Pro vector: personas (Designer/Pixel/Export), iso grids, constraints, symbols.
Before starting, we run a 1-minute tech check — microphone, ambient noise, connection. If your setup isn't good enough, the test is fully refunded.
Show recruiters and clients you truly know Affinity Designer — personas, symbols, iso grids, and pro export workflows — with a 15-minute AI-powered oral exam that goes way beyond a portfolio screenshot.
The Plume Affinity Designer badge certifies your hands-on mastery of Serif's professional vector tool: switching between the Designer, Pixel, and Export personas, structuring multi-artboard files for icon systems or full brand identities, building reusable components with symbols and constraints, setting up isometric grids, and managing a clean export pipeline for both print and screen. The 15-minute exam is conducted by an AI interviewer (OpenAI Realtime) that asks you about real projects from your own practice, then a second model (Claude Opus) reads the transcript and produces a score from 0 to 100 plus a level — Novice, Proficient, Advanced, or Expert.
Self-declared LinkedIn skills are easy to game. This badge is not. The AI digs into specifics: how you configure snapping on an iso grid, the difference between a symbol and a group, how you handle 1x/2x/3x slice exports in the Export persona, or when you'd tell a client to use Figma instead. That level of precision is what makes the badge credible — a recruiter or creative director can listen to your audio, read your report, and understand exactly where your skills sit on the spectrum.
This badge is built for graphic designers, illustrators, UI/UX designers, and motion artists who use Affinity Designer regularly and want an objective, shareable proof of that mastery. It's especially valuable for freelancers competing on platforms like Toptal, Contra, or Upwork, and for designers applying to studios that have moved away from the Adobe subscription model.
Here are the concrete dimensions the AI examines during the 15-minute oral.
Knowing when and why to move between the Designer, Pixel, and Export personas on the same document — and what each one unlocks: clean vector paths, non-destructive raster edits in context, or fine-tuned slice-based export configurations.
Creating and syncing symbols for reusable components, applying layout constraints for responsive design, and understanding where this system holds up versus where Figma's component model or Illustrator's linked assets have an edge.
Configuring a proper iso grid (26.565° angle), using axonometric snapping, working across planes, and applying shear transforms to produce accurate isometric illustrations directly in Affinity Designer without third-party plugins.
Organizing multi-page or multi-artboard documents for scalable deliverables like icon systems or brand identities. Consistent layer naming, shared assets library usage, and strategies for keeping large files performant and maintainable.
Setting up slice-based exports for 1x/2x/3x screen assets, PDF/X-1a for print, and SVG for the web. Knowing the bridges between Affinity Designer, Photo, Publisher, Figma, and downstream tools — including format compatibility trade-offs.
Knowing when Affinity Designer is the right choice and when to recommend Illustrator, Figma, or Inkscape instead. Having a well-reasoned view on version 2, the Canva acquisition, and the perpetual licensing model versus Adobe Creative Cloud.
Fluency with the Pen, Node, and Curve tools, boolean operations, layer styles, mesh gradients, and non-destructive effects to produce complex illustrations directly in Affinity Designer — without relying on Illustrator as a crutch.
Final scoring is performed by Claude (Anthropic), which reads back the full transcript and applies this weighted criteria grid.
Precision of your explanations about core features: personas, symbols, constraints, iso grids, and slice-based exports. The AI checks whether you actually know how to configure and use each feature, not just name it.
Richness of the real-world cases you bring: deliverable type, constraints you faced, decisions you made. A detailed account of an icon system or a brand identity project carries far more weight than a generic description of the software.
Clarity of your approach to organizing files, naming layers, managing the assets library, and handling multi-artboard documents. The AI evaluates whether your method is scalable and maintainable in a professional or collaborative context.
Your ability to explain how Affinity Designer fits into your broader production chain alongside Photo, Publisher, Figma, or print workflows. Knowledge of interchange formats and their real-world limitations.
Ability to compare Affinity Designer to its alternatives and advise the right tool for the right context. Awareness of recent developments: version 2.x features, the Canva acquisition, and what it means for studios and freelancers in practice.
A Plume session takes about 20 minutes, from tech check to badge delivery.
The AI confirms your microphone is working and your environment is quiet. No software to install — the entire exam runs in your browser. You just need a stable connection and a decent mic.
You introduce yourself and give a quick overview of your background with Affinity Designer: how long you've used it, in what context (freelance, in-house, studio), and what type of deliverables you produce most often.
