Graphic Design Resume Examples

What Skills Should You Put On A Graphic Designer Resume

Simply put, your skills section will depend on the job posting. Overall, Graphic Designers are responsible for conveying messages in a visually appealing mannerbut the specifics of what you will be doing can vary depending on the role, the company, and the industry. Refer back to the job posting to see what specific skills are required. Then, match those to your own skillset and list them on your resume.

A few of the top skills that employers look for in Graphic Designers are:

• Adobe Creative Suite
• Logo creation

What If You Dont Have Work Experience

Maybe youre a recent university graduate looking for your first design job?

Or maybe, you just picked up graphic design from online courses, but have no real experience in the field?

Whichever the case might be, dont worry!

If youre applying for entry-level graphic designer positions, theres a good chance they wont be asking a lot about your experience.

What really matters here is your portfolio.

If you already have some designs, feel free to put them up online and link it in your resume .

If you dont, though, you can always make them now.

Here are several ways you can get a portfolio :

• Pick up some freelance gigs on UpWork
• Ask your friends & acquaintances if they know anyone that needs cheap design work
• Join an online contest on a site like 99 Designs
• None of the above options working? Sit down in your own time and create some mock-ups. Design a website, some flyers, product packaging, whatever youre interested in!

If youre a recent graduate, you might want to check out our guide on how to make a student resume!

Resume Summary Discussing Several Different Abilities

Example:Innovative and effective multimedia developer with extensive experience in animation and 3D modeling. An expert with AutoCAD and Maya, with over 10 years of experience using these programs. Excellent team player who thrives when working with others on large, long-term projects such as marketing campaigns and commercials.

This summary showcases a broad range of capabilities, significant experience with using graphic design programs and a desire to work on a variety of long-term projects. It also highlights the applicants enthusiasm when working with others, demonstrating that they are a team player.

Recommended Reading: How To Do A Resume On Word

Add A Link To Your Online Design Portfolio

While your graphic design resume should depict your design skills, prospective clients and employers will want to see much more than that. Include a link to your portfolio website, where youll have the creative freedom to express your style and personality even further, showing off your best pieces.In addition, an important graphic design portfolio tip is to add your resume to your website. When you create a portfolio, its recommended to either display your CV on one of your pages , or add a document button that enables site visitors to download your graphic design resume.

Graphic Design Resume: Personal Information

The second section in the graphic design resume comprises your personal information. Your personal phone number, professional e-mail ID and the current location of residence comes in this section.

Personal Phone Number

Write your personal phone number on which you are 24×7 available.

In case you have more than one phone number, then do not include both the phone numbers in your graphic designer resume. Write only that number which you use primarily. Mentioning two numbers unnecessarily creates confusion.

Also, there is a certain manner in which you need to write your phone number. You just can’t go and simply scribble down your number in your graphic design resume.

The number will be written on the left-hand side of the graphic designer resume, just below the graphic design resume header.

Now, there are two things to remember when writing your phone number:

First, write the International Subscriber Dialing code of the country where you live in and add a plus sign before it. After this, give a single space and write your mobile number. Then give a single space after the first five digits of your personal mobile number.

Write only that phone number which you use personally, so that if the recruiter contacts you, you are available to pick his/her call.

Personal E-mail ID

E-mail ID is the second thing to be written in the personal information section.

Current Location

In your location, you will write your current location.

Recommended Reading: How To Write Descriptions For Resume

What Is A Graphic Design Resume & Why Do You Need It

A graphic designer resume is a resume that demonstrates the proficiency of a graphic designer in his/her field.

The duties of a graphic designer involve things like attending conferences with the clients, meeting with the manager of the art/marketing department to decide the scope of design and recommend clients on approaches to grasp a specific audience type.

A graphic designer needs to decide the information a composition should represent.

Graphic designer’s job requires them to develop computer graphics for brand demonstration, logotypes and internet sites. They also need to choose colors, photographs, subject matter style and outline of the graphics they are creating.

In some cases, they need to demonstrate the composition to the client or the manager of the art/marketing department.

A graphic designer should have a basic semblance of color and design, needs skills like typography, should be good at using technical tools and should be creative.

A graphic designer resume incorporates all this information and demonstrates it in a professional way. It is used when you apply for a graphic designer job.

Graphic design resume will help the recruiter know the level of your proficiency as a graphic designer.

Having a resume shows professionalism in a person and having one will get you your desired job sooner.

Graphic design resumes tell the recruiter, briefly, about your professional and educational trajectory.

How To Write The Best Graphic Designer Resume

Design is your calling.

You can photoshop with your eyes closed. You can InDesign in record time.

Youre a graphic designer wizardor witch.

