Top 12 Assistant Designer Skills to Put on Your Resume

In a crowded job market, assistant designers who shine do more than make things look good. They support the creative engine, move projects forward, and communicate ideas with clarity. Your resume should reflect that mix of craft and capability. Below, you’ll find the 12 core skills employers scan for—practical, current, and ready to put to work.

Assistant Designer Skills

1. Photoshop
2. Illustrator
3. InDesign
4. Sketch
5. Figma
6. AutoCAD
7. Rhino
8. SolidWorks
9. HTML/CSS
10. UX/UI Design
11. Prototyping
12. 3ds Max

1. Photoshop

Photoshop is a digital imaging and graphic tool for editing photos, crafting visuals, retouching, compositing, and color work. Perfect for polishing assets and creating production-ready graphics.

Why It's Important

It lets an assistant designer refine images, build visuals, and communicate concepts quickly. Production teams expect pixel-precise outputs—Photoshop delivers.

How to Improve Photoshop Skills

Keep improving by doing, not just reading.

1. Nail the fundamentals: layers, masks, selections, adjustments.
2. Practice with real briefs: redesign posters, retouch portraits, build social assets.
3. Memorize shortcuts: speed is a superpower.
4. Study workflows: non-destructive editing, smart objects, color management.
5. Push advanced techniques: compositing, frequency separation, custom actions.
6. Seek feedback: iterate fast, learn faster.

How to Display Photoshop Skills on Your Resume

2. Illustrator

Illustrator is a vector graphics editor for logos, icons, typography, illustrations, and crisp shapes that scale cleanly from mobile screens to billboards.

Why It's Important

Vectors mean precision. Clean lines, flexible resizing, professional deliverables—brand teams rely on it.

How to Improve Illustrator Skills

1. Master the Pen tool and anchor point control.
2. Use the Pathfinder and Shape Builder to combine forms efficiently.
3. Learn shortcuts to move faster than your mouse.
4. Build reusable assets: symbols, graphic styles, libraries.
5. Practice typography: kerning, hierarchy, optical balance.
6. Recreate real brand marks to understand professional construction.

How to Display Illustrator Skills on Your Resume

3. InDesign

InDesign is the standard for layout and publishing—brochures, magazines, reports, ebooks—with strong typography and multi-page control.

Why It's Important

Complex layouts need structure. InDesign organizes grids, masters, and styles so large documents stay tidy and consistent.

How to Improve InDesign Skills

1. Lock in the basics: master pages, styles, links, preflight.
2. Deepen typography: leading, tracking, baselines, optical alignment.
3. Use templates and grids to learn solid layout systems.
4. Build paragraph and character styles to stay consistent.
5. Learn shortcuts and customize your workspace.
6. Study design principles: contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity.
7. Practice exporting for print and interactive PDFs with proper bleeds and color profiles.

How to Display InDesign Skills on Your Resume

4. Sketch

Sketch is a macOS design app focused on UI, icons, and workflows for product teams, with strong symbol and library support.

Why It's Important

It makes interface design fast and systematic. Components, responsive resizing, and shared libraries keep teams in sync.

How to Improve Sketch Skills

1. Learn the interface and core tools end to end.
2. Adopt plugins to automate repetitive work.
3. Memorize key shortcuts for layout, nesting, and alignment.
4. Build a tiny design system with symbols, styles, and tokens.
5. Prototype flows and test interactions.
6. Study real product UIs and recreate screens.

How to Display Sketch Skills on Your Resume

5. Figma

Figma is a collaborative, cloud-first design tool for interfaces, prototypes, and shared systems—teams design together, literally on the same file.

Why It's Important

Real-time collaboration, component libraries, and smooth handoff reduce back-and-forth. It’s where modern product teams live.

How to Improve Figma Skills

1. Own the basics: frames, constraints, autolayout, components.
2. Use community files and UI kits to dissect professional setups.
3. Practice daily: redesign flows, clean up legacy files, iterate.
4. Explore plugins for content, icons, accessibility, and QA.
5. Prototype interactions with variables and advanced transitions.
6. Ask for critique and iterate quickly.
7. Stay current: new features drop often—try them on a small test file.

How to Display Figma Skills on Your Resume

6. AutoCAD

AutoCAD is CAD software for precise 2D drafting and 3D modeling—architecture, interiors, product layouts, and technical drawings.

Why It's Important

Accuracy matters. AutoCAD streamlines revisions, maintains standards, and produces production-grade plans.

