4 Tips for Designers: How to Get into an Agency

Contents:

• Starting Collaboration with the Studio
• Trends in the Design World: Who's Hot Now
• Creating an Impressive Portfolio for Interviews
• Key Elements of Interview Preparation
• Summary

Art director Violetta Postnova from ESH studio will discuss interview preparation for designers Gruppa, Alexandra Pershina from the Ohmybrand agency, and Sergey Andryushin, who holds the position of creative director at the Pink bureau.

In this article, you will learn about the following:

• To establish initial contact with the studio, there are several important aspects to consider. First of all, you need to prepare a clear idea of ​​what exactly you want to discuss or propose. This could be a specific project, ideas for collaboration, or a request for services. Think about what questions you want to ask and what information you need to receive.

  Be sure to familiarize yourself with the studio's work and its style. This will help you better understand how your idea can fit into their concept and increase the chances of a successful interaction. It is also important to prepare the necessary materials, such as a portfolio, resume, or presentation, which will help demonstrate your intentions and professionalism.

  Also, choose an appropriate method of communication - this could be an email, a phone call, or a message on social media. Make sure your message is concise and clear to immediately grab the recipient's attention. Finally, be prepared for further discussion and open to questions, as this will help build rapport with studio representatives.

• Currently, the labor market is seeing high interest in various categories of designers. Graphic design specialists, who create visual concepts, including logos, packaging, and advertising materials, are particularly in demand. Web designers, responsible for creating interfaces for websites and mobile applications, as well as ensuring their functionality and usability, are also in demand.

  UX/UI designers, who optimize user experience and interfaces, making them more intuitive and attractive, remain relevant. Fashion designers working in the apparel and accessories industry also play an important role, where creativity and originality are key factors for success.

  Furthermore, the demand is growing for specialists in animation and 3D design, who create visual effects for films, games, and advertising. Landscape designers and architects are also in-demand professions, as many projects require a comprehensive approach to space design. Overall, the diversity of design disciplines opens up numerous opportunities for creative professionals in today's market. Creating a portfolio that will be well-received requires careful consideration. First and foremost, it's important to determine its purpose: are you looking for a job, wanting to showcase your skills, or wanting to attract clients? Start by carefully selecting your work. Choose only those projects that best showcase your skills and accomplishments. Avoid overloading your portfolio with too many works; instead, emphasize quality and diversity. Each project should be accompanied by a brief description: describe your role, the challenges you faced, and the results you achieved. Design is also important. Your portfolio should be visually appealing and easy to read. Use a consistent style that reflects your personality and is appropriate for your professional field. Pay attention to the fonts, colors, and layout – everything should work together harmoniously.

  Don't forget about your contact information and a brief bio. This will help potential employers or clients better understand your experience and qualifications. Also, if you have testimonials from clients or employers, be sure to include them in your portfolio to confirm your achievements.

  Finally, update your portfolio regularly. Adding new work and updating information will help keep it fresh and relevant. This way, you can demonstrate your growth and development as a specialist.

• Preparing for an interview requires a thoughtful approach and careful organization. First of all, it is important to research the company you are applying to. Familiarize yourself with its history, mission, values, and latest news. This will help you better understand the organization's culture and justify why you are a good fit for its team.

  Next, analyze the job requirements. Make sure you can provide examples from your experience that meet these requirements. Prepare answers to common questions, such as your strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments, and why you want to work for this particular company.

  It's also helpful to prepare questions for the interviewer. This will demonstrate your interest in the position and the company. For example, you could ask about career prospects or how the team approaches specific tasks.

  Don't forget about your appearance: choose clothes that fit the corporate culture. On the day of the interview, try to be punctual. Arrive early to have time to get ready and gather your thoughts.

  Finally, adopt a positive attitude. Self-confidence and openness will help you make a good impression. Good luck!

Digital art director at the ESH Gruppa design studio. Specializes in web design, manages projects, and develops educational courses for designers.

Starting Collaboration with the Studio

— Let's consider two options: the first is sending a cold email, the second is responding to an existing vacancy.

1. When writing a cold email, it is important to do research and find out what contact information is available at the studio. This could be an email address for candidates, contact numbers for managers, or even a special form on the website. For example, in our studio, you can use hr@eshgruppa.com.

What should be included in the email or message?

• Don't forget to include a subject line. This will help it stand out from other messages.
• Please indicate your desired position or field of activity. For example, it could be "identity designer," "mid-level designer," or "professional designer."
• I am writing to present my skills and experience for your consideration. My professional path includes extensive knowledge in [your field] and practical experience that allows me to effectively solve problems and achieve set goals. I am confident that my competencies, such as [list key skills], will be an asset to your team and will help make a positive contribution to the development of your project.
• You can post your portfolio on your website or use specialized platforms such as Behance. Using a PDF for your portfolio can reduce the likelihood of your projects being properly evaluated.

