During the summer before my senior year, I had the opportunity to intern at one of my favorite brands, L.L. Bean. I served as a Design Intern in the Product Creation Department, where I was immersed in the design process and gained firsthand exposure to how ideas move from concept to finished product. This experience allowed me to learn from talented designers and cross-functional teams while building a deeper understanding of the brand, its values, and the role of thoughtful design within a heritage outdoor company.

During my internship at L.L.Bean, I supported the product creation team across men’s and women’s categories, contributing to FW26 and SS27 development through trend research, color palette and yarn-dye development, CADs in Illustrator and CLO, and accessories design. I worked closely with design, merchandising, and product development teams to prepare presentation decks, spec sheets, and line review materials, participated in fittings and internal reviews, and presented final concepts to cross-functional teams. This experience strengthened my ability to translate brand heritage into a commercially viable, design-driven product.

Some of the technology I worked with:

Throughout my internship at L.L.Bean, I worked across multiple industry-standard design and product development platforms. I used Adobe Illustrator to create technical flats, color callouts, and CADs; CLO 3D to build and visualize garments in a 3D environment; Adobe Photoshop for image editing, concept development, and presentation refinement; and Adobe InDesign to assemble polished decks and line review materials. I also gained hands-on experience with FlexPLM, using it to organize assets, manage design references, and support cross-functional collaboration throughout the product creation process.