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A creative graphic designer has a strong background in art and visual design. They create visual concepts to communicate a brand’s message to its consumers. They usually work in advertising agencies, marketing companies, or independently as freelance designers.
If you want to reflect your expertise in your resume, it’s a good idea to showcase some certifications. These provide a better idea of your abilities and experience in the graphic design industry.
Creative graphic designers use multiple tools like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, etc. It is a good idea to mention those programs you use for developing your projects in your skills section, or intertwined into your work experiences (e.g. Designed prototypes using Figma...). It’ll give recruiters a practical view of what your tool stack looks like and if it aligns with that of their product/graphic design teams.
Prototyping is an experimental process in which graphic designers propose a design idea to evaluate how end users would react to the final result. It is essentially a 'testing' phase, which helps reduce a company's risk of spending several weeks developing something that isn't usable or doesn't achieve the company's goals. Creative graphic designers should put experimentation at the heart of their work, and it's often useful to emphasize it in your resume. You could use the action verb, "Prototyped", in an example like "Prototyped 25+ designs by rapidly iterating with the client over 8 weeks...".
The role of a creative designer can be broader than just graphic design. Creative designers need an excellent understanding of branding, marketing, and social media as well as proficiency with graphic design software. To land a role as a creative graphic designer, make sure your resume highlights your understanding of brand awareness and experience guiding products through the entire creative process.
Tailoring your resume to the exact job you’re applying for doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort. Including job-specific keywords in your resume title and skills section are two of the easiest ways to target your resume. Make sure you’re including keywords like product design, social media marketing, and specific graphic design programs that ATS are likely to scan for.
Including a resume summary is a great way of tailoring your resume and providing additional information about your background and accomplishments. They’re especially useful for career changers or people without a lot of experience in graphic design, but can be used to great effect to highlight your particular strengths and contextualize the achievements in your bullet points.
As a hiring manager who has recruited for top companies like Apple, Google, and Pentagram, I've seen countless resumes for creative graphic designer roles. The best resumes are the ones that effectively showcase a candidate's design skills, creativity, and impact. In this article, we'll share some key tips that will help you create a standout resume and increase your chances of landing your dream graphic design job.
When it comes to graphic design resumes, your portfolio is just as important as your resume itself. Make sure to include links to your best design projects or attach them as PDFs.
Don't just list your projects; provide context and highlight your role and the impact of your work. For example:
A resume summary is an optional section that sits at the top of your resume, just below your name and contact information. It provides a brief overview of your professional experience, skills, and achievements, giving hiring managers a quick snapshot of what you bring to the table. While not strictly necessary, a well-crafted summary can be particularly useful for creative graphic designers looking to change careers or those with extensive experience who want to provide additional context not covered elsewhere in their resume.
When writing your summary, focus on highlighting your most relevant qualifications and experiences that align with the specific graphic design position you're targeting. Avoid using an objective statement, as these are outdated and tend to focus more on what you want rather than what you can offer the employer.
Your work experience section is the heart of your resume. It's where you prove to employers that you have the right experience to excel in the role. As a creative graphic designer, focus on showcasing your most relevant design work and achievements. Use the tips below to write a work experience section that sets you apart from other candidates.
When describing your graphic design work, choose powerful action verbs that convey the impact of your work. Weak, generic verbs like 'worked on' or 'responsible for' don't give employers a sense of your contributions.
Instead of this:
Use strong graphic design verbs like:
When crafting your resume as a creative graphic designer, your education section should showcase your relevant training and qualifications. It's an opportunity to highlight your academic background and any specialized coursework or certifications that have prepared you for a successful career in graphic design.
Your skills section is one of the most important parts of your creative graphic designer resume. It's where you highlight your key abilities and expertise that make you a strong candidate for the job. Here are some tips to help you write a compelling skills section that will catch the attention of hiring managers and showcase your value as a creative professional.
Here are examples of popular skills from Creative Graphic Designer job descriptions that you can include on your resume.
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Creative Graphic Designer job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more likely you should include it in your resume.
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