Do you have a graphic design resume that is hard to reject? You should. Here are some tips to create a designer resume that kicks ass.
When you’re a graphic designer, promoting your service depends solely on your effort and creativity.
Branding and marketing what you do in a professional way can reach the career heights you aspire for, be it an Art Director of an in-house company or the owner of lucrative design business.
Graphic design resumes are more complicated to make than regular ones, because employers use them to glance at your previous work.
This is why web designers are always looking to build the most captivating and beautiful graphic design resume to display to clients.
Resume designs exhibit both your talents and the nature of what you do, and help you build a brand even when working independently. As simple as that – resumes make you unique.
To create the best resume design means to establish an identity out of scratch, and emphasize the breadth of skills and abilities that make you perfect for a job.
Modern resume designs are, in fact, a product of a lasting research of creative resume examples to find the ones that underline the advantages of designers.
Treat the resume as you treat yourself before going to an interview – polish it, present it, and let it speak for you.
Read on our collection of resume design ideas and tips, and remember those you believe could help you create well designed resumes.
Most of all, pay attention to curriculum vitae design that lets you focus on important information, and create the visual order you need.
Good resume design begins with contact information
It is imperative to write your contact details first, including names, phone numbers, valid emails and relevant URLs (to your website or online portfolio).
Most graphic designer resumes also include social media links, or indicate which live chat portals they’re using for easier contact.
Make it brief and clear
We all have an array of personal and professional achievements we would like to share with our employers, but that doesn’t mean we should include all of them on a single piece of paper.
Cool resume designs include only what is important, and help recruiters devote time to other resumes as well. If they come across a dense or endless resume, the impression it will make is not exactly positive.
Creative resume design works like a snapshot – it tells viewers a vivid and detailed story without paying attention to detail, and that’s exactly what awesome resumes are supposed to do.
If possible, structure all information on a single page (or two tops), unless the employer requires something different.
Make it personal
Where would you speak of who you genuinely are if not in your resume?
Both employers and clients want to meet you personally and professionally, so make sure you reveal the details they need to confirm you belong to their culture.
Obviously, this process is not risk-free. It may happen you don’t meet their criteria for an ideal employee, but that’s only one of the many shots you’ll have in future.
What is better is that a strategy like this will help you discover people you genuinely can work with, as it is always smarter to be rejected for what you are than be accepted for what someone thinks of you.
Although personalized, a good graphic design resume should also be professional enough to convince recruiters that your style matches their brand. What you’re doing here is selling skills just as you would sell products, so discover strategies that work, and put them in the front plan
Share what you’ve done
The lengthiest and most detailed part of each graphic design resume is work experience, where you need to showcase samples and discuss experiences with previous clients.
Instead of simply bundling tasks you caught by here and there, make a neat list that speaks of all that effort you invested.
Remember: mentioning you helped or assisted a designer is not going to leave recruiters jaw-dropped, but explaining exactly how you contributed a print business drive up conversions will certainly push a button.
In the ideal scenario, you will back up this information with numbers and statistics, and there’s no employer who won’t be impressed by it.
The importance of your layer structure
A successful resume doesn’t own that success only to content, but also the way that content has been exhibited and organized. Therefore, plan the layout in advance, and leave no room for confusion.
What we have in mind here is editing content down to one page, and dividing it in easily digestible chunk that won’t bore readers. Put yourself in the recruiter’s position – which is the type of resumes you’d like to look at? Is it the organized one, or the one that explains an internship on three pages?
Adopt a grid layer structure including rows and columns, and even add customizable visual dividers to let the reader know what each section is about.
This way, you will also allow recruiting teams exchange your information, and make a common decision. Write in a reader-friendly yet professional manner, and let them know you indeed believe you’re perfect for the position.
Choose colors well
Graphic designers tend to get over-creative and all personal about their resumes.
This often affects their color choices, which as emotional and effective as they seem, don’t have the same effect on every person coming across them.
