Hi Everybody,

I interview graphic designers, illustrators, art directors, and other design professionals every day and have 3 questions that I ask every time.

how do you like to use white/negative space? What do you like to see in a color scheme? What is your favorite font and why?

My goal in asking these 3 questions is to test whether the designer understands why they choose to work certain ways and whether they can express those tendencies to someone who is not part of their project cycle.

This is a skill especially important for designers working in corporate settings, where the designer may have to explain their design decisions to a hiring manager who is not a designer.

So how should the designer answer the questions? Here are 3 tips.

With confidence - If they get too thrown by a question about their opinion on design principles. If you're a designer being asked these questions and you don't know what your answer is, don't immediately start answering. Take a few seconds to formulate your response, then reply.

With certainty - You should have strong ideas about design AND you should be able to stick by your answer once you've given it. I WILL ask follow-up questions and if you back down, it makes you seem weak. Stick by your initial answer. If you prefer to stick to Sans Serif fonts because they are more modern looking, don't change your answer half way through.

With a smile - You should come across excited about design! If you love what you do, I want to feel that in your answer. Gush like a geek over split-complimentary color schemes. If you are excited, it's easy to get excited for you as a candidate.

*This article is aimed at visual designers... but the advice is sound for other process related questions as well.