Graphic Design Resume

For this month’s Design Feature, I thought I would discuss another aspect of design outside of business pieces such as business cards which I discussed last month. Designer’s also have to market themselves in order to get jobs or projects, and they have to figure out a way to do that so that they are attracting their traget audience. This can often times be harder than designing a piece for someone else, because you tend to be a little more picky about the colors and layout since it is about you. You would think it would be easier to design a piece that represents yourself because you know everything there is to know, but I suppose the problem results when you start trying to think of a way to represent EVERYTHING about yourself in just the right way on one logo, business card, or in this case, resume. It can be hard to go with one style and stick to it, because you are leaving yourself open for criticism from those who do not like that style, and that may result in a lost job or client.

Below is a resume I found online that I absolutely love. The style is great and the colors are very vintage looking, which I tend to lean towards anyway. This resume certainly shows that this person is a great designer with very creative ideas. Although I am not sure, I would bet the illustrations were done by the designer of this resume as well.

So what do I like so much about this resume? This person obviously took some time to really develop what they wanted to say about themselves. Although he took a risk in going with such a bold style, I bet he got or will get hired into a place that allows him to be himself. It is only two colors most likely printed on a specialty paper, which makes for a great retro-looking style as well as even balance throughout the piece. The heading is the most dominant area on the page, and allows your eye to start there and work your way down, without getting distracted along the way. The illustrations really bring it to life and give you a visual of what he went through in each section. For example, in the “Professional Internship” section, you can imagine someone working hard at their computer trying to complete a project for their internship. Everything is lined up nicely as well with even spacing between the text and boxes, and all the font stays consistent in style. Although it seems there are a couple different fonts or font weights used on the resume, it seems to be the same few and are evenly spread out.

So let us know what you think. Do you like or dislike this resume design? Would you give them a job if you were looking to hire a graphic designer? Why or why not?

by Jen Ebenrick