How to Write a Standout Graphic Designer Resume

Table Of Content

• Compare Your Entry Level Graphic Designer Resume to a Job Description:
• How to measure your impact as a graphic designer
• What to Include in Your Graphic Designer Resume?
• Salary and job outlook for graphic designers
• How to List Education
• Common Responsibilities Listed on Professional Graphic Designer Resumes:

Get specific content to boost your chances of getting the job. No two resumes will be exactly alike (nor should they be!), but the below example will give you a general sense of the type of layout and content you’ll want to use for your own. As you read it over, notice the formatting (simple text, clear headings, plenty of white space), ample use of relevant keywords, and quantified achievements. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t have a design-heavy version, too. Just be sure that your design choices don’t distract from the content of the resume,” Chevallier says.

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Compare Your Entry Level Graphic Designer Resume to a Job Description:

To land a mid- to senior-level roles like a Senior Graphic Designer or Creative Head, you need to show leadership and initiative. Pointing out promotions at past jobs shows that you are a leader as well as an exemplary employee who is committed to their professional growth. If you have held promotions in the design field, mention them. The focus remains on the candidate's more recent roles as a Graphic Designer, where they can elaborate on their relevant skills, specialties, and achievements.

How to measure your impact as a graphic designer

The skills you list should match those included in the job posting. Writing up a resume can be challenging, but it is a great opportunity to reflect on your past accomplishments and experiences—and even boost your confidence as you work toward becoming a graphic designer. When creating or editing any resume, putting your most recent experiences first makes it easier for recruiters to see your current skill level.

What to Include in Your Graphic Designer Resume?

A summary is a two-to-three-sentence statement that summarizes your skills, work experience, and any specializations. It’s best used when someone has been in graphic design for 10+ years. The content of this example showcases the candidate's years of experience and wraps up the first bullet with a high-value pitch, while the following bullet points focus on measurable results and relevant experience. Then, they highlight their focus on volunteer work and high GPA. By focusing on these areas, a graphic designer can significantly enhance a brand's appeal and recognition in the market. Please don't claim knowledge of a tool or design framework on your resume, but not be able to answer questions about it in an interview.

How should I write my resume if I have no experience as a Professional Graphic Designer?

Try thinking of your resume as a snapshot of your experience and capabilities—a sneak peek at what you can do. Here are a few rules to follow when writing your graphic design resume. The more clearly you can communicate, the better designer you will be. As a designer, you will be expected to communicate ideas mostly through images and text. You will also be articulating ideas to companies, employers and clients through email, phone and video. Team members who communicate effectively tend to find it a lot easier to share and sell ideas and work on a project with others.

Salary and job outlook for graphic designers

Graphic designers are artists, illustrators, visual geniuses — people who can draw a portrait, create a logo, produce a map, or break down a blizzard of information in an easy-to-read chart. They may be fine artists, pop artists, commercial artists or all three. And the growing potential of ChatGPT is stirring up the creative industry. Let's explore the pros & cons of AI tools for resume-making. Check out the guide to write a cover letter for a Graphic Design position.

This structure emphasizes your skill set and talents over the positions you've held. Writing is not always graphic designers’ strongest suit, or else they might have become writers instead of artists. But if you’re in this category, never fear — you’ve got ONE PAGE to write, and none of it has to be in complete sentences. The upside is that positive growth is projected for graphic designers specializing in online and multimedia design — because all those apps and websites the world has migrated toward don’t just design themselves.

If you’ve been freelancing for a while, it might make sense to structure your work experience section according to different projects rather than clients. This lets you highlight your most impressive accomplishments in a way that is easy to follow and is clear about your specific role and achievements. As a Freelance Graphic Designer, your familiarity with software tools is crucial. Therefore, don’t just list them, but give context on how you’ve utilized tools like Adobe Creative Suite and Sketch to create standout designs for various clients. If you want to land a senior role, you’ll need to show a steady pattern of career growth. If you’ve landed a promotion that represents a significant increase in responsibilities, you can list the positions separately under the same company heading.

Common Responsibilities Listed on Professional Graphic Designer Resumes:

By showing the progression from Junior to Senior Graphic Designer, with increasing ownership and leadership, this resume paints a clear picture of the candidate's career growth and impact. If you don't have access to precise metrics, you can still provide numerical context for your work. For example, mention the size of the team you collaborated with, number of assets designed per month, or number of stakeholders managed. A resume is not a one-size-fits-all document that you create once and then send to 100 employers. It’s a dynamic, editable document that you can and must adjust to address the needs and wants of each employer. What should a resume with multiple positions at the same company look like?

Once you complete your resume, review it for grammatical and spelling errors. Does each bullet point include a specific impact (in numbers) of your work whenever possible? Consider asking a friend to review your resume to catch any mistakes you may have missed.

Follow our step-by-step guide and learn how to nail your graphic designer resume with perfect graphic design samples. There’s a ton of things that are not clear when it comes to making a graphic designer resume, which brings out to this article. Now it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and actually write your resume. Upload an old resume or start from scratch with our user-friendly resume maker. You can choose from our best resume templates for an attractive and ATS-friendly layout that’s sure to snag the attention of recruiters. By taking your graphic designer resume seriously, you’ll be far ahead of the average applicant and much closer to accepting a job offer.

Speaking of an objective/summary, perhaps you’re wondering whether you need one in your graphic designer resume. Your resume is more than just your relevant experience, employment history, education, and skills; it also serves as a marketing tool. Recruiters only spend seconds looking at a given resume and tend to pass over the boring or generic ones. They want to see your unique accomplishments and the value you can provide to their company. Their main aim is to convey ideas to inform, inspire, or capture customers through physical and virtual art forms like words, images, and abstract elements like colors and shapes.

Your resume should show the company that your personality and your experience encompass all these things. By focusing on these areas, you can significantly enhance your efficiency and creativity as a Graphic Designer in Figma. Remember, consistent practice and exploration of new techniques are key to improving your Photoshop skills. Follow this outline to create a strong and well-structured Graphic Designer resume. I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed.

Get ready for your job search with a resume that highlights all of your qualifications and experience. Here is a step-by-step guide to writing a graphic design resume. Writing a resume to apply for a graphic designer role is easy if you keep a few things in mind. Let's dive in — these steps are relevant across a range of design role, including graphic design, creative leadership and web design roles. To get expert feedback on every section of your graphic design resume, try our free Score My Resume tool. It checks your resume on 30+ key criteria recruiters and hiring managers look for, so you can ensure your work experience section and overall resume are well-optimized.