Graphic designer requirements, with the quote you would need
Design postings want a body of work and a tool. Evidence is the piece and who it was for. Software is secondary and must be the software you used, not the one in the ad.
Examples on this page are fictional composites, not customers and not testimonials.
Often required
The kind of piece
Packaging, a deck, a social set, a brand, or a print run.
Who it was for
A client, an internal team, or a class, labeled correctly.
Your role
Concept, production, or both. Production is not art direction.
The tool
Illustrator, Figma, or InDesign, named if named.
A constraint
A brand guide, a print spec, or a deadline you met, if written.
Often preferred, and easy to fake
- Art direction of someone else
- Motion
- A presentation you gave
What a citation looks like
Brand application
“Applied the existing brand to a 16-page sales PDF in InDesign for the partnerships team.”
Artifact, tool, and audience are cited. It does not prove you created the brand.
Motion graphics
“No sentence.”
A static PDF is not motion. Leave it unsupported.
The gap people paper over
Do not add awards, follower counts, or “led the rebrand” from production work on someone else’s system.
Questions
Should the resume be designed?
The export from this app is plain on purpose, one column, so parsers have less to break. A designed PDF can live in a portfolio. This file is the text version.
Can I list Adobe Suite?
List the apps you use. “Suite” hides gaps. The posting may ask for one app you do not have.
Related: UX designer, Marketing manager
Check your resume against a real posting