How to Improve AutoCAD Skills

1. Master core commands and drawing/modification tools.
2. Learn and customize shortcuts for speed.
3. Set up templates with layers, linetypes, and title blocks.
4. Practice 3D basics to communicate form and fit.
5. Automate with blocks, dynamic blocks, and scripts where possible.
6. Study standards for dimensioning, annotations, and plotting.
7. Work on real scenarios and iterate on feedback from senior designers.

How to Display AutoCAD Skills on Your Resume

7. Rhino

Rhino (Rhinoceros 3D) is a NURBS-based 3D modeler for complex geometry—great for architecture, product design, and fabrication workflows.

Why It's Important

Organic shapes, precise surfaces, intricate details—Rhino handles them without breaking a sweat, and plays well with plugins and fabrication tools.

How to Improve Rhino Skills

1. Learn core modeling techniques: curves, surfaces, solids, trims.
2. Practice daily by recreating real objects and assemblies.
3. Memorize useful commands and aliases to work quickly.
4. Explore Grasshopper for parametric workflows.
5. Model for manufacturing: tolerances, watertight meshes, clean topology.
6. Seek critique on topology and surface continuity.

How to Display Rhino Skills on Your Resume

8. SolidWorks

SolidWorks is parametric CAD for 3D modeling, assemblies, drawings, and simulation—widely used in product and mechanical design.

Why It's Important

It enables design intent, revision control, and manufacturable models. Parts talk to assemblies; changes ripple cleanly.

How to Improve SolidWorks Skills

1. Strengthen fundamentals: sketches, constraints, features, and mates.
2. Practice configurations and design tables for variants.
3. Use proper naming and feature order to avoid fragile models.
4. Learn drawings: GD&T basics, callouts, BOMs.
5. Explore Simulation for quick feasibility checks.
6. Adopt shortcuts and custom toolbars for speed.
7. Rebuild existing parts to understand best practices.

How to Display SolidWorks Skills on Your Resume

9. HTML/CSS

HTML structures content. CSS styles it. Together they shape responsive, accessible, and attractive web experiences.

Why It's Important

Designers who understand the medium create cleaner, more feasible interfaces—and communicate better with developers.

How to Improve HTML/CSS Skills

1. Learn the core: semantic HTML, modern CSS layout (Flexbox, Grid), accessibility fundamentals.
2. Build small projects: landing pages, components, style guides.
3. Make it responsive with fluid units and media queries.
4. Use DevTools to inspect, tweak, and debug layouts in the browser.
5. Study frameworks like Bootstrap or Tailwind to understand utility patterns and components.
6. Try preprocessors (Sass) and CSS variables for maintainable systems.
7. Keep learning with trusted references such as MDN and front-end communities.
8. Check support with compatibility resources before using new features.

How to Display HTML/CSS Skills on Your Resume

10. UX/UI Design

UX/UI design blends usability with aesthetics—clear flows, intuitive interactions, and visual systems that guide users without friction.

Why It's Important

Good UX reduces confusion and churn. Good UI builds trust and brand recognition. Together they lift outcomes.

How to Improve UX/UI Design Skills

1. Know your users: research needs, pain points, and context.
2. Simplify navigation and information architecture; test it.
3. Design responsively for various screens and input methods.
4. Build consistency with a design system: components, tokens, and rules.
5. Design for accessibility from the start: color contrast, focus states, semantics.
6. Prototype and test; iterate based on real feedback.
7. Study strong patterns from respected product examples and case studies.

How to Display UX/UI Design Skills on Your Resume

11. Prototyping

Prototyping creates interactive or visual models to test ideas early—before costly build phases.

Why It's Important

You validate assumptions, surface issues, and communicate intent with clarity. It saves time, budget, and face.

How to Improve Prototyping Skills

1. Use the right fidelity for the question: sketch, wireframe, high-fidelity, or motion.
2. Work iteratively: test, learn, refine, repeat.
3. Tell a story with flows that mirror real tasks and constraints.
4. Measure with quick user checks; note friction points mercilessly.
5. Document decisions so stakeholders see the why behind changes.

How to Display Prototyping Skills on Your Resume

12. 3ds Max

3ds Max is professional software for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering—used in visualization, architecture, games, and motion work.

Why It's Important

It brings designs to life with high-quality visuals and animations, helping teams and clients understand space, materials, and form.

How to Improve 3ds Max Skills

1. Start with official training to learn modeling, lighting, and rendering basics.
2. Practice regularly with small scenes: hard-surface models, interiors, materials.
3. Study lighting and materials (PBR principles, HDRI lighting, physical cameras).
4. Explore renderers like Arnold or V-Ray and learn efficient workflows.
5. Use plugins when appropriate to extend capabilities and speed.
6. Seek critique on composition, realism, and topology.
7. Keep up with updates and try new features on test projects.

How to Display 3ds Max Skills on Your Resume