Internship︎
Your resume should make someone want to look at your portfolio. Your education and experience matter, but in the end it is your work, and how you present yourself, that gets you hired.
A resume is a typographic exercise.
Establish a very clear hierarchy. Use one type family with a range of weights, or two typefaces at most. Organize information with all caps, bold, italics, size, spacing and a single accent color. Avoid underlining, which reads as a link. Avoid full-color or black backgrounds, which don’t print well.
Keep it to one page.
As a student, everything should fit on one page. If it doesn’t, cut, don’t shrink the type. Body text should stay around 9 pt.
What to include:
Contact: your name, email, phone, city, portfolio link, and LinkedIn. Make the links clickable in the PDF.
Education: school, degree, expected graduation date. Add honors or relevant coursework if you have space.
Experience: design jobs, internships, freelance work and campus roles. Non-design jobs count too, since they show you're reliable. Describe what you did with action verbs.
Skills: software and tools belong here, not in your cover letter. List them plainly.
Awards & Activities: student shows, competitions, AIGA or club roles.
What to leave out
Proofread
Use spellcheck, double-check your contact information, and make sure your formatting is consistent. Look for errors spellcheck misses, like there and their, or to, too and two. Then ask a friend or family member to read it too.
Digital and Printed
Your resume will be seen in several ways: as a PDF on screen, printed by you and handed over, or printed by someone else, possibly in black and white, low on toner and without bleed. Check it all three ways.
Paper and Printing
For printed copies, research papers and find one that feels good in the hand, not thin and flimsy. Don't use a "cool" paper if the printing on it looks bad.
Match your Materials
Your resume, portfolio site, and LinkedIn should share the same name, information, and visual identity. When someone moves from your email to your portfolio to your resume, it should feel like one person.
Online Resources
your name
cell number
email address (if you are a senior change to a different non-ku address)
web address (behance works great)
Instagram (optional)
LinkedIn (optional)
:: T I P S::
phone number: use spaces or periods
email address try and get your name@gmail or hotmail or... if you are a senior no ku.edu addresses
EDUCATION
The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
BFA Design, Visual Communication Design
Expected Graduation May 20xx
Include:
Minors (list them individually, not something like Minor in Business and Art History
Certificates (Service Learning, ENTR)
Study Abroad
Workshops/ Short courses
Include GPA if it is 3.5 or higher
:: T I P S::
Do not list where you went to High School.
Study Abroad and Workshops: list date/or duration, where, and a short description
EXPERIENCE
List your experience from PRESENT to PAST
Name of Company, City, Dates worked
Short description of responsibilities.
No street address
No names
:: T I P S::
List all of your jobs. Design work, freelance projects, and internships show your skills, and other jobs show you’re reliable and hardworking, so together they give a balanced picture.
Describe what you did in short sentences or fragments that start with strong action verbs:
You don’t need to explain jobs everyone understands, like server or lifeguard. One line about something you were trusted with is enough, such as “Trained six new staff members.” Put most of your description into the experiences that relate to design. Numbers make a description stronger: how many, how often, how much.
AWARDS or AWARDS & ACTIVITIES (awards, scholarships, marks of achievement)
Date, Name of the Award (Glitch, AIGA KC, AD CLUB...)
Date, Scholarships
Date, Dean's list
etc.
:: T I P S::
If you have a written project’s objectives concept statement in your portfolio or any of your promotional pieces, INCLUDE if the project received an award, and name the award.
ACTIVITIES
KU Design Week (you can write all the workshops you did or just put KU Design Week 202x
Member of a Student Group?
Member of a National Organization?
Other online Lectures or workshops?
...
add
Any Club or Organization, date
Any activity, have a date associated with it if possible
Community Service, location, date
Center for Service Learning, project, date
Conferences Attended, date, location
:: T I P S::
Very important if you held a position include it.
SKILLS
DO NOT MAKE THIS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING on your resume!
