CV Design For Designers

Creating a Curriculum Vitae (CV) (or a resume as it is also called in some countries such as the USA), as a designer presents two key issues:

• Writing about yourself can be difficult in terms of objectivity. Ensuring that you are presenting your skills and experience accurately, without overselling or underselling requires focus.
• A designer’s CV must demonstrate competency in every aspect of visual communication. The layout, images, font, priority and overall style should immediately set you apart from your competitors. The design of your document is as important as the information contained within.

Considering Your CV

Here are a few pointers to assist you in making an impression:

• Challenge yourself to condense your information to a single page by presenting clear visual grouping and priority. The second page should be reserved for thumbnails of your work. It is often the case that the recipient has limited reading time and a large pile of CVs to consider, so make this process as easy as possible for them. You could allow yourself an additional page of text if you really need to. This may focus upon specific in depth project descriptions relevant to the type of work you are interested in. Concise, prioritised information is a design discipline that sells itself. In the examples shown below, immediately presenting the client list and brief summary of experience establishes credibility.
• In the education section, if you have listed degree or post-grad qualification, listing your A-Level or similar further education results could be omitted if space is required. High school results are unnecessary in this instance.
• You are a designer…as previously mentioned, create a series of images as a portfolio gallery where an employer can assess your capability at a glance. One useful addition may be a brief caption beneath each image explaining your contribution if the project was completed as a collaboration.
• Look at a selection of other CV designs including those on GraphicRiver.net for inspiration.
• Having originally created my CV in third person, for example “Peter has worked as a freelance designer for 20 years”, I could be convinced to write in either first or third person. However, writing without prounouns altogether may also be a suitable solution – rather than “Peter has worked as a freelance designer for 20 years”, you could consider “Worked as a freelance designer for 20 years”.
• Using a chart or graph without measurement, such as the skills list shown on the lower left side of the examples below, has generated some criticism from fellow designers – “there’s no scale or unit measurement!”. However, it provides an order of priority of skills relative to the others. This allows the reader to get a sense of how the designer performs in different disciplines and is supported by the gallery images.
• Make the information available in PDF form for reading online but be aware it may be printed out so ensure that it also prints at a reasonable quality (eg 150dpi image resolution minimum or compressed 300dpi images). If necessary, create two separate PDFs.

In Summary

• Be concise and make it easy to absorb information with an effective structure
• Prioritise and label your sections (eg experience, qualifications, hobbies)
• Create impact. You may only get 10 – 20 seconds to make an impression.
• Remove pronouns where possible as these are implied in the fact that it is your CV / resume
• Include images – you are a designer 🙂