When a studio posts a job posting, it usually already clearly states all the official requirements, including the subject line and email address.

Additional recommendations can be found in the article entitled "How to Get a Job at a Design Studio" posted on our blog.

A candidate's letter can be considered a kind of interface that should be designed in such a way that the reader can quickly and easily understand the information with minimal effort.

Trends in the Design World: Who's Hot Now

A designer who best meets the requirements of the vacancy will be in high demand.

For example, when we are looking for a motion design professional, we primarily focus on their experience in this field. If a senior-level designer is needed to develop a brand identity, we will take into account his participation in similar projects. When searching for a junior designer, it is important to pay attention to the presence of personal work and the quality of completed educational projects.

When selecting designers, we always take into account their activity in competitions and the awards they have received.

There are not many such people, and they are truly valuable. Their professional qualities will be relevant at any time. Especially if:

• they have had experience working in various studios, agencies and firms;
• have decided on their choice of profession;
• have tested their strengths in various roles;
• are able to provide constructive feedback;
• understand the importance of a strong team;
• have the skills to effectively present projects.

The term "multidisciplinary designer" can be somewhat misleading. It is unclear what key skills are inherent in such professionals. In the process, it is important to have specialists capable of solving specific problems and taking responsibility for their implementation.

Create your portfolio in a way that matches our studio's specialization. For example, we develop identities and promotional websites. Projects related to event posters will not allow us to evaluate your approach and skills in the areas that interest us.

I advise creating a portfolio based on a specific area of ​​​​competence, supplemented by an additional skill. For example, this could be identity combined with typography or illustration.

The art director needs to understand what tasks can be entrusted to a specialist.

If you receive a refusal, do not perceive this as a personal failure. This is simply evidence that at this point in time, your requirements and one of the many studios do not match certain criteria.

Remain patient, continue to develop your skills, work on your portfolio, and strive for professional goals. Respect yourself regardless of the level you've achieved and don't be afraid of new challenges.

When we select designers, one of the important criteria is their participation in competitions and the presence of awards.

Creating an impressive portfolio for an interview

Creative Director of the Agency Pink has seven years of experience in design. As an art director, he has completed over 30 branding and conceptual design projects.

First of all, I want to clarify an important aspect regarding art directors. They typically open a portfolio and evaluate only the first few projects for a few minutes. If one catches their eye, they may continue to review the rest of your work, read your resume, and perhaps invite you to an interview. This is why the most impressive projects should be placed at the beginning of the portfolio.

Let me dispel the misconception that the number of completed projects is not the main criterion. Even having just 2-3 high-quality cases can be quite sufficient. However, if your goal is to demonstrate your development, it is worth presenting all your work in chronological order. Sometimes it can be interesting to trace how a designer has evolved from their first job to their most recent one.

What is meant by high-quality work?

Everyone in this process evaluates candidates based on the requirements for new team members. Let me share the aspects that interest me and what we pay attention to at Pink:

• Current trends. It's important that the work presented doesn't give the impression that the author is stuck in the past and uninterested in current developments in their field. However, relying solely on trends when building a portfolio is also not the best approach. There are timeless styles and techniques that shouldn't be ignored in your work.
• Stylization. It would be great if the projects were diverse. This would allow for a more detailed assessment of skills.
• Conceptual approach. It is important to detail the thought process, actions, and ideas that arose during the development of the project. This will demonstrate the scale of the work performed. If this is clearly visible in the portfolio, such a specialist becomes a real find. So, don't be shy—explain your ideas through both visual elements and textual explanations.
• Typography isn't a field that requires any special skills, but knowing the basic principles is essential. Once someone has mastered typography, other aspects of design can be easily taught.

The topic we're going to discuss is quite common. Art directors are often tired and somewhat spoiled professionals. For this reason, it's crucial to minimize irritations from the very beginning of the interaction. How can this be accomplished? Don't send your portfolio as a PDF or via a link to cloud storage. I recommend using exclusively platforms like Behance and Dprofile. Otherwise, you may find your portfolio going unviewed.

At first glance, these recommendations may seem quite obvious. However, experience shows that this isn't the case for most people. The key is to understand how your portfolio will be handled. Caring about others and trying to understand their perspective is a truly valuable skill. Even if your portfolio isn't particularly strong, you can still get hired if you demonstrate humaneness and a genuine desire to help. Employers realize that this approach will bring more benefits in the future.

Key elements of interview preparation

Art Director at Ohmybrand. Holder of a Master's degree from the HSE School of Design. Taught courses on the fundamentals of design and packaging design. She served on the open jury for the Sreda festival in 2023 and 2024.