Name platform if you are familiar with both mac and windows
Adobe Creative Suite, (any others), Microsoft Office, Include things like Letterpress, Serigraphy, (any printmaking class ), Book Binding... photography... Foreign Language
:: T I P S::
Be honest about the programs. You can say proficient in... limited experience in...
Don't forget word, power point... List programs and SPELL them correctly.
Adobe InDesign...
References are on their own sheet not listed on the resume!!!!!
REFERENCES (Can be your instructors, professionals, activity advisor...)
Do not give out until someone asks for it -- but they will so be prepared. Make sure you ask the person before you add them to your references and ask them the best way someone should get in contact with them. Sometimes its email others cell number.
Name
Company, Title
Mailing Address
Phone Number
Email
Write Content: Use the outline above and write out all your content.
Proofread. Use spellcheck, double check your contact information and make sure your formatting is consistent. Ask a friend or family member to proofread it as well. Check for errors that spellcheck programs miss (i.e. there vs. their; to, too or two).
Your Name Type Study. What typeface are you? Try your name different ways (fonts, styles, case all caps, all lowercase) do you want a title Designer, Designer and Illustrator, Photographer... maybe 25 different studies just so see how it looks.
Hierarchy Studies. How can you establish a quick read. Start with sample content. You can use this doc. an example (just a start)
Explore different layouts. Do you use one column? or 2 columns? or 3 columns? combination of 1 column and 2. Are dates in the body text or called out to the side?
Resume layout and typography examples...
Resume
A designer can tell a lot from your resume. It is often the first time they hear of you, so it introduces you as a person and as a designer. Think of it as a one-page portfolio. Your typefaces, layout, and organization all shape how they see you as a designer, and it shows what you can do on a single page. Keep it simple and readable. Skip the elaborate personal logo.Your resume should make someone want to look at your portfolio. Your education and experience matter, but in the end it is your work, and how you present yourself, that gets you hired.
A resume is a typographic exercise.
Establish a very clear hierarchy. Use one type family with a range of weights, or two typefaces at most. Organize information with all caps, bold, italics, size, spacing and a single accent color. Avoid underlining, which reads as a link. Avoid full-color or black backgrounds, which don’t print well.
Keep it to one page.
As a student, everything should fit on one page. If it doesn’t, cut, don’t shrink the type. Body text should stay around 9 pt.
What to include:
Contact: your name, email, phone, city, portfolio link, and LinkedIn. Make the links clickable in the PDF.
Education: school, degree, expected graduation date. Add honors or relevant coursework if you have space.
Experience: design jobs, internships, freelance work and campus roles. Non-design jobs count too, since they show you're reliable. Describe what you did with action verbs.
Skills: software and tools belong here, not in your cover letter. List them plainly.
Awards & Activities: student shows, competitions, AIGA or club roles.
What to leave out
- Photos of yourself.
- Skill bars, stars or percentages ("Photoshop 80%"). They don’t mean anything to an employer, and they make you look less experienced.
- An objective statement. Your cover letter or email does that job.
- References. Have them ready separately.
- High school information, once you’re in college.
Proofread
Use spellcheck, double-check your contact information, and make sure your formatting is consistent. Look for errors spellcheck misses, like there and their, or to, too and two. Then ask a friend or family member to read it too.
Digital and Printed
Your resume will be seen in several ways: as a PDF on screen, printed by you and handed over, or printed by someone else, possibly in black and white, low on toner and without bleed. Check it all three ways.
- Export a PDF with live text, not outlined text or an image. Some companies scan resumes with software that can only read real text.
- Name the file Lastname_Firstname_Resume.pdf.
- Make sure it still reads well printed in black and white.
Paper and Printing
For printed copies, research papers and find one that feels good in the hand, not thin and flimsy. Don't use a "cool" paper if the printing on it looks bad.
Match your Materials
Your resume, portfolio site, and LinkedIn should share the same name, information, and visual identity. When someone moves from your email to your portfolio to your resume, it should feel like one person.
