Michael Zaleta
Hard Goods Designer · Loyal Souls
Branford, CT
In My Own Words
Creative and hardworking Industrial Designer with 6+ years experience building a career in a variety of roles and industries in the design world that has a passion for designing new and innovative solutions for today’s design problems. Positive team player and influencer who has a great passion for sports, footwear, hats, watches, travel bags, backpacks, outdoor gear and consumer products.
Work Experience
Owner and Founder
Loyal Souls2012 – Present
Loyal Souls: Faithful to the cause of the immaterial essence of the Brand.
• Design and Create all artwork and graphics for Production of t-shirts and all apparel. • Manage all social media aspects of the Brand, Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram and website. • Sales and Marketing and promotional work for the Brand, creating events and news updates.
The mantra behind Loyal Souls is “Loyalty to the Brand”, basically meaning completely loyal to the company and the name in which all of it stands for. Being true, loyal, innovative and inspiring to the fashion world and what it has become in the culture of the so called street-wear / urban fashion movement.
Hard Goods Designer
Eastern Mountain Sports2016 – Present
• Manage the design and development of Day packs, Backpacks, Travel Gear,Hydration Packs, Tents and Sleeping Bags, Gloves and camping accessories. • Develop a new tech spec system to streamline process of working with our overseas vendors to improve production. • Evaluate and apply current & future market trends, consumer activities, materials, color and trim design techniques across multiple product categories including Backpacks, Travel Gear, Tents and Sleeping Bags
Lead Product Designer - Armitron Men's & Women's
E. Gluck2016 – 2016
• Create seasonal inspiration, trend boards, color palettes and product direction aligning with brand guidelines. • Manage the design and development for sport and dress product catergories of Men’s and Women’s watches • Overseas travel to Hong Kong to work with vendors and factories on product dvelopment of watches.
Product and Graphic Designer
E Gluck2014 – 2016
• Responsible for all design and development of watches from concept sketch to CAD spec and sample review. • Design and develop product catalogs, Point of Purchase displays, in store graphics and product displays. • Create trend boards for seasonal inspiration and color direction aligning with Brand guidelines. • Designed and created a custom watch display and packaging system for Quiksilver and Roxy watches.
Soft-goods/ Hard-goods Designer
Fabrique2012 – 2014
• Designed soft goods products ranging from bags to sleeves, backpacks, briefcases,iPad and tablet cases and other cut & sew accessories for brands such as HP, Belkin, Ingram V7, Logitech, Dell, Kensington, Acer, Defibtech. • Manage projects from development to conducting sample reviews, and develop CMF for mass production products. • Work and correspond closely with engineers & sourcing team overseas to work through the production process. • Traveled overseas to work with sourcing team and factories on product development to oversee production process. • Create client presentations for concept projects and present to clients for review.
Industrial Designer
Innovative Display & Design2011 – 2012
- Design and engineer 3-Dimensional Exhibits and Displays for Tradeshows, Marketing Environments and Events worldwide. - Designing and conceptualize exhibits for clients specifications from ideas and develop them into finished high quality exhibits and displays. - Create artwork for graphics and banners for displays, logos and custom signs.
Product Development and Design
Turf Dawg USA2009 – 2011
- Designed custom turf dawgs/ sports gaiters, graphic design with logos, colors, and graphics. - Marketing and Promotional Designs: Event banners and posters, marketing postcards and handouts. - Responsible for all event media relations from marketing materials and advertisement production, and photography. - Managing web content for website updates, twitter, facebook and blog. - Designed Marketing email newsletters. Sell sheets and product packaging cards. - Managed business and product design inquires with clients and potential distributors and retailers. - Research and Development: product testing and engineering, interacting with consumers. - Manufacturing of product first hand: over-seeing product being produced. - Sales and marketing: Consulting with coaches and equipment managers.