There is a lot to learn from color psychology on how recruiters perceive different color schemes, as for example the fact that blue is calm and stable, and automatically puts them on top of the list.
This, however, doesn’t mean you should exaggerate with shades, as this makes your CV look less professional. As we already mentioned, you’re building yourself a brand, and brands don’t use that many colors to make an impression.
Another complication you’d impose yourself with this scheme is limited printing (check PMS and CMYK), and the senseless look your resume would have when printed black and white.
Make use of whitespace
What recruiters also like about professional resumes is the ample use of whitespace, which also applies to cover letters and other application documents.
Why is whitespace so important? It is because they allow the reader to scan for information immediately, and find the key points right away.
This is your guarantee that no important information will be missed, so use paragraphs to break up your data. With a single wall of text, the recruiter won’t have a clue of what is genuinely important about you.
Bring creativity and professionalism together
More than anything else make sure professionalism and creativity is well balanced on the document. Posters and flyers, for instance, may benefit from completely casual and artistic details, but that’s not the case with resumes.
In order to understand this, think of how the employer would judge your personality and skills based on what you’ve showcased in the resume. First impressions are very important, and the better they are, the more likely you will be to get an interview date.
Speaking of sophisticated resumes, choose an easily legible yet elegant type set, as novelty fonts, uncommon color combinations and sudden gradients reject the eye right away. Sneak creativity here and there, letting the employer see that you know how to experiment, but wouldn’t do unless asked to.
There is no such thing as final resume
Now that we’ve put all things into perspective and empowered you to apply for the hob of your dream, it would be normal for you to roll sleeves up, and work on the completion of your CV. But is such thing actually possible?
With time, there will always be something to edit, add, or remove from the resume, so make sure you keep it fresh for sudden opportunities. This is your key to success in competitive industries where most jobs are assigned on the basis of impressions.
If you’re satisfied with it, don’t change the layout or the color. Rather, add a page as your career is developing, so that all important accomplishments are there.
If you are creative and have enough time, on the other hand, you can always update the design to consider all details. It may take a while, but it will certainly impress recruiters and potential employers.
If you want to start from a template, here’s an article with resume templates that you can use.
Graphic design resume design inspiration
Having a creative resume design as a designer of any sort is a must.
As well as your portfolio, it shows that you are creative, full of wonderful ideas and equipped with a ton of imagination.
While these graphic design resumes won’t work for a lawyer, an economist or anything in that job spectrum, for designers they are ideal.
In this article there are over 50 examples of creative curriculum vitae for inspiration from graphic designers created in Photoshop or Illustrator, but the idea can be adapted to various types of designers.
For example, a web designer can create his CV with the help of CSS, HTML and some jQuery to make it dynamic and attractive, whereas a graphic designer could use… well, a graphic design resume.
Errol Veloso
Sid Santos
Soy Han
Riccardo Sabatini
Michael Anderson
Jeremey Fleischer
Gloria Edith Escalera Manzano
Gary Corr
Mohammed Mahgoub
Liagi Ann Jezreel
Mohd Almousa
Brandon Derck
Ermin Jay Fermin
Ven Klement
Francis Homo
Shanning Wan
Adam Balazy
Sujoy.J
Stuart Mayhew
Chuck D Lay
Loyez Geoffrey
Maria Rybak
Eva Markova
Shahien-Gabriel Prince
Thanan
Imran
Marissa Louie
Mayra Ornelas
Gabriel Ghnassia
Deborah Green
Alexis Petitprez
Ong Xi Ru
Joe Kelso
Ariane Denise Lunod
Anggi W. Bawono
Magdalena Cyrczak
Steven Duncan
Michael Ptak
Eiric Shriner
Muhammad Rashid Ali
Suhib Mohammed
Niel Bhalshankar
Robert K Blankenship
Mohd Syukri
Ryan Green
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