Nousheen Aquil February 16th, 2011

Remarkable Résumé Designs

When applying for a job, a designer's résumé is of utmost importance. This is precisely what should be attention-grabbing and creatively designed. This portrays the level of creativity and also aids in standing out from the rest who also happen to be applying for the same position. We hope that these creative résumés will inspire and encourage you to think out of the box and redesign your application papers with sucess. [fblike] To help you get ready for your job interview, you can read here to find out how to prepare well.
We’re going to show you how to design your résumé, and if you want to learn more about the areas that you can improve during your job search, make sure to check out the Job Hunting Guide.
Don't forget to stay creative. Good luck!

Unusual Résumés

Curriculum Vitae by Jonny-Rocket Attraction is the standard. This quote fulfills the requirements of attraction and represents a gorgeous work of art: Screenshot Matthew Villalovos What a catalogue of foods. Are you inspired from it? Of course this menu style résumé is full of lavishness and offers a thorough presentation: Screenshot Francis Homo This unique style of a résumé shows the human mind supremacy of thinking out of the box. If truth be told this unique résumé is full of smart veins and fresh blood: Screenshot Chuck D Lay Résumé Incomparable style of work which shows the worth and skills of the artist: Screenshot Joe Kelso presents...! Here the artist presents a wonderful job hunting style in this résumé. This unique kind of résumé is a masterpiece of work: Screenshot Résumé by Pau Morgan Creatively designed résumé that looks eye-catching and attracts the whole attention of all: Screenshot Google Earth Résumé This is a Google earth oriented résumé. It is spread on the earth map and shows the density around the globe:

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Résumé by Arianedenise What an album! This best style résumé is a masterwork of stylish thinking: Screenshot Wakuda Studio Résumé This is a Wakuda Studio résumé and shows the irresistible uniformity of military cloak. Looks very appealing:

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Visual Résumé Infographics are the used most when trying to portray smart representations. In this résumé an infographic is used to show all the contents in an instant: Screenshot Résumé by Adam Stephenson This résumé has been created by Adam Stephenson and shows the beauty of vintage style:

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Résumé by Anna Yenina This is a combination of affectionate letters and presents the lovely thoughts of artist in a visual nutshell:

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Personal Résumé Draft by Steven Duncan This is one of the most creative styles of creating your résumé. This elegant résumé represents the artistic approach of the artist and gives you the idea what level of creativity you can expect from him:

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Curriculum Vitae by 802.11 A unique way to describe the whole professional life and growth in a visual nutshell. This resume not only gives the employer visual treat but also inform him about the learning ladder of the artist he is going to hire:

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Work Résumé A simple yet very comprehensive and detailed résumé that lets the employer know all the capabilities and skills of the designer. This résumé also demonstrates the level of creativity the artist possesses:

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Tudor Deleanu's Résumé This is the perfect example of an eye-catching and attention grabbing résumé. This résumé represents the life of the artist in different blocks that is easy for the employer to skim through:

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2004 Résumé Machines embody the perfection and this résumé and shows the employer that s/he can expect nothing else but initiative ideas from the artist:

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Stepl Am Knotts Another visually compelling, detailed artistic résumé explaining the key attributes of the artist:

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Origami Résumé This origami résumé looks visually stunning representing the irresistible compactness of the artist throughout their work:

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Joshua Drummond This comic book résumé is a unique way to produce the simplicity of style and shows the best depiction in its kind:

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F. J. Garcia This is a comic strip résumé that leads to Spanish art. The artist made good effort to show his denseness: Screenshot Visual Résumé by Oona This is a rough draft résumé on paper representing the creative approach and innovative thinking of the artist: Screenshot Sean McNally This masterpiece résumé is created in gaming character style and shows the creative connotation of the artist:

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Federico Moral Creativity is the most significant part of any design. This unique résumé shows the creativity of the artist. This is truly a work of creativity:

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Jonathan Kaczynski This transit style map is very stylish and shows the artist know-how about the transit significance. This precise résumé illustrates the transit of life as well:

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Facebook Replica Résumé What a unique format that is full of style and loveliness. This facebook replica résumé is a powerful presentation of the artist's approach of the candidate:

