Design Take-Home Assignments: Reading the Brief, Budgeting Time and Avoiding Free Work

A design take-home is a trial workday squeezed into a couple of evenings. The hiring team is not only judging the final image. They want to see how you read someone else's problem, what you ask, where you stop and how you explain the result. This guide covers the four common formats, a checklist for reading the brief, sensible time budgets, a submission email template and the signs that a "test" is really unpaid client work.

Four kinds of take-home and what each one tests

It is more useful to sort assignments by format than by job title. Graphic, web and UX/UI designers all meet the same four types, just with different content.

Graphic roles lean towards the first format, product designers get the second and fourth, and web designers usually get the second with a mobile version required.

Checklist: read the brief before you open Figma

Many failed take-homes solve the wrong problem. Before creating a file, go through this list and mark everything the brief leaves open.

• Goal. What should a person do after seeing the design: buy, sign up, understand the terms?
• Audience and context. Who looks at it and where: a phone on the train, a trade show stand, a dashboard on a laptop.
• Constraints. Brand guidelines, colours, mandatory copy, legal footnotes.
• Deliverable. Figma link, PDF, PNG at a given size, source files or not.
• Scope. How many screens, formats or options. If no number is given, ask rather than guess.
• Deadline and effort. When it is due and how many hours the team itself expects it to take.
• Criteria. What candidates will be compared on.
• Pay. Whether the task is paid if it runs beyond a few hours.

Collect the gaps into one email with three to five questions. A tidy list reads like a work habit; a stream of messages through the day does not. If nobody replies within a day, state your assumptions in the submission: "I assumed a 1080 by 1350 feed post for Instagram."

How much time is reasonable

Estimate before you start and log where the hours go: it gives you a solid basis for any conversation about scope. The ranges below are for typical junior and mid-level tasks and already include presentation, which usually takes about a third of the time.

If your estimate goes past 8 hours, negotiate scope before you begin. A good line: "By my estimate this is about two working days. I suggest fully designing the key screen and mapping the rest as a flow, so you can see both my approach and my level of polish."

How to present the work so you get the next call

Reviewers often open a dozen files in a row and spend about three minutes on each. Your presentation should answer the key questions immediately.

1. An opening frame with the outcome. One sentence on the problem and what changed, for example: "Cut checkout from four steps to two; the address is prefilled from the last order."
2. The task in your own words, plus assumptions. Shows you understood the brief and explains choices that might otherwise look odd.
3. A short path to the solution. One frame with references or a flow diagram, not a diary of every step.
4. The final design in context. The banner in a feed next to other posts, the screen inside a phone frame.
5. "What I would do next." Two or three things you would test with more time. This pre-empts "why didn't you do X?"

Small details count: clear frame names, a view-only Figma link, a PDF in case the link fails, and a "Take-home assignment by [your name]" label on every frame.

A submission email template

Hi Anna, here is my take-home for the Product Designer role.

Figma (view access): ... The PDF is attached.

Key decision: I merged address and delivery time selection into one screen, because in the original flow users had to go back twice.

Assumption: most customers already have a saved address. If that is not the case, I have an alternative ready.

It took about 6 hours. Happy to walk you through it on a call. When can I expect to hear back?

No apologies for "rushing it" and no retelling of the whole process: save the details for the debrief.

Signs it is free work dressed up as a test

Most companies set fair tasks, but "collect designs from candidates and use the best one" does happen, especially with small firms and private clients. Be careful if two or more of these apply:

• the brief uses the company's real copy, prices and dates of an upcoming promotion;
• the scope equals a finished product: every page, every size, the whole packaging line;
• editable source files are required before anyone has spoken to you;
• the task arrives before you have talked to a single human at the company;
• nothing is said about the role, salary or team, but the deadline is "by tomorrow morning";
• the terms say something like "the best submissions may be used";
• requests to reduce the scope or pay for the task are refused without explanation.

In most countries your design is protected by copyright the moment you create it: the Berne Convention, which nearly every country has joined, does not allow protection to depend on registration or other formalities. Copyright covers the specific expression, not the underlying idea, which the TRIPS Agreement states explicitly. A company that reviews your file has no automatic right to publish or ship it. Whether a take-home is paid, however, is usually a matter of agreement, not law, and the details vary by jurisdiction.

In practice: send previews marked with your name, share working files only after an interview and only on request, and keep the emails and dated versions.

Talking to the hiring team about the brief

• Ask once, as a list. A short email of questions at the start beats clarifications on the last evening.
• Flag delays early. "Thursday instead of Wednesday" two days ahead sounds professional; on the deadline day it does not.
• Trade scope, not quality. Offer fewer screens, never "everything, but quick and rough".
• Ask about money directly. "Is the take-home paid?" is a normal question.
• After a rejection, ask for two or three lines of feedback. If the same comments repeat across companies, that is your study plan.

In the debrief, explain decisions through the problem: not "I chose blue" but "the button is high-contrast because this screen had the biggest drop-off". Take-homes in other fields follow similar logic; see our guide to the data analyst interview.

When rejections keep coming

Usually one specific skill is missing: grids and typography for graphic designers, flow logic for product designers, responsive layout for web designers. For UX fundamentals with portfolio projects, look at the Google UX Design Professional Certificate on Coursera. For short, focused classes on typography, branding, Figma and illustration, Skillshare Membership lets you pick only the gaps you need. You can compare more options in our design course catalogue, and before paying for any programme it is worth running through our checklist on how to choose an online course.

FAQ

Can I skip the take-home and stay in the process?

Often yes, if you offer an alternative: walk through a similar portfolio project on a call, or complete a reduced part of the task. A flat refusal with no counter-offer usually ends the conversation.

What if I hear nothing after submitting?

Wait until the date they gave you, then send one polite follow-up. If silence continues, treat it as a no and put the time into new applications.

Can I put a take-home in my portfolio?

Yes, unless you signed an NDA. Label it as a take-home assignment and replace the company's logo with a neutral mark if you do not have permission to use it.

How many take-homes should I do at once?

Two at most. The third one almost always gets leftover attention, and it shows.

Key points

• Identify the format, run the brief checklist and send your questions in one email.
• Estimate time upfront; anything over 8 hours gets discussed before you start.
• Open the presentation with the outcome and close with "what I would do next".
• Real company materials, product-sized scope and source files before an interview point to free work. The career path is outlined on our Graphic Designer page.

Sources

• WIPO: Summary of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
• WTO: TRIPS Agreement, Article 9(2): copyright protects expressions, not ideas