The core of the exam. The AI probes your real projects, your technical choices (personas, symbols, iso grids), your file organization approach, and your positioning on Affinity Designer versus its alternatives. It follows up on details to verify genuine mastery, not surface-level familiarity.
The AI presents a hypothetical brief — for example, a client who needs an isometric icon system for a mobile app and a print campaign simultaneously — and evaluates your ability to outline a coherent Affinity Designer strategy on the spot.
Claude Opus analyzes the transcript, produces a score from 0 to 100, a level (Novice to Expert), and a detailed per-criterion report. Your badge with a shareable URL is ready as soon as the evaluation is complete.
Your score out of 100 translates into a level a recruiter can grasp at a glance.
You use Affinity Designer for basic tasks: simple shapes, text, PNG export. You work almost exclusively in the Designer persona and haven't explored Pixel or Export in any meaningful way. Symbols, constraints, and isometric grids are not yet part of your practice.
You deliver complete projects — logos, posters, illustrations — and you know the main features: symbols, boolean operations, layer styles, multiple artboards. You're starting to use the Pixel and Export personas but haven't fully unlocked what they offer.
You're comfortable with all three personas, constraints, iso grids, and slice-based exports. You structure your files professionally, use the assets library, and integrate Affinity Designer into a multi-tool workflow. You know when to use this tool and when to switch.
You're a reference for Affinity Designer in your team or community. You design and optimize complex workflows — iso icon systems, multi-channel brand identities, automated export pipelines — you mentor other designers, and you have a sharp, well-informed view on where the product is headed post-Canva acquisition.
No degree or years of experience required to take the badge. Here are the profiles it makes the most sense for.
You've moved off the Adobe subscription and want an objective, shareable proof of your Affinity Designer skills to show clients on Contra, Toptal, or in response to a direct brief.
Your studio switched to the Affinity suite to cut Adobe licensing costs. You want to validate your level and give your creative director or clients confidence that the tool transition is solid.
You use Affinity Designer alongside Figma for vector illustration and asset creation. The badge lets you differentiate your candidacy by showing a concretely validated second-tool skill set.
You produce complex vector illustrations, icon systems, or animation-ready assets. The badge provides technical validation for studios that hire on both portfolio and demonstrable tool fluency.
You're entering the market and want a credible signal beyond your portfolio. The Affinity Designer badge gives you a scored, documented proof of skill level from your very first interviews.
Where and how your Affinity Designer badge will help you day to day.
A client needs an isometric icon system for their SaaS product. Sharing your Advanced Affinity Designer badge gives them objective proof of your iso grid and multi-resolution export skills, removing the need for an extra technical test before signing.
The studio dropped Illustrator for Affinity Designer v2. You show up with an Advanced badge documenting your mastery of symbols, constraints, and multi-artboard workflows — the hiring manager can listen to your oral directly from the report before the first call.
You're the lead designer and need to convince your director that the team is ready to move off Adobe. Your Expert badge serves as internal evidence that the competency is there, and you can confidently guide your teammates with an objectively validated level.
You add your badge URL to your rate card. Clients see your score, your level, and your detailed report in one click, which supports your day rate without back-and-forth qualification calls.
You're applying to an agency that runs the full Affinity suite. You include your badge link in your CV. The recruiter accesses your report and audio before the first interview and arrives already knowing your level — which makes the conversation richer and faster.
You've been out of the market for a while and made the deliberate choice to switch to Affinity Designer. The badge lets you prove you've reached a professional operating level on the tool, even without recent project references on your CV.
A few minutes to check you have everything you need.
At the end of your session you don't just get a score — here's everything that awaits you.
You get a score from 0 to 100 and an official level — Novice, Proficient, Advanced, or Expert — that reflects your actual mastery of Affinity Designer: personas, symbols, iso grids, export pipeline, and tool positioning all factored in.
Claude Opus produces a structured report analyzing your technical depth, the quality of your real-world examples, your file organization method, and your critical perspective on the tool. You know exactly where you stand and what to work on next.
Your 15-minute oral is stored securely and kept private by default. You can choose to share it with a recruiter or client who wants to hear the quality of your Affinity Designer explanations directly — no editing, no filtering.
Your badge comes with a unique URL you can paste into your CV, LinkedIn, Behance, or a client proposal. One click gives anyone access to your score, level, and report — no Plume account required on their end.
Discover related skills you can validate with Plume.
A 15-min oral exam with an AI, a shareable badge for your recruiters.
Choose this badge · €19.99
