Concept Artist CV example

Your work speaks volumes visually, but your CV needs to hold its own in text. It should outline your creative process and adaptability – whether you’re designing characters for games or environments for film.

In the next sections, you’ll learn that writing a CV involves shaping your background into a clear, structured document that complements your portfolio and convinces employers you’re the right artist to bring their ideas to life.

As a concept artist, you know the value of flow and first impressions – and your CV should reflect the same principles. A strong structure helps recruiters and art leads quickly pick out your experience, specialisms, and the studios or projects you’ve worked on. An incoherent list full of mistakes will only make hiring managers look at other candidates, so your CV should all fit together nicely.

Here’s the layout to follow:

• Name and contact details – Place your name and personal details prominently at the top of your CV for quick access. Adding a photo is up to you.
• Profile – Open with a compelling overview of your skills, experience, and career goals.
• Core skills – List your key abilities in this section, focusing on those that will be most relevant to the job.
• Work experience – Provide a detailed breakdown of your work history, starting with the most recent job first.
• Education & certifications – List your qualifications, including degrees and relevant certifications, in reverse chronological order.
• Additional info – Optional extras like exhibitions, awards, languages, or relevant hobbies.
  

Use bullet points in your experience section to make details quick to scan. Stick to a clean, professional font – let your work provide the visual flair, not the typeface. Keep your CV length to two pages, and always make sure your portfolio is easy to find and up to date. A well-presented format will show that you’ve got the right skills for recruiters.

This section is where you establish your creative identity. Use it to give studios or hiring managers a sense of what you specialise in, what kinds of projects you’ve worked on, and what makes your work stand out. Your goal in the CV profile is to convince recruiters that you’re the candidate who will bring real, tangible value to their project.

Here’s what to include:

• Where you’ve worked – Game studios, animation houses, film production, or freelance clients.
• Your top qualifications – Degrees, diplomas, or concept art training programmes.
• Essential strengths – Composition, storytelling, digital painting, collaboration.
• Areas of focus – Characters, creatures, environments, props, or worldbuilding.
• Creative approach – Your process, style, and how you adapt to different briefs or pipelines.

This section offers a quick-fire look at your creative toolkit. Focus on technical and stylistic proficiencies that are relevant to the role – without turning this into a software checklist. Think about what you’re known for: your speed, your eye for mood, or your ability to work across multiple aesthetics. 

Keep this tailored and tight so it reflects the job you’re aiming for: focus on hard CV skills rather than generic abilities which recruiters will just overlook.

This is where you show how your designs moved from concept to creation. Whether you’ve worked independently or within a studio, your experience should demonstrate how you interpret briefs, collaborate with teams, and translate ideas into visuals that shape final products.

List your work experience from the most recent first. Include your job title, the client or studio, and your dates. Then use bullet points to explain what you did on each project and how you did it. Show both the creativity and the reliability behind your work.

• Outline – Briefly describe the client or project context and your role in it.
• Responsibilities – Use action words like “conceptualised,” “illustrated,” “designed,” or “collaborated.”
• Achievements – A great tip is to use numbers to show the specific impact of your achievements: “Created 50+ character concepts for launch title,” “Helped establish visual direction for 3D adaptation,” or “Worked alongside 12-person team across agile development cycles.”

Your education shows you’ve developed strong fundamentals – composition, anatomy, colour theory, or design thinking. Start with your most recent qualification and work backward. Include degrees, diplomas, art school training, and any supplementary courses that support your role (e.g. environment design, figure drawing, storytelling).

Even if you’re self-taught, this section can include workshops, mentorships, or online programmes – as long as they contributed to your growth and skillset.