You’re a Designer? Here’s How to Genuinely Impress Interviewers

You're a Designer? Here's How to Genuinely Impress Interviewers

“Be confident.” “Dress for the job you want.” “Give a firm handshake.”

It’s generic nonsense. It’s a checklist for actors, not designers.

You are not there to perform if you’re a designer sitting in an interview. You are there to demonstrate how you think. The person across the table—especially if they’re an entrepreneur or a small business owner—doesn’t have time for a theatrical production. 

They have a problem. They’re hoping you are the solution.

Impressing them has very little to do with your winning personality. It has everything to do with showing them you are a commercial-minded problem-solver who uses design as a tool to get results.

The Ground Zero Mistake: Believing Your Portfolio Speaks For Itself

This is the most common, and most fatal, assumption designers make. They think the job is halfway done because the interviewer has seen their work.

Wrong. Your portfolio doesn't get you the job. It gets you the interview.

It is the ticket that lets you into the stadium. It doesn't mean you know how to play the game. The assumption that “they’ve seen my work, they get it” is pure laziness.

No one “gets it” until you explain it. More specifically, until you explain the thinking behind it. An image of a logo tells me nothing. The story of how you arrived at that logo tells me everything.

The “Portfolio Walkthrough” is a Relic of the Past

The most oversized bore in the world is the designer who treats their portfolio presentation like a holiday slideshow.

“…and here’s a website I did for a bakery. They wanted it to feel friendly. I used a warm colour palette.”

I’m already checking my watch.

This approach tells the interviewer you see your work as a collection of artefacts. An impressive candidate sees their work as a collection of solved problems. You must shift the entire conversation away from what you did and focus entirely on why and how you did it.

I once interviewed two designers back-to-back for a branding project. The first had a portfolio of slick, beautiful work for trendy startups. He walked me through it, piece by piece. It was fine. Polished. Forgettable.

The second designer had three projects in her book. One was for a local plumber. She spent 15 minutes on it. She didn't start with the final logo. She began with the plumber's problem: he was losing bids to bigger companies, and his cheap-looking flyers made customers think he wasn't professional.

She showed us the mind maps, the rejected concepts, and the reasoning for the typeface—it was chosen because it was legible on the side of a van from 50 feet away. She framed the entire project not as a design exercise, but as a mission to win the plumber more business.

Guess who got the job?

Rule #1: Frame Everything as a Problem, a Process, and a Result

If you remember nothing else, remember this. Every single piece you show must be presented through this lens. This is how you show an interviewer—especially a business owner—that you understand that design serves a commercial purpose.

Deconstructing Your Work: The PRE-P Framework

Use a simple structure for every case study you discuss to avoid rambling. I call it PRE-P.

• Problem: State the client's business challenge in plain English. Not “they needed a new brand identity.” Go deeper. “Their old branding looked dated and untrustworthy, which made it impossible for their sales team to get meetings with high-value corporate clients.” See the difference? One is a task, the other is a business obstacle.
• Role: Be precise about what you did. Don't say “we.” Say “I.” “My specific role was to conduct the initial user research, develop the core visual identity, and work with the web developer to ensure the new design was implemented correctly.” This shows ownership.
• Exploration & Process: This is the most crucial part. Show the messy bit—the journey. “We initially explored a more aggressive, modern look, but customer feedback showed it alienated their conservative base. Here are some of those early drafts. We pivoted to a look that conveyed stability and heritage, which resonated far better.” Showing your failed ideas isn't a sign of weakness; it's a sign of a rigorous process. It builds immense trust.
• Proof (Result): How did your work initially solve the Problem you identified? This is where you connect design to outcome. If you have numbers, use them. “After the launch, the sales team reported a 30% increase in securing initial meetings, directly citing the new, professional pitch deck.”

“But I don't have metrics for every project!”

I hear this all the time. It’s a familiar panic. Relax.

Complex data is fantastic, but it's not always available. Proof doesn't have to be a percentage. It can be qualitative.

• “The client was so happy with the clarity of the new system that they adopted it company-wide, saving their team an estimated five hours a week on internal reporting.”
• “The goal was to reduce user confusion. In the feedback sessions post-launch, customers specifically mentioned how much easier the checkout process was.”
• The project's success was demonstrated when the lead developer, initially sceptical, praised how the new design system made their workflow faster and more consistent.

The goal is to demonstrate impact. That impact can be on revenue, user satisfaction, or even the internal efficiency of the company you worked for. Find the effect and articulate it.

Stop Saying You're “Passionate.” Show It.

