Visual Resume Writing | How-To Create a More Visual Resume
- 2. Agenda General Tips Colors & Fonts Bad Examples Good Examples Wrapping Up
- 3. General Tips
- 4. C.R.A.P Method Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity These are ways to tie all of your elements together Contrast using text, colors, shapes Repetition maintains the consistency • Repeating bullets • Display repeating circles Alignment and proximity help the visually group items Designer Logos Creating unique pieces Designer Logos Creating unique pieces
- 6. General Tips Be selective or get creative Don’t plagiarize! Keep it clean & organized Don’t be afraid to personalize it
- 7. General Tips Use white space to your advantage Use blocks or lines to separate Sidebar can break up content
- 9. Colors Avoid complementary colors or ones that strain users eyes Use colors of different values to create better contrast Blue Red Grey Red
- 10. Colors Coordinate your colors, but keep it simple Scared of going away from standard black and white? Use an accent color
- 11. Fonts Sans Serif Fonts Serif Fonts • Optimal for digital viewing • Looks clean • Considered “more modern” Associated with: Formality, confidence, and establishment Associated with: Friendliness, directness, and minimalism • Better for viewing on paper • Looks classic • Visually flows
- 12. Examples
- 16. Wrapping Up
- 17. General Tips Don’t send photocopies Interactivity goes a long way Tie together with cover letter Get a second opinion
- 19. Questions?
- 21. BRAND GUIDELINES Transition slides & Pictures: 85% transparency in the color “Uptown”
Editor's Notes
- #2: This walkthrough is for what I like to call “Business-visual” resumes. Real visual resumes will be similar to this but fall much more into the Infographic style. Typically, real-world visual resumes are used by artists and graphic designers to showcase their abilities. This presentation will combine the College of Business template, feel, and content while utilizing a more graphic/creative look.
- #4: One thing to note: visual resumes are NOT for everyone. Marketers and people pursuing graphic design are usually good to have them. Finance and Accounting majors would probably due best with a standard black and white resume. However, there are certain cases where the argument could be made for a more visual resume. At the end of the day, you just need to be able to say why you chose to do this. If the answer is “because it looks cool” – maybe go with a standard black and white. These are typically used to showcase creativity, ingenuity, and an overall skill in arts or graphic design. If the company or major you’re applying to doesn’t fit those, it might be best to reconsider.
- #6: When you create your resume, try to follow a grid-like pattern
- #7: Due to the graphic nature of these resumes, you might not be able to fit everything onto one page like you did on your normal resume. Try to condense lengthier bullet points or determine what needs to stay and what might have to go. If you see other resumes online that you like, don’t steal their designs! Use it as inspiration to craft your own, unique resume. What do you like about their resume? How could you integrate those things that you like into your own document? Good rule of thumb: keep it simple!
- #10: When I design presentations or projects I always start by identifying the fonts and color palette I want to use. I try to stay under 5 when choosing colors so that it doesn’t get confusing or too busy but still has a variety of contrast. Colors of similar values will almost “vibrate” when you look at them. That strains the reader’s eyes and isn’t pleasant to look at If you snap a picture on your phone or use a photo editing software, you can turn photos to grayscale to determine how close their values are
- #12: Readability studies have actually founds that serif typefaces are easier to read because the added strokes make each character more distinctive. More distinctive letters are easier for the eye to recognize quickly. For lengthier pieces, Serif is often chosen because it visually “pushes” the reader onto the next word. On the other hand, because Sans Serifs are seen as clean & minimal, they’re less likely to have the same “push”. Sans Serif is impactful when used for emphasis. At the end of the day, it depends on the mood, use, and individual project or preference.
- #14: Bad examples Dwight’s resume certainly isn’t the worst. However, he has used 3 different contrasting fonts, an insane camo border, and paint splatters on the bottom. His picture is also attached – not recommended. However, in terms of visuals, his most certainly beats Anna’s. The second example needs much more work. It has 4 useless bars for no apparent reason. There are a plethora of different fonts and text sizes. The yellow marks don’t really make sense. They’re not quite bullets. Her address, phone, and email are right aligned, not allowing an easy visual flow. Good rule of thumb: All visual elements should serve a purpose. Don’t add lines or graphics in just because you are trying to fill up space All of the elements in the second piece are working against one another. Her right-aligned date pulls your eyes right, while the thick black bar pulls them to the left. The bars on the top and bottom also pull your eyes up and down. Visually, it is pulling you in every direction
- #15: Good visual resumes, but not great for business Although these are both executed well, they’re not recommended for your standard business major. Avoid using pictures – it takes away the objective viewing of an individual’s resume and usually doesn’t print well. These resumes are pretty but the one on the left contains very little information.
- #16: Good business-visual resumes Harper’s resume is best case scenario. Clean lines, room for plenty of information. Chris’s resume needs a few tweaks but is definitely a more unique approach. Steer away from crazy fonts – this one could print poorly and could be harder to read If you removed the “About” and “Skills” sections, there would be more space to talk about experiences.
- #17: This walkthrough is for what I like to call “Business-visual” resumes. Real visual resumes will be similar to this but fall much more into the Infographic style. Typically, real-world visual resumes are used by artists and graphic designers to showcase their abilities. This presentation will combine the College of Business template, feel, and content while utilizing a more graphic/creative look.
- #18: Print off copies directly from your computer to maintain the look of your resume. If sending a cover letter, try to tie your two pieces together by including the same colors or header Always have someone else look it over before sending it out! It can be difficult, even with a standard resume, to catch all the possible mistakes. Sending it digitally? Get interactive with a QR Code or clickable links. This is a great way to give viewers of your resume easy access to your website, portfolio, or Linkedin
- #19: Although you CAN create resumes on PhotoShop & GIMP (a free, crowd-sourced version of PS), InDesign is the recommended tool for documents like resumes **Canva, Visme, and Creddle are great tools and come with pre-made templates that students can use. The downside to this, however, is that other people will also be using the same template. This could take away from the originality and impressiveness of visual resumes if these documents don’t appear to be unique. Recommend using Pinterest, Canva, and Visme to gather inspiration rather than creating the actual piece.
- #20: This walkthrough is for what I like to call “Business-visual” resumes. Real visual resumes will be similar to this but fall much more into the Infographic style. Typically, real-world visual resumes are used by artists and graphic designers to showcase their abilities. This presentation will combine the College of Business template, feel, and content while utilizing a more graphic/creative look.
- #22: This is just a breakdown of what was used to design this presentation. Refer to this if adding or changing pieces of the presentation in order to maintain the cohesiveness of the project.