Graphic Designer Resume Sample

Graphic designers come from all educational backgrounds and fields, but whether you’re a creative freelancer or a corporate marketing designer, you’ll need a strong resume to attract more job opportunities and new clients.

Follow our resume writing tips below to write a resume that professionally communicates you and your work and impresses employers enough for an interview.

1. Prioritize readability

While design is obviously important to your resume, the most important thing is that employers are able to read it. Many designers will approach their resume as a chance to show off their design prowess, but risk cluttering the page with impractical graphics and confusing layout choices.

More than the color scheme or typography, hiring managers are looking to be impressed by your qualifications and skill set. You have your portfolio to show off your style.

Ensure your name and contact information are in large font and easy to locate on the page. Include an online portfolio or website link along with your contact information for hiring managers to easily access.

Beginning designers tend to use online platforms such as Behance to share their portfolios, while more established designers may build their own websites and online portfolios through WordPress or other web-hosting programs.

You’ll notice that some sample resume templates include a graphic which the applicant uses to rate his or her proficiency at common design skills – however visually appealing, a skills graphic is best left out of your resume for a couple reasons.

1. The ratings themselves are meaningless without any additional context (what exactly does a 76% Adobe Illustrator expertise even mean?).
2. Rating your skills also points out weak areas in your expertise, which contradicts the goal of impressing your readers.

Stick to a traditional list or bullet point format to highlight the skills you do have, and simply leave out the ones you do not.

2. Flesh out your technical knowledge

Graphic designers work in a wide range of industry sectors that require varying software and equipment knowledge. As a result, the resume skills section is an important feature of the designer’s resume, as employers will be checking this area along with the “Professional Experience” to see if you have the skillset to match their needs.

In this example, the applicant’s current job is in the fashion industry, so she highlights her experience with photography:

• Assist with art direction in photo shoots and edit images as needed using Adobe Photoshop

Research commonly used design software in the industry you wish to work in, and emphasize those skills in your resume. Some skills which are highly requested by most design positions include:

• Adobe InDesign
• Illustrator
• Photoshop
• Acrobat
• Dreamweaver
• Quark Xpress
• Flash
• Powerpoint
• HTML, CSS, and Javascript (tools like Macow and Webflow are also helpful in designing web content for coding beginners)

3. Give your experience context

Strengthen your resume by making your descriptions contextual and results-oriented. A few ways to do this are by including specific projects, clients, or monetary and time constraints that have been a part of your previous work history.

By doing so, you give the hiring manager a clearer sense of your capabilities.

Here, the applicant gives some exact figures from her former work:

• Successfully spearheaded company marketing project worth over $250,000
• Collaborated with 5-person creative team of graphic designers, photographers, and copywriters to organize and develop large-scale projects for clients including Solomon Page, IPPOLITA, and Adweek

Saying you designed content for clients does not cut it. What kind of content did you design, and for what purpose?

Employers want to see that you will make an impact at their company, so provide information about the work you have produced, the clients you have helped, and the achievements you have been awarded.

Saying you designed content for clients does not cut it. What kind of content did you design, and for what purpose? Who were your clients, and did you specialize in design for a certain industry? Did you work individually, or did you collaborate with a team to conceptualize and execute the project?

These are all questions that hiring managers will ask as they consider your application, and ones you should keep in mind as you compose the “Professional Experience” section of your resume.

By thoroughly following these tips, you’ll be able to hand in a resume that backs up your portfolio with provable work experience and skills and guarantees your best chance at a new job in the field.

If you still need help, check out our resume builder for more industry tips and professionally crafted bullet points.