But for some reason, you cant translate those amazing graphic designer skills into a job interview.

You need an amazing graphic designer resume.

And were here to help you.

Weve created a bulletproof graphic designer resume template that you can use as an example. Copy, paste, and edit it to your hearts content!

But how should you edit it? What makes this graphic designer resume bulletproof?

Simple: just follow along with our graphic designer resume guide. Youll learn how to write the best graphic designer resume by the end!

Read Also: How To Make Resume Online

Tips & Tricks To Write The Best Resume For Graphic Design

Considering that a hiring manager may read scan through hundreds of resumes, weve got some tips so that you keep gaining opportunities of landing your dream job:

• Match your graphic design resume with the job description. In most cases, the job opening contains all the information you need to excel at the procurement process, not to mention the best keywords.

• Stick to the one-page format. Imagine this as an elegant minimalistic masterpiece of yours. Convey all the vital information on one page. And structure your sections harmonically, making the most of your template to deliver a neat paper.

• Vet your resume ruthlessly. Try to reduce all the information up to half. Look for wordy phrases, redundant or unclear sentences, not-so-relevant aptitudes, and anything you can remove.

• Dont include too many skills. Fifteen designing tools would make your paper overwhelming. And you dont aim to overwhelm recruiters but to engage them effectively.

• Beware your grammar. All your effort might go to the trash for one or two typos and a grammar mistake. If the language isnt your strength, have your resume checked before applying or use any proofreading software.

• Remember your portfolio. Your resume and portfolio should complement each other. Optimizing and sending both will demonstrate your design skills amazingly, positioning you as one of the best candidates for an interview. Always have a link to your online portfolio and include clients, projects, and testimonials.

What Makes This Graphic Design Resume Sample Successful

The above graphic design resume sample works because:

• It uses simple formatting and has an organized layout.Some people may think that fancy is better, but in the case of a successful graphic design resume, simple and professional is the way to go. Keep your layout organized, with clear breaks between sections and easy-to-find information.
• It’s concise.Think about how many resumes hiring managers may skim through on a daily basis. If important information is difficult to find, why would they choose your resume? Make sure they see your information right away by utilizing phrasing on your resume and putting each phrase into bullet points.
• It has enough white space.Each page of the resume should have sufficient white space around all four sides of the document. Also be sure not to push the margins to the edge. If and when a person prints the document, you want to make sure there are no technical challenges.
• It uses common fonts.Applicant Tracking Systems can have difficulty reading some fonts. In addition, a human being may not find fancy fonts as easy to read. Instead, stay with common fonts such as Cambria, Calibri, or Times New Roman.

Make sure your resume beats the competition. Use our resume writing service today!

Samples by Category

Also Check: How To Tailor Your Resume For A Career Change

Match Your Cover Letter With Your Resume

Yep, thats right.

You might be thinking, A cover letter?! Im a designer, not a writer!

Well, heres the thing: cover letters are still very important.

They show the recruiter that youre passionate about working for THIS position in THIS company, and you arent just sending your resume all over the place.

Having a solid cover letter with your resume can significantly boost your chances of getting the job.

The first step to writing a convincing cover letter is to get the structure right. Heres how to do that:

And heres what youd write in each section:

Contact Details – Your personal contact information, including full name, profession, email, phone number, location, website .

Hiring Managers Contact Information – Full name, position, location, email

Opening Paragraph – Your introduction should be very strong. If you dont manage to hook the hiring manager here, chances are, theyre not going to read the rest of it. So, mention:

• Your name
• The position youre applying for
• Your experience summary and top achievement

The Body – Once youve got the hiring manager hooked, you can go through the rest of your background. Some of the points you can mention here are…

• Why you want to work for this specific company
• Anything you know about the companys culture
• What are your top skills and how are they relevant for the job
• If youve worked in similar industries or positions

Closing Paragraph – This is where you:

Creative Graphic Designer Resume

Why this resume works

• Graphic design is a very wide-ranging field, so sprinkle your creative graphic designer resume with keywords relating to your strongest skillsets.
• Some of the most popular mediums we’ve seen are print media, video, website design, and logo design.

Recommended Reading: How To Write Attached Resume Email

Impress The Recruiters With A Detailed Job History

Your resumes work history section compiles your past work experiences in reverse-chronological order meaning you list your jobs from most to least recent.

The ideal format for the work history consists of job title, company name, location and dates of employment. Under each job entry, you can add two or three bullet points detailing what you’ve done and accomplished in the role.

Compare these good and poor job history examples to get a clear idea of the format:

Poor example:

Senior Graphic Designer

• Worked on over three design projects simultaneously and completed them without compromising on the clients vision and design standards.
• Collaborated with the in-house teams, such as marketing and client servicing, to create 15+ successful campaigns.
• Trained and led a team of 11 junior and freelance designers.

