Art Director interview questions and answers
This Art Director interview profile brings together a snapshot of what to look for in candidates with a balanced sample of suitable interview questions.
Are you a candidate?
Crush your interview with our guide
Art Director Interview Questions
Art Directors, whose specialties lie in storyboarding, typography, logo design, web layout design and a multitude of other visual communication skills, are veteran designers. Your most promising candidates should have a polished and relevant portfolio of work. They should anticipate displaying and discussing a few strategically chosen work samples during their interviews, either in print form or on a mobile device.
In addition to serious design chops, you’re looking for a team leader. Art directors provide strategic direction for the team, create project schedules and manage less experienced creatives. They should be able to present their work to non-creative management staff, give constructive feedback to their colleagues, and enlist assistance from people in other departments as needed.
Use open-ended and situational interview questions to hire the right art director for your team. During this conversation, be on the lookout for candidates who highlight their business acumen and staff management skills. It’s a red flag if they haven’t done their homework on your company and are not familiar with your brand or your clients. Finally, the relevance of their experience is as important as the length of their experience. Look for someone with a strong understanding of your industry, or someone whose experience easily translates to your company’s mission.
Role-specific questions
- As a designer, whose work do you admire?
- What product would you like to design or redesign?
- What creative projects do you do on your own time?
- How do you keep up with the latest creative tools and technologies?
- What tools do you rely on in your day-to-day work?
- How influenced are you by current trends?
- How has your design direction contributed to solving a business problem?
- Let’s say you’ve started working on a high-profile brand. What do you do in the first week to learn about the brand?
- Describe one of the most challenging design projects you’ve ever worked on.
- Recall a time you took charge to turn a negative situation into a positive situation.
- What are some ways in which you have trained or mentored colleagues?
- Your project is delayed for reasons you can’t control. How do you update your colleagues and clients about the situation?
- Your most important client hates your work. What do you do?
- Describe a time you’ve reduced the scope of a project based on what your team could realistically accomplish.
- How do you keep your team motivated in the face of tight deadlines?
- Which of our clients are you most interested in working with? Why?
- Have you seen any of our creative materials? What are your impressions?