Illustrator Resume Sample
Underscore your adaptability and a multidisciplinary range of skills and accomplishments.
In today’s world of hypervisual consumption—from endless streaming, comic books, and interactive websites to video games, Internet memes, and fine-art shows—there’s no shortage of need for illustrators. But to succeed these days, your illustrator resume should avoid pigeonholing your virtuosity. Rather, showcase your skills’ malleability and how adaptable you can be.
Plus, you should:
- Include an illustrator professional summary that recaps your career in an elegantly compressed manner.
- Include a section dedicated to your wide-ranging set of illustrator skills (i.e., the mediums you’ve worked with, your areas of expertise, and the software you’re familiar with).
- Add illustrator keywords for assorted fields to get past digital screening.
- Use an expressive, active voice to list your achievements, while providing highlights with examples that illuminate your creative span.
- Mention any awards or recognition you’ve received.
- Mention any special certifications you’ve obtained.
And even if your fortes are in the aesthetic realm, your illustrator resume should not have any mistakes or typos. Recruiters are trained to scan resumes quickly, but spelling or grammatical oversights on your part could be a dealbreaker. Learn more from our template below.
Illustrator Resume
Harmony Jeong, MFA
harmony@email.com | Los Angeles, CA | 555-555-5555 | linkedin.com/harmony.jeong | website.com/portfolio
ILLUSTRATOR
Professional illustrator with a fine-art background. Pushes design boundaries, contributing to the growth and creative culture of design and illustration teams. Equally skilled in traditional and digital mediums—creating beautiful illustrations for print and web that engage audiences and provide a seamless user experience.
KEY SKILLS
Mediums | Digital Illustration, VR, Pen and Ink, Charcoal, Watercolor, and Multimedia.
Areas of Expertise | 2D & 3D Animation, Graphic Design, Infographics, Marketing Collateral, and Data Visualization.
Technical Skills | Sketch, Blender, ZBrush, and Adobe CC: Photoshop, Illustrator.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Senior Illustrator | Company One | Los Angeles, CA | 20XX – Present
Partner with teams of designers, editors, and front-end developers to create clean, branded illustrations, icons, and graphics that bring to life the company’s visual identity across all touchpoints. Mentor and inspire junior illustrators to become integral parts of the creative team with refined, efficient processes and compelling illustration concepts.
- Transformed company’s digital presence, creating new visual content for blogs, marketing materials, websites, and social media to present a unified brand identity across all channels.
- Elevated company blog—developing illustrations that dramatized editorial content—and generated interest leading to a tripled following and 112% greater engagement.
- Drove efficiency, reducing time to delivery 93% across the team by introducing structured project-management protocols to centralize communication, monitor timelines, and codify the delivery process.
Illustrator | Company Two | Los Angeles, CA | 20XX – 20XX
Developed scenic and character illustrations to shape the style and experience of a fantasy video-game world. Collaborated with a talented team of concept artists, illustrators, and designers to create images for marketing materials, loading screens, and social media content. Expanded design capabilities through research and exploration.
- Translated concepts and briefs into detailed environments, gameplay, cutscenes, and cinematic vignettes, earning a Player’s Choice award and Best Art Direction.
- Increased consistency and cohesion among the design team by defining and documenting illustration best-practices and implementing a digital asset management system.
- Guided new hires, coaching them in illustration best-practices and departmental processes—sharing knowledge, and providing feedback on creative submissions.
Illustrator | Freelance | Los Angeles, CA | 20XX – 20XX
Delivered freelance illustration services to individual and corporate clients, using traditional and digital mediums to create assets for print and digital publications. Managed the project lifecycle, consulting with clients to set expectations, budgets, and deliverables—creating illustrations and delivering production-ready art within established timelines.
- Illustrated Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book, hand-painting over 25 original watercolor illustrations.
- Earned and sustained a 100% satisfaction rating with five-star reviews by providing best-in-class service and quality.
EDUCATION
MFA in Illustration | University One | Los Angeles, CA
BFA in Studio Art | College One | Los Angeles, CA
Certificate in Digital Illustration | Organization One | Los Angeles, CA
If needed, download a Word version of our illustrator resume.
If you’re focused on illustrating as a fine art, there’s positive news: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there’s usually a stable set of buyers in the form of museums and private collectors. So the BLS is projecting a 14 percent job-growth rate for illustrators and other fine artists over the next decade, which is faster than the average for all occupations. And when it comes to creating art for functional versus aesthetic purposes (to work on websites, mobile platforms, and various digital media), there are good signs there too, as the BLS expects an 11 percent job-growth rate for art directors, which is also faster than the average.
In addition, we can get you some data related to pay. The median salary for an illustrator/artist is $21.71 per hour, while it’s $48,882 per year for a graphic designer, $50,350 per year for a web designer, and $104,884 per year for an art director. Also, salaries can change depending on your location, so make use of Monster’s convenient Salary Tools, where you can input the job you’re seeking and the city you’re in for info specific to your area.
Meanwhile, check out these cities that have a high demand for illustrators:
If you need to extend your reach, you can go over all the illustration jobs available on Monster.
Paint Yourself a Multihued Career With Monster’s Help
The path to success as an illustrator requires talent and a firmness of purpose, but also an inveterate ability and desire to be versatile—which needs to be displayed on your illustrator resume. The digital era has opened up so many possibilities for visual depiction, and we’ll show you to maximize your skills and experience so that you can engage with several different industries. So contact Monster’s experts now to make your resume sparkle with your accomplishments, formatting updates, and some design enhancements too.