Graphic Designer interview questions and answers
This Graphic Designer interview profile brings together a snapshot of what to look for in candidates with a balanced sample of suitable interview questions.
Graphic Designer Interview Questions
What you’re looking for in an in-house Graphic Designer will depend on your establishment. Will they be working in-house or will they be working at a creative agency? The difference is that the former will work for one brand exclusively, and the latter will need to adapt their work to a broad range of clients. The following interview questions address both scenarios.
For this role, wherever they will be working, it’s critical to review portfolios beforehand and interview candidates whose work closely matches what you’re trying to achieve with your visual branding. Outstanding candidates will curate relevant work samples and display them, either in print or on a mobile device, at their interviews. Use their portfolios as conversation starters. Ask them about what resources they were given to begin a project, and how they worked with other members of the team to complete it.
Interviews are also a great opportunity to learn about your candidates’ soft skills. How well do they take feedback? How comfortable are they with presenting their work to management and stakeholders? All of this is valuable information that you can use to hire the right designer for your team.
Operational questions
For an agency designer
- How would you rate yourself on producing appropriate work for a broad range of clients?
- This is a fast-paced environment. How comfortable are you with short deadlines and new trends?
- Describe your experience with presenting your work to clients.
- Have you ever represented your agency at a client meeting? How did you handle it?
For an in-house designer
- How has the brand you most recently worked with evolved over time? What part did you play in that?
- How do you sustain long-term interest in designing for one brand?
- How do you adapt a brand for different audiences?
- How much experience do you have with presenting work to key stakeholders?
- How would you learn about our brand during your first week at work?
Portfolio questions
- What was your role on this project?
- How much time did you have to create this piece?
- How did you work with other members of your team?
- Tell us about a favorite piece of work in your portfolio.
- Where did you start on this project? What images, copy, or guidelines were you given to begin?
- Talk about one of your more successful design projects. What kind of results did it achieve, and how do you define a success?
Role-specific questions
- As a graphic designer, whose work do you admire? Who are your design heroes?
- How do you stay updated on the latest tools and trends?
- Who would be your ideal brand or client to work on, and why?
- Describe the structure of your current/previous team. Who did you work with on a regular basis? What did they do?
- How do you prepare to present your work to clients or stakeholders?
- What do you do when clients or stakeholders give you negative feedback?
- How do you start a project? How do you know when it is finished?
- What do you do when you hit a creative block? Talk about a design challenge you encountered and how you overcame. it.
- What type of design work do you enjoy the most; print or digital? How do you find transitioning between the two?
- How do you prepare your work for production? (e.g. Prep work for print or for front end development)
- What do you do when you’re running out of time on a project?
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