There were two interviews in total. Both of which were about an hour long. First one did a good job of asking good questions and having a free flowing conversation and overall made the interviewee feel at ease. Second was a bit intimidating in my opinion and made me very nervous. After these interviews I made it to a third round which really revealed all the red flags.
They had asked to perform a design test. Which I've been through a couple of interviews at that point and this wasn't an uncommon ask for graphic designers. The test included a brief that consisted of 4 website banners 1 large (spanning accross the page) and 3 smaller ones. This included text, brand relavent images, and graphics that had to be included in each banner. They also requested motion graphics be applied to the final designs as well. The time limit they set was 2 HOURS. They mentioned that not all of it needed to be completed and that I could explain my process instead, but they weren't clear on what they were looking for in the final design so I was confused as to how much design they wanted to see versus how much explanation. Either way the 2h time limit is absolutely insane and would not allow for any designer to put their best foot forward.
This design test was my downfall. They probably once had a magical unicorn that was able to preform stellar designs within a short amount of time and now they're looking for another unicorn to take advantage of...
Needless to say I hope they never find their unicorn.