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T-shirt Résumés Here is a really artistic approach.In this résumé the artist has created a unique style of representation: Screenshot Life Chart Résumé The artist shows his worth in shape of a chart. What a movement! You cannot ignore it at all:

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Curriculum Vitae by Mistis No escape from vintage! This vintage style résumé is best for hunting any job and shows the artist's density as well:

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Urban Art Résumé This urban art résumé is a masterpiece which is exactly an album of the artist's potentials as well:

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H. SercanTunali Résumé The Earth is round and if someone keeps trying to find a job, he will meet his success again and again. This global representation of a résumé is a masterpiece:

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Aamir Shah Résumé What a style of mechanic thinking. This beautiful résumé is a folder which is a great approach by the artist:

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Jean Francois Résumé A gorgeous design that shows the beauty of the thoughts by its creator:

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Christiano Pires A résumé which has been created with the help of personal belongings and shows the abilities of the artist:

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Curriculum Vitae by Fransanchez Power of red can be demonstrable and so the artist produces a sharp colored résumé to hunt the job:

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2009 Résumé SID Santos This unique style résumé is created on a paper cup and illustrates the diversity of the artist's mind:

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Résumé Passport A passport styled résumé which is full of contents and shows the concrete official style of work:

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Résumé by Kelly Haller What a classy résumé! One can't ignore this unique and creative style:

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Nousheen Aquil

Nousheen Aquil is a web graphic designer. She loves photography, drawing and painting. She also is a contributing member of WebdesignCore , a platform that focuses on free web resources and inspiration for designers and developers.

67 comments

  1. I dont particularly like these. A good resume should be concise and easy to read.
    Most of these, while showing creative flair are confusing and difficult to follow.

    1. @thebettertwin:

      I was thinking about this, too. I am currently in the process of applying for a job and usually go with the “easy-to-read-and-concise” style. It’s in the portfolio section where I show off my creative skills.

      I am no friend of designers who get lost in their crazy ideas. Graphic Design is always about communicating an idea to someone else. If this idea is hidden unreadable in the design, the designer has failed at the communication part.

      But hey, it’s also always good to stand out from the crowd. Little things can achieve so much.

    2. Totally agree. I’ve received resumes like this before and just delete them immediately. Design isn’t about how much you can cram on a page and how much texture you can apply to elements. Yikes.

    3. Agreed. None of these actually achieve their objective. All of the design elements distract from the content that a reader will be looking for and they completely miss the their target. If I want a portfolio, I’ll ask for it. A resume is not the place for such self-indulgent creative license.

    4. I completely agree, but only for certain job types. If you are a graphic designer or package designer or an art director – yes make your resume cool, but do not over do it. If it is hard to read, then it proves you have a lack of skill. If done correctly – BRAVO! As for other jobs, like I am scratching and clawing to get a job in copywriting, I use my skill, the power of words. I use it where I believe it to be best, in my cover letter. I know many other students from school who felt the need to make their resumes slap-stick-esque. I realized it was fluff. They had no relevant experience and needed to smoke and mirrors to explain why they worked in retail.

    5. I agree too! These resumes would give anyone really reading them (as opposed to glancing at designs) a headache. In fact one of my bosses when I working at a famous music magazine told me that because he gets SO many resumes he immediately gets rid of anyone who tries to show he’s Picasso in the resume, just as a way to weed out the annoying people and lower the number of resumes he has to look at.

    6. Was thinking the same, some are stylish but only a few are right to the point. the CV should lead the reads from the first point right though the important things right to the last point, most just look nice and those who do have a method of going from point to point are way to long, yea im talking to u Joshua Drummond.

  2. great inspiration indeed….tough to pic favorites, but liked oona’s & mathew villalovos’ the most…will try to make my own, one day, if time permits…

  3. Are you being serious? Most of those examples are very badly designed, poor typography and layout let alone un-legible. It sets a false bar for creatives applying for jobs if this is their reference. Arnt we taught, don’t design for designs sake. What ever happened to drool worthy type setting…

    1. I totally agree! I wouldn’t hire any of these cake icing designers. Horrendous Typography. With that said Chuck D Lay Résumé almost works.

    2. I’m glad someone else mentioned this… There are some neat ideas, but as a whole the type (and particularly kerning) is sorely lacking!

