Designer Resume Writing Guide with Examples and Tips

A designer’s job duties not only include making things beautiful, pleasing, or eye-catching. It’s also about making connections to people and how people act, interact, and understand each other and the world around them.

You help people make every subtle decision that shapes the future of our daily life. Nevertheless, you have to persuade others to trust you with your talent and work to turn your design into an impact.

Surely, you know more than others about how to make your designer resume aesthetically pleasing. However, writing a designer resume is not only about creativity.

We’ll walk you through the tips to write a professional interview-winning designer resume. 

To start writing a designer resume, first adopt a format. The right format will present your expertise and strengths clear and straightforward, as well as retaining your unique personality in a designer resume.

1. Chronological resume format

Adopting the chronological resume format allows you to organize your design experience in a timely order, and focus on delivering quality context about design achievements and special moments in the designer resume. 

2. Functional resume format

The functional resume features skills as the main focus and uses achievements as examples to support any design skills.

3. Combinational resume format 

A combinational resume format combines the chronological format and the functional resume format to demonstrate all the way you desire.

However, it can sometimes be repetitive. In addition, it’s not suitable for junior designers who have few achievements to showcase on their resumes. 

Your designer resume file type depends on the application channel. Read the requirements of the job description once more before exporting the designer resume file.

1. PDF format 

A PDF format is recommended as it’s device-friendly across platforms. It also retains your designer resume’s layout, font style, and margins intact. Of course, as a designer, your instinct will always lead you to a PDF file. 

2. Word format

Adopt an MS word format if the company specifically asks for a word file. It can easily ruin your layout and is unfriendly for platforms except for PCs, so it’s not ideal for a designer resume. 

✅ Advice 1: Use skill-based (functional) resume format.

If you are writing a designer resume as a junior designer without much experience, try adopting a functional (skill-based) format.

Highlight graphic design, UI/UX, product design, web design, etc. skills in your designer resume to make up for the lack of experience. 

✅ Advice 2: Adopt a career objective statement.

Even without experience, you can show ambition and potential design creativity in your designer resume.

Use a clear design career objective to leave a positive impression on the hiring manager or senior designer.

✅ Advice 3:  Highlight education and awards section

If you don’t have abundant experience to show off in the designer resume, make other sections shine. 

Highlight your design education and design awards so the hiring manager will have a concrete idea about your skills. 

A resume for a designer’s purpose, different from a designer’s portfolio, is a document that lists your professional experience in the text.

In order to make your designer resume stand out, use a resume structure that best suits you. Focus on delivering strong context in descriptions on your designer resume. You can prove your design skills in the portfolio.

1. Resume Profile (Personal Information)

List your contact details on the top of the page, including:

• Name
• Email
• Phone Number
• Portfolio Website
• LinkedIn Profile (optional)
• Location (optional)
  

2. Resume Headline

A resume headline is a short statement on top of the designer resume that announces your current or expected design position. 

3. Resume Summary

A resume summary is a small paragraph that summarizes your entire work experience so the hiring manager will have a clear idea of your ability without having to read through your designer resume.

A resume summary should demonstrate the essence of your experience and respond to the job description post as well. To do so, integrate keywords in the job posting, so you can seize their attention.

4. Resume Objective

For freshers, try a designer resume objective instead of a summary if you don’t have sufficient experience. A resume objective shouts out the strong motivation for applying and your strong skills. 

5. Skills

Listing skills in a designer resume can be a nuisance as most designers are armed with a wide variety of skills. If there’s a long list, categorizing skills is a good way to make it easy for the hiring manager to read your designer resume.

6. Work Experience

The experience section is where the recruiter looks closer. Before writing the experience section, read through the job description once more.

Select critical keywords from the posting, and make sure you use the same terms naturally in your designer resume. 

List the most recent design experience first. Add 2-4 bullet points that explain achievements with concrete details and quantified results. Numbers are more persuasive to hiring managers and clients.

7. Education

If you have a handful of work projects to showcase in the portfolio, keep the education section simple in your designer resume.

However, for juniors who don’t have much work to present, the education section matters.

8. Additional Information

For designers, a portfolio proves your competence more than a designer resume. Other than work experience, you can add an extra section to include:

• Contest awards or honorable mentions
• Prominent works or side projects
• Hobbies or serious leisures
• Reference list

👍 1: Tailor the designer resume to the job description.

Tailoring your designer resume is essential for job application. 

Using the exact words in the job description will show the hiring manager that you’re the right fit. It also increases your chance to pass the ATS system and shows your understanding of the company.

👍 2: Make it concise and relevant to the job.

Designers are usually multi-talented. Nevertheless, when writing a designer resume, focusing on the skills and experience relevant to the job description is crucial. Your work responsibilities descriptions should align with the job application. Cut out unrelated duties to make it concise.

👍 3: Refer to online designer resume and portfolio examples.

We all look for online designer resume samples and portfolio examples. Refer to examples online, learn from them, and avoid mistakes you see in them. Keep your portfolio clean and comprehensible.

👍 4: Pay attention to the format of your designer resume and portfolio.

Pay extra attention to colors, font styles, font size, and line spacing on the resume, especially for graphic designer jobs or UI/UX designer jobs. You can use a different font for headings, which makes it easy for the hiring manager to skim your resume.

👍 5: Focus on thought process and project objectives for portfolios.

To make a good design portfolio, be clear about project objectives and storytelling techniques. One of the essential parts of a good designer’s portfolio is to provide a context for design decisions.

Here are just several questions to ask yourself when you write about a project:

• What problem or objective do you have initially?
• What are your roles in this project?
• What is the scope or constraints of this project?
• Who are the users and audience?
• What insight or interesting discoveries are found during each phase? 
• How are design decisions made or selected? 
• What effect are you intending to bring to users? 
• What is the final result or how do you accomplish the final presentation?
• What improvements can be made next time?

An online design portfolio website is crucial for any designer, including freelance designers, entry-level designers, or even art directors. They are easier to update, share, and manage than PDF files.

Use portfolio builders to save time on designing and focus on delivering the quality design process.

🖋 Should I use a template for my designer resume?

Using a designer resume template ensures the resume is clear and easy to read, and most importantly it’s ATS friendly. In addition, it takes less time to edit than starting from scratch. 

Be careful when using a resume template for designer jobs. You should edit it to be both ATS friendly and consistent with who you are as a designer.

🖋 What is the best designer resume template?

• For freshers and juniors with no work experience:
  Choose a template that hides your lack of experience, and highlights design skills or side projects to show your expertise.
• For senior designers and experienced candidates:
  A simple design resume template will be sufficient to present your experience.

🖋 Where can I get a free resume template?

• Cake is an online free multimedia resume & portfolio builder. Our resume builder features great flexibility for customization. You can easily add sections and multimedia columns using our online resume builder!
  
  Moreover, You can also surf through real designer resume examples and samples to get inspired. 

• Word Doc. / Google Doc.

Word and Google offer free resume templates for everyone to choose from. You can refer to them, edit them and export a PDF file with ease!