“I'm passionate about design.”

It's the most overused, meaningless, and unimpressive sentence a designer can utter. It’s a verbal tic. It tells me nothing. Saying you're passionate is like a restaurant telling you their food is delicious. It's an empty claim that needs to be proven.

Anyone can say it. Very few can show it.

Evidence of Passion is Not in Your Words

Real passion leaves a trail of evidence. It manifests in action, not adjectives. An interviewer looking for genuine talent will be searching for this trait.

• Side Projects: What do you design when no one is paying you? What problem are you trying to solve for yourself? A custom-designed organisational app, a set of icons for a niche hobby, a zine about brutalist architecture—these things scream passion far louder than your words ever could. It shows you can’t not design.
• Obsessive Knowledge: Talk about something you're a geek about. Rant for 60 seconds about the genius of the new TFL Johnston100 typeface. Explain why a specific app's user onboarding is a masterclass in psychology. Argue for a grid system with the conviction of a religious zealot. This shows your engagement with the craft goes beyond a 9-to-5 job.
• Informed Critiques: A passionate designer is always thinking and constantly analysing. Ask them, “What brand do you think is getting it completely wrong right now, and why?” They should have an immediate answer. “What's a design you've seen recently that you love?” They should be able to deconstruct it for you on the spot.

A Quick Way to Spot a Bluffer

Here’s a tip for the entrepreneurs reading this. If you want to know if a candidate’s passion is genuine, ask them this question:

“Tell me about a design you’ve seen recently—a website, an app, a poster, anything—that you hated. Then, tell me how you would have fixed it.”

A genuinely passionate designer will light up. They have a mental library of design crimes they've been waiting to prosecute. Their answer will be specific, sharp, and full of reasoned arguments.

A bluffer will stall. They'll squirm. They’ll give a vague answer about “not liking the colours” or something equally superficial. They haven't been thinking about it. Their “passion” is just a word they put on their CV.

The Questions You Ask Are More Important Than the Answers You Give

You can ace every question they throw at you, but the interview is only truly won in the final 15 minutes, when they ask, “So, do you have any questions for us?”

This is the moment of truth.

Your questions reveal the depth of your thinking, your level of commercial awareness, and whether you see this as a job or a partnership. It’s your single greatest opportunity to turn the tables and interview them. It shows you have standards. It shows you’re a serious professional.

The Three Tiers of Questions

Not all questions are created equal. They fall into three distinct tiers of effectiveness.

• Tier 1 (The Bare Minimum): These are the questions everyone asks. They show you were awake, but not much else.
  • “What's the day-to-day like?”
  • “What's the structure of the design team?”
  • “What's the company culture like?”
  • Asking only these makes you look passive and uninspired.
• Tier 2 (Good, Shows Interest): These questions are better. They dig a little deeper into the role and the team's challenges. They show you're thinking about the work itself.
  • “What is the biggest design challenge the team is facing right now?”
  • “How does the design team receive and process feedback?”
  • “Can you tell me about the design, engineering, and marketing collaboration process?”
  • These are solid questions. You won't lose points for them. But you won't stand out either.
• Tier 3 (Elite, Shows Ownership): This is where you win. These questions demonstrate that you've done your homework and are already thinking about how you can provide value. They are strategic.
  • “What does success for this role look like in the first three months, and again at the end of the first year?”
  • “How does the company currently measure the return on investment of its design efforts?”
  • “I noticed on your website that the user checkout process involves four steps. Was there a strategic reason for not consolidating that, or is it an area you want to improve?”
  • Looking at your key competitors, their brand messaging focuses on [X]. Your company seems to focus on [Y]. How do you see design supporting that differentiator in the next year?”

A Tier 3 question instantly reframes you from a job applicant to a strategic consultant. It shows you're not just thinking about a salary; you're thinking about their business. This is how you impress someone whose livelihood depends on that business's success. Your understanding of their brand identity and how it functions in the market is critical.

Ditch the Buzzwords, Talk Business

Let’s be brutally honest. Most business owners don't care about your “design thinking process” or “human-centred methodologies.” They see these as fluffy, academic jargon.

They care about profit, growth, customer retention, and market share.

Your job is to connect your design skills directly to those business outcomes. You must become a translator, converting the language of design into the language of business value.

Translate Design Jargon into Business Value

Stop saying the buzzword. Start explaining the action and the result.

Clear, simple, cause-and-effect language. No fluff.

Demonstrate Commercial Awareness

A great designer who doesn't understand business is just an artist. A great designer who understands business is an invaluable asset. You must show you're the latter.

