Hiring guide
How to Hire a Graphic Designer
How to hire a graphic designer: where to source, the skills to test, a brand-led design brief as a work sample, red flags and onboarding steps.
The short answer
Hiring a Graphic Designer comes down to verifying typography and layout, working within brand guidelines and adobe creative cloud (illustrator, indesign, photoshop) before you commit interview time. The process below runs 5 stages, screens on evidence rather than résumé claims, and scores every candidate against the same criteria.
- Watch for: Portfolio shows only personal or concept work with no real client or employer briefs
- Watch for: Cannot explain the brief, audience or constraints behind their best pieces
- Score on: Faithful, confident use of your brand guidelines in the work sample
- Score on: Typography, hierarchy and readability across formats
Paste your Graphic Designer job description; Cohesyve finds, contacts and tests candidates on the real work and ranks them. Ten candidates free, no card.
Applying for a role like this? Practise the assessment free →To hire a graphic designer, decide what the role will actually produce day to day, then assess candidates on a realistic brief built from your own brand. In-house designers spend much of their time adapting work within brand guidelines across many formats, which calls for different strengths from award-entry concept work. This guide covers sourcing, skills, a work sample, red flags and onboarding.
Why this role matters
A graphic designer shapes how your organisation looks everywhere people meet it: website, social posts, presentations, packaging, adverts and events. Consistent, clear design makes marketing easier to recognise and trust. A weak hire produces off-brand work, slow turnaround and files other people cannot reuse.
Where to find candidates
- Behance and Dribbble, searching by the formats you need such as packaging, social or editorial
- LinkedIn and general job boards for in-house roles
- AIGA job board and chapters in the US, D&AD and its New Blood programme in the UK
- Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) for Canadian roles
- Graduate shows from art and design colleges
- Design and creative recruitment agencies for mid-level and senior hires
Skills to look for
Red flags
- Portfolio shows only personal or concept work with no real client or employer briefs
- Cannot explain the brief, audience or constraints behind their best pieces
- Becomes defensive when asked how a piece changed after stakeholder feedback
- Inconsistent typography or alignment errors in their own CV and portfolio
- Unfamiliar with print basics such as bleed, colour modes and resolution if your role includes print
The interview process
- 1
Portfolio screen
Shortlist on relevance to your formats and brand style. Look for range within guidelines as well as stand-out concept work.
- 2
Portfolio walkthrough
Ask the candidate to present two or three pieces: the brief, their options, the feedback they received and the final result. This shows how they think and handle stakeholders.
- 3
Design work sample
Give a brief based on your brand: for example, adapt an existing campaign into a set of social formats and a one-page flyer using your guidelines and assets. Ask for a short note explaining their choices. A job simulation of the real work is one option if you want every candidate to face the same brief.
- 4
Feedback and team interview
Give one round of written feedback on the work sample and discuss how they would apply it. Have a marketer or the person who briefs design most often join, since they will work together daily.
- 5
References
Ask previous managers about turnaround, accuracy against brand guidelines and how they handled competing requests.
Cohesyve
Start the Graphic Designer interviews from a ranked shortlist
Cohesyve takes your Graphic Designer job description, finds and contacts candidates and tests each one on an AI job simulation of the job, so the stages above start with people who have already done the work. Ten candidates free, no card.
How to evaluate
- Faithful, confident use of your brand guidelines in the work sample
- Typography, hierarchy and readability across formats
- Correct technical setup for print and digital outputs
- Quality of the rationale and response to feedback
- Speed and organisation when handling several deliverables
- Fit between their portfolio range and your real workload
Onboarding
- 1Give brand guidelines, master templates, fonts and an asset library on day one
- 2Explain how design requests arrive and are prioritised, whether by ticket, brief form or meeting
- 3Introduce them to the marketers, product owners and printers they will work with
- 4Start with adaptation work on an existing campaign before a new concept
- 5Agree a sign-off process so feedback comes from named people, not everyone
Common questions
Should I hire an in-house graphic designer or use a freelancer?
An in-house designer suits a steady flow of work and deep brand knowledge. A freelancer suits occasional projects or peaks in demand.
What is the difference between a graphic designer and a UI designer?
A graphic designer works across brand, marketing and print materials. A UI designer designs the screens and interactive components of websites and apps, working closely with product and engineering.
Is a design degree necessary?
No. Many strong designers are self-taught or trained on short courses. A portfolio of real briefs and a practical work sample tell you more than a qualification.
Should the design test be paid?
Paying for any test that takes significant time is fair and attracts better applicants. Keep the brief small and do not use candidates' work without paying for it.
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