How To Hire Creative Talent (Without regrets)

When it comes to the vibrant world of creative recruitment, it's like wading through a sea of stunning portfolios, each with its own story. The challenge? Finding that gem that not only shines bright but also fits perfectly into the intricate puzzle of your company's culture and vision.

Recently, we interviewed Ari Aronson, founder of Ari Agency, to gain insight into his unique approach to filtering through and hiring creative talent.

Q: In your words, why is interviewing and hiring creative talent so hard?

Ari: Oh there’s a ton. But I can give the top three.

For one, what’s considered “good design” these days still has a lot of subjectivity to it - and hiring managers can’t help projecting their own opinions of what looks good and what doesn’t. At our agency, it’s our job to get into the hiring manager’s head to understand what they’re looking for, but also to look at what the brand is trying to achieve, in order to find creatives that can really fulfill on those future goals. Many clients look for creatives who can be disruptive, so we help our clients ensure they don’t fall into the trap of hiring an echo chamber of talent that all share the same styles and opinions. Instead we seek to create strength through diversity.

The second big challenge is around vetting a candidate’s portfolio. It’s easy for a candidate to pass off someone else’s work if it's not tested. Our job as the interviewer is to dig deep with our questions to find out specifically what their role was on each specific project, how they approached it, and what the results were. The more specific we can dial into a project, the better we can verify the candidate’s contributions. 

And I’d say lastly, it’s looking beyond creative ability - which gets too much spotlight in most interviews. When we’re looking at creative candidates, especially in creative leadership roles, we need to know how they work with teams and clients - how they lead and how they deal with feedback. Even the most talented creative can fall short if they’re put into a work culture where they don’t thrive - or worse, they turn out to be the cog in the wheel.

Q: What are the negative impacts companies face from hiring the wrong creative talent?

Ari: One of the most common things we hear is that the creative leader didn’t work well with the rest of the team. It could be that their management style didn’t fit the culture, or that the person didn’t collaborate with others. With creatives, stubbornness can also be a big issue - the creative may not be open to the ideas of others or they might take ownership of other’s ideas.

Leading creative teams is about mentorship and driving success as a team vs. as an individual. The wrong leader can silence the room, scare off big ideas, or force people to manipulate their contributions to fit a templated appeal. So finding someone that enhances your team, instead of stealing the spotlight or causing tensions, is critical. 

The other common thing we hear is that the company hired a creative who simply didn’t meet their individual performance expectations - either that person couldn’t meet timelines, or their work wasn’t strong enough to align with the brand. That’s why it's so important to vet those portfolios, as that’s where you’ll get a better picture of the person’s process and ability.

Q: So how do you vet portfolios and approach interviewing creatives?

Ari: Diving into interviews with creatives is less about ticking skill boxes and more about unraveling their story and methodology behind their work. 

Portfolios

Portfolios are a must. This will help us assess their design eye and the breadth of their experience. Here's where it gets tricky though: portfolios can be a parade of achievements, but we want to know who led the march. We like to discuss each piece as if it's a case study, getting to the heart of how the work was ideated and executed - and what impact was on the brand. It's about discerning the 'I' from the 'We' in their stories. What specifically was their role - was it the concept, branding, the copy, graphic design, script? Did they manage the team and the project from start to finish?

We also take a look at their passion projects. Brand projects inherently come with design boundaries, but passion projects really lets us see what a candidate can do when they have more leeway. Whether it be a website, photography, social media content, painting or music - we want to see how the candidate expresses themselves in the free world. This helps us understand their own personal design style.

Assessments

To see how they would approach a project for our client’s brand, we may ask them to do a small assignment. This will give them an opportunity to demonstrate how their strategic approach and unique design style works with our client’s brand.

Leadership & Operational Skills

Of course, a dazzling portfolio and assessment doesn’t always translate into a seamless team fit or talent for managing others. So once we have a good grasp of their creative ability, we need to explore their operational and leadership potential. 

From a leadership perspective, we want to know what their management style is and how it compares to the way our client’s teams are currently being managed. How would the candidate hire, fire and promote people? We want to know how they manage upwards and manage through change - and how they create alignment across a team of different creative minds. 

From the operational side of things, we’re interested in understanding what their current processes are and how they came to be. We want to hear examples of how the candidate identified production issues in the past, developed new creative processes, and helped implement new solutions. This is critical for creative leadership roles, as it demonstrates their ability to not only execute efficiently, but to empower their team to push their creative boundaries.

Motivations

Lastly, we need to know what motivates them. What fires them up? Is it branding, UX/UI design, conversion optimization or orchestrating a campaign that shakes the market? Are their any industries or work they’re not comfortable doing? Their past projects are chapters of their creative journey – our job is to see if the next chapter belongs with your company.

Q: What questions would you ask their references?

Ari: This is a great question. Some companies skip over this part of the hiring process despite how crucial it is - especially for creative talent. Creatives can be very charismatic and that’s why it’s important to verify what they’ve told you with their references, making sure your understanding of them is rooted in reality.

Ask the reference to go over the candidates role in one or more of the portfolio projects. Have the reference to describe the candidate’s contribution, any challenges faced, and their opinion of the candidate’s work.

Ask if they believe the candidate will thrive in the type of environment the role offers, including the team structure, reporting structure and culture. Get a sense for how they work with and for others. Creatives can be very emotional and passionate, which is one of their strengths. However, it’s important to understand how they manage conflict and feedback.

And of course, ask them to be candid about any challenges the candidate faced. It helps if you request a specific example about a difficult situation. See how the candidate acted and handled issues.

Using what you’ve learned from references, refine your notes and evaluation on the candidate. If there’s any conflicting information, now’s the time to clarify it with the candidate before making any decisions.

Conclusion

Mastering the art of hiring creative talent is a blend of intuition, strategic questioning, and an appreciation for the boundless realms of creativity. It’s about figuring out how the candidate shines as an individual and plays within a team. For candidates stepping into leadership roles, it’s important to understand if they can orchestrate a symphony out of the creative chaos, or just add to the noise. Their track record in leading teams, fostering collaboration, and driving projects to fruition will speak volumes.

If you’re approaching your next creative hire, contact us for a free consultation with Ari Aronson himself. Our team of experts understand the unique demands and challenges of creative talent and can help pair you with the leaders ready to transform your brand.

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