Graphic Designer CV Example & Writing Guide

A graphic designer is hired on the portfolio, but the CV decides whether anyone opens it. Keep the layout clean and readable, put your portfolio link in the header, and show the business result of your designs — not just the tools you used.

Below you will find a complete graphic designer CV example, three professional summaries, ready-made bullet points and the skills employers search for. You can open the example in our free CV maker and replace the details with your own.

Graphic Designer CV example

What employers look for in a graphic designer CV

• A portfolio link: Behance, Dribbble or your own site, visible at the top of the page.
• Your speciality: Branding, social media, print, packaging, UI/UX or motion.
• Tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Figma, After Effects.
• Results: Engagement, sales, clients served and deadlines met.

Graphic Designer CV summary examples

Your summary is the first thing a recruiter reads. Keep it to two to four sentences: who you are, your strongest result and what you offer. Adapt one of these:

Experienced: Graphic designer with 5 years of agency experience creating brand identities, social media campaigns and packaging for 40+ clients in food, fashion and tech. Designs helped one client grow Instagram engagement by 85% and another lift online sales by 22%. Expert in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Figma.

Another strong example: UI/UX designer with 3 years of experience designing mobile apps and dashboards in Figma. Redesigned a checkout flow that reduced drop-off by 27% and built a design system of 120 components used by 3 product teams.

Entry level or fresher: Fine arts graduate with a strong portfolio of 12 branding and poster projects and 8 months of freelance work for 15 clients on Fiverr with a 4.9-star rating. Skilled in Photoshop, Illustrator and Canva, and looking for a junior designer role in an agency.

More ideas: 15 CV summary examples for different jobs and levels.

Bullet points for a graphic designer CV

Strong bullet points start with an action verb and include a number. Use these as a starting point and change the figures to your own:

• Design social media, print and packaging for 14 retained clients, delivering 60+ pieces of artwork a month.
• Created a campaign for a restaurant chain that raised Instagram engagement by 85% in 3 months.
• Rebranded a skincare start-up — logo, packaging and website visuals — contributing to a 22% rise in online sales.
• Cut revision rounds from an average of 4 to 2 by presenting design options with clear reasoning.
• Produced posts, banners, brochures and menus for 20+ small business clients.
• Built a template library in Illustrator that reduced production time for recurring posts by 40%.
• Prepared print-ready files and checked proofs with printers, with no reprints due to file errors.
• Designed a 48-page annual report and a set of infographics for a non-profit.
• Created 30+ motion graphics and reels in After Effects, averaging 50,000 views each.
• Designed UI screens for a mobile app with 25,000 downloads.
• Managed 5–6 projects at once and met 98% of client deadlines.

Skills for a graphic designer CV

Pick the 8–15 skills that match the job advert and that you can prove at interview:

• Brand Identity
• Logo Design
• Social Media Design
• Packaging Design
• Typography
• Layout & Print Design
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe InDesign
• Figma
• After Effects (basic)
• Canva
• Client Presentations

See 100+ skills for a CV for more hard and soft skills by job.

How to write a graphic designer CV: 4 tips

Keep the CV itself simple

A clean, well-spaced one-page CV shows design judgement. Heavy graphics and skill bars often break in ATS software — save the creativity for the portfolio.

Link the portfolio in the header

Recruiters will not search for it. Put a short, working link next to your contact details.

Give outcomes

Design is hired to solve a business problem. Mention engagement, sales, sign-ups or time saved whenever you can.

Curate

Eight to twelve strong projects are better than forty average ones. Match them to the kind of work the employer does.

Job titles this CV example works for

The same structure works for related roles, including: Designer, Senior Graphic Designer, Junior Graphic Designer, Visual Designer, Brand Designer, UI Designer, UX Designer, UI UX Designer, UI/UX Designer. Change the headline, summary and keywords to match the exact title in the job advert.

Make your graphic designer CV in minutes

Click Edit this CV example to open it in Free CV Maker. Replace the details with your own, watch your CV score rise as you type, then download a clean, ATS-friendly PDF or an editable Word file — free, with no sign-up. Already have a CV? Run it through the free ATS CV checker, and add a matching letter with the cover letter maker.