Imagine you've found five studios that match your goals and visual style. You checked to see if they had any openings. If none were available, you wrote an email or contacted the founder or HR via Telegram. After receiving a response, you began preparing for the interview. Here's a short checklist to help you make this process more efficient.

Platforms like Behance, Dribbble, Dprofile, and your personal website are all great for creating a portfolio. However, it's not recommended to use Notion with its many subfolders, Google Drive with its accumulated archives, or social media accounts.

One of the common problems we encounter when reviewing portfolios is their complete mismatch with the profile. Recently, when we were recruiting candidates for the position of "Packaging Designer," we received a huge number of responses featuring work exclusively in web design, UI, and UX. Despite our best efforts, evaluating such a portfolio proves extremely difficult. However, this doesn't mean that your portfolio should only contain packaging-related projects. However, it is desirable that your work demonstrate skills as closely as possible to the job posting.

Other issues will be resolved during the conversation and will depend on the specific vacancy. The main criterion remains a sincere interest in the profession and a desire to develop in this field. This can play a significant role in overcoming potential portfolio shortcomings or insufficient qualifications.

Sometimes, naivety is preferable to indifference. I have a relevant case from my practice. During one interview, a candidate for the position of "Senior Packaging Designer" said, "Frankly, packaging doesn't really interest me." This statement raised many questions and raised many eyebrows. However, it immediately became apparent that we didn't find common ground.

At Ohmybrand, we highly value people's passions in design. This could manifest itself in a love of fonts and lettering, a passion for drawing characters like mice and bunnies, or an interest in animation. We also ask about other hobbies to create a more relaxed atmosphere and discover what interests people outside of their professional work.

Especially when given a few minutes to chat and invited to share information about yourself, you can mention your career aspirations, a favorite project, and even talk about what an ideal client would be like for you.

The cover text is an important element of the documentation that serves to clarify or supplement the main content. It helps the reader better understand the context and purpose of the presented materials. Such text often highlights key points, emphasizes the significance of the information, and explains why this particular document is important.

Furthermore, the cover text may include instructions on how to use or interpret the presented data, as well as information about the target audience for which the material is intended. This approach promotes more effective perception of the information and facilitates further work with it.

Overall, creating high-quality cover text requires care and clarity to ensure proper understanding and use of the main content.

• Introduce yourself in a few sentences. In the design field, there's no need to clutter your portfolio with lengthy texts. Highlight key moments from your career: name the places where you've worked for the longest time, describe your responsibilities, and highlight your strengths. A couple of concise lines will be sufficient. We'll discuss everything in more detail during the interview.
• Avoid using neural networks to generate texts. This becomes obvious from the very first lines and creates the impression that you haven't taken the time to reflect and express your thoughts about yourself. It's much wiser to use artificial intelligence to check punctuation and spelling, for example, through Yandex's Alice chatbot.

I wish you good luck in your search and great opportunities!

One of the common problems portfolios face is their insufficient correspondence with the profile. During our last selection for the position of "packaging designer", we received many responses, which mainly included work in the fields of web design, UI, and UX. Assessing such portfolios can be extremely difficult. However, this doesn't mean that your portfolio should only contain packaging projects. Ideally, it should reflect your skills in areas that most closely match the job posting's requirements.

Summary

We'll identify key mistakes that can occur during the job search and outline standard guidelines. This will help you better navigate future applications and interviews.

If you're interested in the world of design, join our Telegram channel, where you'll find a wealth of fascinating information!

Additional sources of information about the design profession.

• Contact a specialist: what aspects should you consider when looking for a job?
• Assignments for designers: types and their necessity

  Test assignments for design specialists play an important role in the recruitment process. They can vary in content and format, but generally aim to assess the candidate's professional skills and creative approach.

  There are several types of such tasks. One of the most common is creating a concept for a specific project, where the designer is asked to develop a logo, packaging, or app interface. This allows us to evaluate not only the level of artistic skill but also the ability to work with a brief, consider the target audience, and follow modern trends.

  Another popular format is a redesign of an existing product. In this case, the candidate gets the opportunity to demonstrate their vision, improve functionality and aesthetics, and justify their decisions.

  Furthermore, test tasks may include tasks on performing certain technical techniques, such as creating animation or processing images. This helps the employer understand how proficient the designer is with the necessary tools and programs.

  Why are these tasks necessary? First of all, they allow the employer to get an idea of ​​​​how the candidate thinks and works in a real-life setting. Test assignments also help identify creativity, the ability to solve non-standard problems, and the ability to work within specified timeframes.

  Thus, test assignments are an integral part of the designer selection process, allowing employers to make a more informed choice and find a specialist who meets their requirements.

• "Design is a professional activity": What skills does a designer need besides Photoshop and Figma?
• "The intern who does not strive for the role of art director is unlucky": Job search tips for aspiring designers.