This in-depth example clearly details the candidates experience by mentioning other departments the candidate collaborated with and the number of team members managed. This job history is more successful at impressing recruiters and showing the candidates professional capabilities thanks to the added numeric values in their tasks and accomplishments.

Incorporate these writing tips to enhance your resumes job history section:

Graphic Designer Skills Section Resume Sample

Obviously, youre not going to get anywhere without skills. Skills are the main reason anyone would hire a graphic designer, so you should put considerable emphasis on this section in your resume. In terms of priority, they are equally important your profile and work history. In some cases, the skills section will actually be the most important one for a graphic designer. For example, if an employer wants you to work with website designs, they will expect to see Figma or Sketch in your skill list alongside Photoshop. Forgetting to mention these may even become a deal-breaker.

Typically, the skills section of a graphic designer resume will highlight both hard and soft skills. Hard skills are technical capabilities, like knowledge of Photoshop or InDesign, that allow you to sit down and do your job all alone. Soft skills are people skills that mean you play well with others youre a good listener, a good talker, a good coordinator, a good negotiator.

Make a master list of all the things youre good at, even if theyre things you take for granted. Then pare it down to six or eight items that are actually unusual, and marketable, and put them on your final list.

To avoid clichés, try to think of skills that wont be on everybody elses resume, or at least find a different way to describe them.

Read Also: Are Video Resumes A Good Idea

Best Skills To Include In Your Graphic Design Resume

To stand out in the procurement process, youve got to tackle dozens of skillful candidates with one paper. And the best way to show yourself as the best fit is by showcasing your skill set.

The most relevant skills are mentioned in the job description as instructions, core responsibilities, and strengths.

If you command some of the key software required for the job, you must definitely highlight it in your graphic designer resume. This way, you introduce yourself as the ideal professional profile theyre eager to hire.

And if the required abilities dont match your skill set, you can include the most similar or transferable skills.

Graphic Designer Resume: Education

For a recruiter, your qualification is the second most important thing after your work experience.

This section provides the information around your education, like, the courses you did, names of the schools/universities attended, their location and dates of enrolling and graduating.

Make sure the information you write in this section is all true, as this section helps the recruiter decide whether you are perfectly qualified, under qualified or overqualified for the profile that you have applied for.

The graphic designer resume samples provided below will give you a better idea of how to write the education section:

Recommended Reading: How To Put On Resume Reason For Leaving

Show Off Your Successes Accomplishments And Achievements

Dont bother listing your hum-drum, daily job duties.

Start out strong like a horse racing out of the gate.

Each bullet should focus on a major win youve brought to the organization. Brag about those incredible infographics you created for the company demo. Call out that logo redesign you spearheaded.

You want to show what youve achieved at your recent graphic designer jobs, so that a recruiter gets an idea of what work you might do if they hire you.

Resume Summary With Skills In Specific Programs

Example:Skilled and reliable illustrator with over 15 years of experience working professionally within the graphic design industry. Highly skilled with various programs such as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW. Experienced with creating illustrations, possessing expert skill level in drafting storyboards, mock-ups and drafts. Specializes in creating assets for use by layout artists and web designers.

This summary focuses primarily on skills that are relevant to graphic designer positions. It also demonstrates experience with programs widely used in the graphic design industry to produce digital art. For example, CorelDRAW is one of the most commonly used programs for producing digital art, and being familiar with it gives candidates an advantage. Having 15 years of experience is another qualification that immediately stands out to employers.

Don’t Miss: How To Put Board Member On Resume

What Is A Graphic Design Resume

A graphic design resume is the most common document requested of a graphic designer in job applications, and provides summary of your education, work history, credentials, and other accomplishments and skills. Graphic design resumes still follow the basic resume format: title, summary, key skills, experience, education and professional development. It’s also common to provide a portfolio of your work.

Focus on the content of your resume as much as the design and layout, using strong action verbs, achievement statements and contributions.

Related:

Graphic Designer Work Experience

A skilled graphic designer creates anything from magazines, newspapers, books, presentations, flyers, and brochures, to upscale reports, apparel designs, product packaging, and more. A recruiter will likely be interested in your portfolio, but they will also want to know where you have worked previously.

Put together a section of relevant work experience. For instance, if you have worked as a photo editor, flash designer, animator, web designer, product designer, or anything else that relates to the field of graphic design.

The field of graphic design is like a big tree, where it branches out in different directions and leads you down different career paths. It is in your best interest to be specific regarding the work you did for each employer listed.

Read Also: How To Build A Great Resume