Home Production Designer Resume template
Production Designer resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what production designers actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most production designers should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
Production Designer with experience across film, television and theatre, translating scripts into visual worlds that serve the story. Skilled in leading art departments, managing budgets and schedules, and delivering sets that hold up on camera. Comfortable working freelance across Australia's screen and performing arts sectors.
Key skills
- Visual design
- Creative software production
- Spatial and interior design
- Project management
- Budgeting and forecasting
- SketchUp
- AutoCAD
- Vectorworks
- Adobe Photoshop
- Cinema 4D
- People leadership
- Written communication
Experience: example bullet points
- Led the art department on a six-part television drama, coordinating set construction, props and dressing across multiple locations.
- Managed art department budget and schedule for a feature film, tracking expenditure and negotiating supplier rates to keep production on track.
- Created digital renderings and scale models using SketchUp and Cinema 4D, enabling the director to approve set designs before construction began.
- Researched period detail for a theatre production, sourcing furniture, textiles and props that matched the era and held up under stage lighting.
- Supervised a team of set dressers, painters and carpenters, running daily briefings to keep build and strike on schedule.
Education
Bachelor degree in production design, scenography or a related field; many also hold a postgraduate qualification in design for performance or screen.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- Australian screen industry
- art department
- set design
- scenography
- Screen Australia
- Australian Production Design Guild
- APDG
- live performance
- theatre design
- film and television
- budget management
- SketchUp
- Vectorworks
- AutoCAD
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Cinema 4D
- freelance
- contract
- production designer
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.