Skills for a graphic designer resume
Every designer lists Photoshop, Illustrator and Figma. Nobody is hired for owning software. What separates a shortlisted resume is evidence that your work shipped, worked inside a system, and moved something a business cared about.
Craft
State the scope and the clock: 'full identity in six weeks — logo, type scale, colour system, 40-icon set.'
Hard to claim, easy to show — your portfolio does this. On the resume, name the systems you built rather than the adjective.
'30+ Lottie animations with a reusable easing library' — reuse signals seniority more than volume does.
'Design tokens in Figma consumed directly by a four-developer team' proves you work with engineers, not adjacent to them.
Working with others
Show a decision you defended, or a process you set: design reviews, critique sessions, sign-off structures.
Name who you worked with — engineers, product, marketing — and what you shipped together.
'Wrote the animation guidelines now used across the product org' is worth more than any tool name.
Tools (list these, but briefly)
One line. These are table stakes — the space is better spent on what you made with them.
Say how your work reaches developers; teams screen for this more than for software names.
Words postings use that resumes leave out
These come up constantly in graphic designer postings and are missing from most resumes. Add the ones that are true of your work — and say them the way the posting says them, because that is the vocabulary being screened for.
One rule above all of this: a skill you cannot defend for five minutes is worse than one you leave off. Keyword-stuffing gets you into the room and then loses you the interview.
Paste a job description into the free checker and it marks each stated requirement met, partial or missing — quoting the line from your resume that earns it. No signup, nothing stored.
Common questions
Should a designer's resume list software or outcomes?
Both, in that proportion: one compact tools line, and the rest of the page on what you made and what happened. 'App-store conversion up 18% in the quarter after launch' is the line that separates a designer from a decorator.
Does my resume matter if I have a portfolio?
The portfolio decides whether they like your work; the resume decides whether they open the portfolio — and for large companies, whether software passes it on at all. Put the portfolio URL in the header where it cannot be missed.