Graphic Designer resume example: what to show and how to write it
A graphic designer creates visual communication for brands and campaigns. The portfolio does most of the persuading, so the resume must point to it and show the scope and outcome of the work.
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What a graphic designer resume has to show
- A portfolio link that works, at the top
- Types of work: identity, packaging, digital, print, motion
- Clients or employers and the scale of the project
- Tools, and how you worked with stakeholders
Graphic Designer resume summary example
Illustrative example. Replace every bracketed item with your own facts.
Graphic designer with [X] years in brand and campaign design for consumer products, working from brief to production files. Fluent in Adobe Creative Cloud and Figma, and used to presenting options to non-designers. Looking for an in-house brand team.
Experience bullets that carry results
Illustrative example. [X] marks a number only you can supply; do not publish a figure you cannot support.
- Designed a packaging system for [X] products that was adopted across [X] retailers.
- Produced [X] campaign assets a month across [X] channels, meeting a [X]-day turnaround.
- Led a refresh of the company's brand guidelines, used by [X] teams and [X] agencies.
- Presented design options to stakeholders and shortened the approval cycle from [X] to [X] rounds.
Skills for a graphic designer resume
Hard skills
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Figma
- Typography and layout
- Brand identity
- Print production
Soft skills
- Taking feedback
- Presenting work
- Meeting deadlines
- Working with non-designers
Show soft skills through a bullet that proves them rather than as a list of adjectives.
Common graphic designer resume mistakes
- Omitting the portfolio link or sending a broken one
- Letting the resume design outshine the portfolio and bury the details
- Listing software with star ratings
- Describing assets made with no sense of the problem they solved
ATS and keyword guidance
Design postings name tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma, InDesign) and work types. Include them in plain text, even if the resume design is expressive: a parser reads text, not the layout.
To see which of a posting's skills your resume is missing, run it through the ATS resume checker.
A template family to start from
Monogram & Cards (initials badge, card entries). The family's flagship is a UX designer resume, and its cards give projects room.