Resume example · ATS-friendly

Graphic Designer Resume Example

Design is the one field where the resume is not the work, and candidates lose in two opposite ways: no portfolio link, or a resume so beautifully designed that the parser turns it into fragments. This example solves both by keeping the upload plain and the link prominent.

Use this template Score your current resume

Sample graphic designer resume

The same resume in the Modern, Executive and Elegant templates. Switch between them to see how the layout changes, then copy the structure into your own.

Minimal and left aligned, with thin rules and a near black accent.

Alex Morgan

Graphic Designer, Brand Identity and Campaign Design

alex.morgan@example.com
(555) 555-0100
Austin, TX
linkedin.com/in/alex-morgan-example

Summary

Graphic designer with 5 years across in-house and studio work, focused on brand identity and campaign design. Builds systems rather than one-off artwork: identity toolkits, template libraries and the guidelines that let other people use them correctly. Comfortable taking a project from brief through concept and revision to print-ready files and press approval.

Skills

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign
Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro
Figma (design systems, components, prototyping)
Brand identity and logo system design
Typography, hierarchy and layout
Print production and prepress (CMYK, bleed, colour profiles, proofing)
Packaging design and dielines
Digital, social and display asset production
Motion graphics and animated social assets
Design systems and template libraries
Art direction and photo retouching
Accessibility and colour contrast standards
Working to and extending brand guidelines

Experience

Graphic Designer

Northwind Labs, 2022 to Present

Designed a full brand identity for a product line launch, covering logo system, colour and type scales, packaging and a 40-page guidelines document used by three external agencies.
Produced campaign assets across print, out-of-home and social for a national campaign, adapting a single concept across 14 formats without losing the idea in the resizing.
Built a template library in Figma for 6 recurring marketing asset types, letting the marketing team produce routine variants themselves and cutting the design request queue substantially.

Associate Graphic Designer

Brightline Group, 2019 to 2022

Managed print production for packaging across 4 SKUs, from dieline setup through press proof approval, with no reprints caused by artwork error.
Art directed two photography shoots against a mood board and shot list, then handled selection and retouching for the resulting asset library.
Redesigned a 60-page annual report in InDesign, building a paragraph and character style system that made the following year's edition a two-day update rather than a rebuild.

Education

Bachelor of Science

Riverton University, 2015 to 2019

Sample content. Alex Morgan, the employers and the school shown above are fictional, and the contact details are reserved placeholders.

How to write a graphic designer resume

Keep two versions. A plain, single-column, text-first resume for the application upload, and a designed PDF for a human who asks for one or for your own site. The designed one is the portfolio piece; the plain one is what gets you past the parser.

The portfolio link goes in the contact line, before anything else. If it needs a password, put the password next to it. A designer who makes a hiring manager email for access has already lost to the one who did not.

Name the Adobe applications individually. InDesign and After Effects are screened specifically, and 'Adobe Creative Suite' as a single phrase matches neither reliably.

State your actual contribution on team projects. 'Art directed' and 'produced final artwork to an existing direction' are both legitimate, and the ambiguity between them is what makes reviewers suspicious of a whole portfolio.

Why graphic designer applications get screened out

These are the failures specific to this role: the ones a generic CV guide will not warn you about.

No portfolio link at all, which is the fastest rejection in design and entirely self-inflicted.
A portfolio link behind a password with no credentials given, or one that 404s, which gets treated as a dead link rather than chased.
A link that opens on a half-finished or years-old site, which is read as a current sample of your standard whether or not you intend it that way.
A heavily designed two-column resume submitted to an ATS, which parses into fragments so the experience never reaches the reviewer.
Software listed as 'Adobe' or 'Creative Suite' rather than the applications the posting names.
A portfolio of unbriefed personal concepts with no evidence of a client, a constraint, a revision round or a produced outcome.
Credit left unclear on team projects, so a reviewer cannot tell what you designed and stops trusting the rest.
No print production knowledge shown for a role that involves print, where a prepress mistake costs a reprint.

What drives pay for this role

The first lever is the employment model: in-house, agency and freelance price and behave differently, with agency work often trading pay for portfolio range and in-house trading range for depth and stability. Specialism separates strongly too, with brand identity, packaging, motion and product or UI design all sitting at different levels. Beyond that: whether you art direct or execute to someone else's direction, the tier of client or brand you can evidence, sector, and location, including whether a studio pays local or remote rates. A portfolio that shows commercial constraint and production work generally moves the number more than years of experience do.

Graphic Designer resume questions

Should my resume itself be heavily designed?: Not the one you upload. Applicant tracking systems routinely mangle multi-column layouts, text in shapes and custom typography, and your experience can disappear entirely. Submit a clean single-column document, then keep a designed version on your site and bring it to interview. The portfolio is where the design case gets made.
What belongs in the portfolio I link to?: Six to ten projects, strongest first, each with the brief, the constraint and the outcome in two or three lines. Reviewers are looking for whether you can solve a stated problem, not only whether you can make something attractive. A project with a real constraint described beats three unbriefed concepts.
Behance, a personal site, or a PDF?: Any of them, as long as it opens immediately and is current. A personal site gives the most control and is itself a work sample. Behance is fine and removes maintenance. A PDF is acceptable if it is small enough to email and hosted somewhere linkable, but avoid attaching a large file to an application, since size limits and filters quietly drop them.
How do I present work where I only did production, not concept?: Say so plainly and describe the craft. Production work under an existing direction is real, valued work, and being straightforward about it makes the projects you did concept more believable. Overstating the role on one project undermines a whole portfolio once a reviewer suspects it.
Do I need motion or web skills now?: Not universally, but the postings asking for animated social assets or Figma fluency alongside print have become common enough that a designer with neither narrows their options. If you have basic After Effects or Figma ability, list it honestly at the level you have. If you have neither, it is a reasonable thing to build next.

Before you send this: run your own version through the ATS resume checker to confirm it parses, or see how an ATS reads your resume in your browser first.