Best Graphic Design Interview Questions To Ask A Candidate

When recruiting for a graphic design position, the interview process extends beyond an applicant's technical skills and work history. How a candidate thinks about design, understands client needs, communicates with teams, handles feedback, and themselves creatively should also be evaluated in the recruitment process. These aspects are often covered by asking targeted graphic design interview questions.

This article offers you a comprehensive guide on top graphic design interview questions to evaluate the cognitive abilities, personalities, soft and hard skills of your potential hires while limiting potential bias to predict job success.

Technical Skills and Knowledge Questions

1. What software tools do you work with?

Identify the candidate's proficiency with standard graphic design tools like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc. Technical skills are critical as advanced tools help expedite the design process, providing an efficient workflow.

2. How do you stay updated with new graphic design trends and tools?

Get insight into how proactive candidates are in keeping abreast with trends, evolving their skills, and learning about novel tools. Continuous learning reinforces a candidate's commitment to the industry.

3. Can you walk me through your portfolio and explain the thought process behind some of your best design projects?

This question allows the candidate to showcase their best work and demonstrate their design thinking and problem-solving skills.

Creative Ability and Design Thinking

4. Can you talk about some of your favorite design projects and why?

Explore the candidate's passion, their specific areas of interest, and what motivates and excites them about a project. It helps gauge their creative abilities and influences in their work.

5. How do you handle creative blocks?

Everyone experiences creative blocks at times. The ability to move past these with resilience and continue producing high-quality work highlights a candidate's mental and emotional resilience.

6. Describe an instance where you faced a design challenge and how you addressed it.

It helps gauge a candidate's problem-solving skills and allows you to assess past behavior as an indicator of future behavior, reinforcing the theory behind Behavioral Event Interviewing.

7. Can you share an example of a project where you had to work within specific brand guidelines?

This question helps evaluate the candidate's ability to work within established brand guidelines while still infusing their own creativity into the design process.

Communication and Interpersonal Skills

8. How do you handle feedback on your work?

Gauge the candidate's ability to accept feedback and use it to improve their work. Openness to constructive criticism is important for growth and development.

9. Describe a time when you had to convince a client or a team around your design concept.

This can elaborate on a candidate's communication and persuasion skills, both of which are essential in collaborative work environments.

10. How do you collaborate with other team members, such as copywriters or web developers, to ensure a cohesive final product?

This question examines the candidate's teamwork and communication skills, as well as their ability to work collaboratively with different stakeholders to achieve a unified design outcome.

Is there another way to evaluate graphic design skills?

For accurate and comprehensive results, it's also beneficial to integrate a set of assessments based on job relevance and what predicts success in the graphic designer role.

You could conduct a job analysis to establish these key indicators before the interview stage. Utilizing a combination of different types of tests for cognitive ability, personality, and skills can offer a more comprehensive view of a candidate's capabilities, avoiding potential bias and better predicting job success.

To understand the employee experience and track progress, pairing test results with other measures such as performance reviews, 360-degree feedback, and engagement surveys could be beneficial.

Lastly, transparency and bias-free selection processes will contribute to a credible employer brand.