, and working efficiently under deadlines.
Apply Now
Interested? Fill out the form below, or stop by the store to introduce yourself. Questions? Call us at 949-768-4102.