Online Resources
- The ultimate graphic design resume tip sheet
- Please Avoid Making These Mistakes We Often See on Design Resumes
- What Not to Include on your Designer Resume in 2025
- 11 Tips to Make Your Graphic Designer Resume & Portfolio Stand Out
CONTENT
(outline on google docs)your name
cell number
email address (if you are a senior change to a different non-ku address)
web address (behance works great)
Instagram (optional)
LinkedIn (optional)
:: T I P S::
phone number: use spaces or periods
email address try and get your name@gmail or hotmail or... if you are a senior no ku.edu addresses
EDUCATION
The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
BFA Design, Visual Communication Design
Expected Graduation May 20xx
Include:
Minors (list them individually, not something like Minor in Business and Art History
Certificates (Service Learning, ENTR)
Study Abroad
Workshops/ Short courses
Include GPA if it is 3.5 or higher
:: T I P S::
Do not list where you went to High School.
Study Abroad and Workshops: list date/or duration, where, and a short description
EXPERIENCE
List your experience from PRESENT to PAST
Name of Company, City, Dates worked
Short description of responsibilities.
No street address
No names
:: T I P S::
List all of your jobs. Design work, freelance projects, and internships show your skills, and other jobs show you’re reliable and hardworking, so together they give a balanced picture.
Describe what you did in short sentences or fragments that start with strong action verbs:
- Designed weekly social posts for a campus organization with 2,000 followers
- Worked as part of time to ___
You don’t need to explain jobs everyone understands, like server or lifeguard. One line about something you were trusted with is enough, such as “Trained six new staff members.” Put most of your description into the experiences that relate to design. Numbers make a description stronger: how many, how often, how much.
AWARDS or AWARDS & ACTIVITIES (awards, scholarships, marks of achievement)
Date, Name of the Award (Glitch, AIGA KC, AD CLUB...)
Date, Scholarships
Date, Dean's list
etc.
:: T I P S::
If you have a written project’s objectives concept statement in your portfolio or any of your promotional pieces, INCLUDE if the project received an award, and name the award.
ACTIVITIES
KU Design Week (you can write all the workshops you did or just put KU Design Week 202x
Member of a Student Group?
Member of a National Organization?
Other online Lectures or workshops?
...
add
Any Club or Organization, date
Any activity, have a date associated with it if possible
Community Service, location, date
Center for Service Learning, project, date
Conferences Attended, date, location
:: T I P S::
Very important if you held a position include it.
SKILLS
DO NOT MAKE THIS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING on your resume!
Name platform if you are familiar with both mac and windows
Adobe Creative Suite, (any others), Microsoft Office, Include things like Letterpress, Serigraphy, (any printmaking class ), Book Binding... photography... Foreign Language
:: T I P S::
Be honest about the programs. You can say proficient in... limited experience in...
Don't forget word, power point... List programs and SPELL them correctly.
Adobe InDesign...
References are on their own sheet not listed on the resume!!!!!
REFERENCES (Can be your instructors, professionals, activity advisor...)
Do not give out until someone asks for it -- but they will so be prepared. Make sure you ask the person before you add them to your references and ask them the best way someone should get in contact with them. Sometimes its email others cell number.
Name
Company, Title
Mailing Address
Phone Number
HOW TO GET STARTED
Write Content: Use the outline above and write out all your content.
Proofread. Use spellcheck, double check your contact information and make sure your formatting is consistent. Ask a friend or family member to proofread it as well. Check for errors that spellcheck programs miss (i.e. there vs. their; to, too or two).
Your Name Type Study. What typeface are you? Try your name different ways (fonts, styles, case all caps, all lowercase) do you want a title Designer, Designer and Illustrator, Photographer... maybe 25 different studies just so see how it looks.
Hierarchy Studies. How can you establish a quick read. Start with sample content. You can use this doc. an example (just a start)
Explore different layouts. Do you use one column? or 2 columns? or 3 columns? combination of 1 column and 2. Are dates in the body text or called out to the side?
Resume layout and typography examples...