This means doing your homework before the interview. Understand:

• Their Business Model: How do they make money?
• Their Customers: Who do they sell to? What are their customers' motivations?
• Their Competitors: Who are they? What are they doing well? Where are they weak?
• Their Market Position: Are they the cheap option, the premium choice, the innovative disruptor?

When you can speak fluently about these things, you demonstrate that you're not just there to make things look good. You're there to help them win.

Navigating the “Design Challenge” Minefield

Ah, the design challenge. Sometimes a fair test of your thinking, sometimes a cynical attempt to get free work.

The first thing to understand is its purpose from the interviewer's perspective. A good interviewer isn't looking for a perfect, polished final design. They couldn't care less about it.

They are putting you in a controlled environment to see how you think.

It's Not About the Perfect Final Design

They are testing your process under pressure. The biggest mistake is to go quiet and start frantically sketching. You must verbalise your entire thought process.

• Clarify the Goal: Okay, you've asked me to redesign this homepage. Before I start, what is the single most important goal here? Are we trying to increase newsletter sign-ups, drive traffic to product pages, or communicate the brand mission more clearly?”
• State Your Assumptions: “I'm assuming the primary user is someone new to the brand, so clarity and trust are paramount. Is that correct?”
• Ask Questions: Constantly. Treat the interviewer as your client or product manager. “What data do we have on current user behaviour?” “Are there any technical constraints I should be aware of?”
• Talk Through Your Decisions: “I'm choosing a single-column layout here to focus the user's attention on the primary call-to-action. I'm using this large photograph to create an emotional connection before entering the product features.”

They want to see that you're structured, collaborative, and focused on the objective, not just on making a pretty picture.

The Red Flag: Unpaid, Extensive “Homework”

There's a line. A one-hour live whiteboard session or a short, focused take-home task (which should take 2-3 hours) is a reasonable request.

Being asked to “just give us a few ideas for our new app” or “redesign our entire marketing site” as a take-home challenge is not. This is spec work, and it's a huge red flag that the company doesn't value a designer's time or strategic input.

A confident, professional way to handle this is to rescope it. “This is a significant project, typically starting with a proper discovery phase. To give you the best result, that's where I'd begin. 

However, what I can do in a couple of hours is walk you through my process for how I would approach this problem, outlining the key questions I'd ask and the steps I'd take. Would that be helpful?”

This shows you're cooperative but also that you're a serious professional who doesn't work for free.

The Often-Forgotten Follow-Up

Most candidates send a generic “Thank you for your time” email. This is a missed opportunity. It ticks a box but does nothing to move the conversation forward.

Your follow-up email is one last chance to demonstrate your value and show that you're still thinking about their problems.

How to Write a Follow-Up That Re-Opens the Conversation

The formula is simple: be specific and be helpful.

1. Thank them, referencing a specific point: “Thank you again for your time today. I particularly enjoyed our discussion about the challenges of user onboarding.”
2. Add a new piece of value: This is the critical step. Find an article, case study, or resource related to your discussed problem. Following our chat, I remembered this excellent case study on how Duolingo uses gamification to keep users engaged in the first week. Thought it might be an interesting read for you.”
3. Briefly reiterate your interest: “Our conversation solidified my excitement about the opportunity to help solve these challenges with your team.”

This kind of follow-up does three things: it shows you were listening, it proves you are genuinely helpful and resourceful, and it keeps you top-of-mind. It reframes you, once again, as a problem-solver, not just a job-seeker.

Conclusion: Stop Performing, Start Solving

Forget the idea of the perfect interview. It doesn’t exist.

The entire process of impressing a potential employer—especially one who is putting their own money on the line—boils down to a fundamental shift in mindset.

Stop trying to be the perfect candidate. Start being the apparent solution to their problem.

An interview isn't a stage performance. It's your first consultation. It's a working session where you demonstrate your value not with buzzwords and a slick presentation, but with clear thinking, commercial awareness, and a relentless focus on solving problems.

Be a partner, not a supplicant. Be an expert, not just an applicant. Show them how you think, and the rest will take care of itself.

Ready to Build a Brand To Really Impress Interviewers?

The principles that make a designer impressive in an interview—clarity, strategic thinking, and a focus on business results—are the same principles we use to build powerful brands. A great brand isn't just a pretty logo; it's a tool for growth.

If you’re building a business and realise you need more than just pixels—you need a strategic brand identity—we should talk. See what goes into it, or request a quote if you're ready to get serious. For more no-nonsense observations on design and business, feel free to explore our other articles.

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