Design Director

Design Director Resume Keywords and Skills (Hard Skills)

Here are the keywords and skills that appear most frequently on recent Design Director job postings. In other words, these are the most sought after skills by recruiters and hiring managers. Go to Sample Templates ↓ below to see how to include them on your resume.

Remember that every job is different. Instead of including all keywords on your resume, identify those that are most relevant to the job you're applying to. Use the free Targeted Resume tool to help with this.

Choose a category
  • Art Direction
  • Concept Development
  • Brand Development
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Branding & Identity
  • Graphic Design
  •  Find out what your resume's missing
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Logo Design
  • Sketching
  • Typography
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Branding
  • Design Strategy
  • Experience Design
  • User Experience (UX)
  • Graphics
  • Interaction Design
  • User Interface Design
  • Design Research
  • Design Management
  • Creative Strategy
  • Corporate Identity
  • Sustainable Design
  • Visual Communication
  • Architectural Design

  •   Show full list

Resume Skills: Design Tools

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe XD
  • Sketch
  • Figma
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • InDesign
  • Illustrator
  • Canva
  • Inkscape
  • CorelDraw
  • Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign)
  • InVision
  • Marvel
  • Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), Sketch, Figma, Canva
  •  Match your resume to these skills

Resume Skills: Project Management

Resume Skills: Digital Marketing

  • SEO
  • Google Analytics
  • Content Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Email Marketing
  • A/B Testing
  • SEO optimization, A/B Testing, Social Media Advertising (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter)
  •  Match your resume to these skills

Resume Skills: Languages

Resume Skills: Digital Media

Resume Skills: 3D Tools

Resume Skills: Programming

Resume Skills: UX Techniques

Resume Skills: Prototyping & UI Design

Resume Skills: Coding

  Does your resume contain all the right skills? Paste in your resume in the AI Resume Scan ↓ section below and get an instant score.

Compare Your Resume To These Design Director Skills (ATS Scan)

Paste your resume below and our AI will identify which keywords are missing from your resume from the list above (and what you need to include). Including the right keywords will help you get past Applicant Tracking Systems (i.e. resume screeners) which may scan your resume for keywords to see if you're a match for the job.

Sample Design Director Resume Examples: How To Include These Skills

Add keywords directly into your resume's work experiences, education or Skills section, like we've shown in the examples below. Use the examples below as inspiration.

Choose a template
Your Name
Design Director
Dallas, USA  •  (123) 456-789  •  yourname@resumeworded.com  •  linkedin.com/in/your-profile
EXPERIENCE
Resume Worded  - New York City, USAJune 2018 - Present
Design Director
Directed the rebranding initiative leading to a 25% increase in brand recognition and user interaction
Implemented a concept development strategy resulting in faster project completion times by 15%
Led a design team to produce award-winning designs increasing public engagement by 40% through brand development
Adopted Adobe Creative Suite in the design process; improved work-flow efficiency by 30%
Spearheaded UX/UI design strategies to enhance user interaction, increasing app downloads by 20%
Coached.com  - San Diego, USAJanuary 2015 - May 2018
Senior Designer
Launched a new product line through strategic brand development, leading to a rise in sales by 30%
Managed a team of designers and led the process of logo designing leading to increased brand recognition
Built a typography-based design structure that led to better visual aesthetics and increased customer engagement by 20%
Apple  - Los Angeles, USAJune 2011 - December 2014
Graphic Designer
Used advanced graphic design skills to create compelling visuals for marketing materials which boosted sales by 25%
Introduced a design research method for better understanding consumer behavior resulting in higher customer retention rates
EDUCATION
Resume Worded University  - London, UKJune 2011
Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design
Emphasis on Digital Visualization
Resume Worded Academic Center  - Berlin, GermanyMay 2007
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Design
Minors in Marketing and Art History
Awards: Dean's List for 2005 and 2006 (Top 5%)
SKILLS
Design Tools: Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), Sketch, Figma, InVision, Marvel
Management Software: Asana, Trello, Jira, Slack, Google Suite
Programming: HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Python, Ruby on Rails
UX Techniques: A/B Testing, Wireframing, Prototype Design, User Interviews, Usability Testing
OTHER
Certifications: Certified User Experience Designer (Nielsen Norman Group, 2019), Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Photoshop (2018)
Leadership & Volunteering: AIGA Design Conference Committee Member, Mentor at Techstars Startup Weekend
Awards: AIGA's '50 Designers to Watch' Awardee, Fast Company Innovation by Design Awardee (2021)
Projects: Led design of 'Zest', a fitness app featured on the iOS App Store's 'New and Noteworthy' (2020)
Design Director

How do I add skills to a Design Director resume?

1
Review the job posting closely.

Go through the Design Director posting you're applying to, and identify hard skills the company is looking for. For example, skills like Branding & Identity, Brand Development and Graphic Design are possible skills. These are skills you should try to include on your resume.

2
Add industry skills like Concept Development and Adobe InDesign.

Add other common skills from your industry - such as Art Direction, Adobe Creative Suite and Adobe Illustrator - into your resume if they're relevant.

3
Add skills into your work experience.

Incorporate skills - like Design Strategy, Corporate Identity and Design Research - into your work experience too. This shows hiring managers that you have practical experience with these tools, techniques and skills.

4
Highlight leadership and management skills.

Hiring managers often want to see evidence of leadership and management on a Design Director resume, so try to include any examples of where you led a project or managed other people.

5
Showcase your design and creative skills.

A popular skill set for a Design Director is creativity and design, so try to include evidence of them on your resume.

6
Use the exact job title.

Try to add the exact job title, Design Director, somewhere into your resume to get past resume screeners. See the infographic for how to do this.

Word Cloud for Design Director Skills & Keywords

The following word cloud highlights the most popular keywords that appear on Design Director job descriptions. The bigger the word, the more frequently it shows up on employer's job postings. If you have experience with these keywords, include them on your resume.

Top Design Director Skills and Keywords to Include On Your Resume

Resume Skills and Keywords from Related Jobs

We also found variations and further specializations to your job title. Browse through the related job titles to find additional keywords that you can include into your resume.

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Design Director Resume Templates

Here are examples of proven resumes in related jobs and industries, approved by experienced hiring managers. Use them as inspiration when you're writing your own resume. You can even download and edit the resume template in Google Docs.

Resume Example
Graphic Design Manager


Resume Example
Electrical Design Engineer


Resume Example
Interior Design Assistant


Resume Example
Mechanical Design Engineer


Resume Example
Safety Design Engineer


Resume Example
Fashion Design Director


Browse Skills from Similar Jobs

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the top skills you should add to your Design Director resume?

Here are some of the most popular skills we see on Design Director resumes:

  • Art Direction
  • Concept Development
  • Brand Development
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Branding & Identity
  • Graphic Design
  • Adobe InDesign

Target your Resume to a Job Description

While the keywords above are a good indication of what skills you need on your resume, you should try to find additional keywords that are specific to the job. To do this, use the free Targeted Resume tool. It analyzes the job you are applying to and finds the most important keywords you need on your resume.

It is personalized to your resume, and is the best way to ensure your resume will pass the automated resume filters.

Start targeting your resume

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