Graphic Designer resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 17 skills and tools that come up in graphic designer job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 10
- Typography (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Brand identity (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Brand guidelines (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Logo design (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Packaging design (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Layout design (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Print production (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Prepress (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Motion graphics (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Social media graphics (used in Grace's sample resume)
Tools & software · 7
- Adobe Creative Cloud (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Adobe Illustrator (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Adobe InDesign (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Adobe Photoshop (used in Grace's sample resume)
- After Effects (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Figma (used in Grace's sample resume)
- Canva (used in Grace's sample resume)
17 of 17 appear in Grace's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
Adobe Illustrator, Packaging design
Weak: Skills: Adobe Illustrator, Packaging design
Strong: Led the packaging design refresh for a 9-product sauce line in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, preparing print-ready files with dielines and Pantone color specs
Figma, Canva, Brand guidelines, Social media graphics
Weak: Skills: Figma, Canva, Brand guidelines, Social media graphics
Strong: Wrote brand guidelines and built templates in Figma and Canva so the marketing team can make on-brand social media graphics without waiting for a designer
Prepress
Weak: Skills: Prepress
Strong: Cut print revision rounds from 4 to 2 on average by adding a prepress checklist and attending press checks with our printer
Adobe Photoshop, Brand guidelines
Weak: Skills: Adobe Photoshop, Brand guidelines
Strong: Retouched product photos in Adobe Photoshop and built email and web banners to each client's brand guidelines
Strong bullets come from Grace's sample resume and our graphic designer bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If a graphic designer post asks for Adobe Creative Cloud and you've used it, say Adobe Creative Cloud, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a graphic designer post says "Adobe Illustrator", write "Adobe Illustrator", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on Typography — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Adobe Illustrator. A bullet like the one under Graphic Designer in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
Which of these does your resume say?
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Applying to one post? Scan its keywords against your resume.
Keep going
/ Questions
Graphic Designer keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a graphic designer resume have?
There's no magic number. Grace's sample resume uses all 17 terms on this page, because each one fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If a graphic designer post says "Adobe Creative Cloud", write "Adobe Creative Cloud" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Grace's sample, Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma and Brand identity are in the summary and Adobe Illustrator shows up in a bullet under Graphic Designer. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a graphic designer resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in graphic designer posts include Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
Keywords for related roles
All 88 rolesSee which of these your resume already says.
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