  4. Come on guys, it’s creative fun, it’s a great post, whether people adopt these ideas is upto them but don’t stop them from thinking outside the box!

    1. They might be great fun and I like looking at them, but oh gosh I don’t really want to read them. People looking at resumes want facts up front straight away. I think there’s a middle ground…we can make gorgeous resumes (I’m totally inspired to redo my boring one), but also keep it highly readable.

  5. Most of these resumes are impossible to read. They put fancy design ahead of simple communication. Sorry, I wouldn’t give most of these a second look.

  6. Very creative stuff!!!! Excellent use of originality while portraying the much needed information required by employers. Absolutely love this series, great job. Would love to hear from the design community concerning my newly revamped site. Any critique would be greatly appreciated. My site is orlydesign.com. Thanks everyone!!!

  7. Jean Francois and Christiano Pirez have the most readable ones – they are the middle ground. Attractive, cool, shows their chops, but totally usable. The rest are very cool but way overblown for resumes. And stop it with the graphs already. Someone made a graph somewhere and now everyone is doing it.

  8. Good design is a balance of the functional and the aesthetic – unfortunately, although impacting, not one of these shows sufficient understanding of such a fundamental principle to instill confidence in anyone with an appreciation of design.

    Nice to look at but not anything I personally would consider remarkable I’m afraid.

    That said, the origami résumé does come VERY close and would be the only one of the bunch that I would read if I were hiring.

  9. Do not do this! These are all terrible ideas. Your resume needs to be readable. If you want to design something, then design the package or make a cover sheet. In large companies your resume probably will go through an HR person who will ditch your crazy resume if they can’t read/copy/fax it. Act like a professional, not a teenager with a myspace page.

  10. what about print-ability? while these are definitely creative and display skill and style, resume’s are a touchy subject for many, as they need to be easy to read and still convey some kind of style/creativity in order to stand out.

    It is a fine line between too much creative design, to stand out and be practical enough to communicate info without distracting or confusing. This can be said about any design but specifically resume/CV design is ultra touchy.

  11. Some really creative resume’s. Some of them work really well where as others I am not too keen on.

    I agree with Stratisphere… There is a fine line between too much creativity to a resume/CV. It should most definitely communicate your experiences more than the actual design. But I could also go against this idea and say; your work speaks louder than words.

  12. Hi,

    thanks for sharing some of the most beautiful CV’s I’ve ever seen! As a web designer I made my Resume as an online version, showing (hopefully ;-P) off the skills I have ..?

    Wanna see it: rajtoral.com/cv/

    Cheers & Ciao ..

  13. Gorgeous designs. However if a stack of these came across my desk for a UX web designer…it would come down to a decision of who enhanced the functionality of a resume and kept it engaging with design. Not who made it the prettiest. Don’t sacrifice the purpose for the visual impact. All the same, excellent creativity!

  14. For all you guys talking about how these don’t communicate the content, ask yourself, what is the artist trying to communicate? That they spent a year selling TVs in 2002, or that they are innovative, risk-taking, talented creative professionals?

  15. In the defense of my “Visual Resume”, and possibly some of the other ones, I didn’t design it to be viewed in a stack of resumes, and especially not in the rough sketch condition it’s in here. It was more designed to be a “poster” on my website and in my portfolio.

    BUT I do agree that a lot of these aren’t only hard to read and confusing, but just not that great of designs, even standing alone.

    And mine is the only one that is a pencil sketch scanned out of a tiny sketchbook, with no editing whatsoever. Imagine what I can do on Photoshop.

  16. These are good student projects. As someone who hires designers for clients, I don’t see one resume in here that I could show to a real client. I might hire these folks to design fliers for indie bands… but there’s no money/career in that. Or at least not for most designers.

    You should also represent remarkable resumes for designers who are targeting industries that pay well. This post is not very good advice for young people who really want to work as a designer and make a living at it.

    (I know, someone or a few of you will disagree strongly. That’s good. Viva democratic blog commenting!)

  17. Aah, the usual suspects are present, plus some new ones I haven’t seen before. Nice work. Shame you missed mine: cv.duncanmckean.com hope you like it. x

  18. I would throw them into the wastebasket. Cool design, but i would not hire a designer that does not understand the basic concept of a resume.

  19. Well, i think there’s kinda not-a-point over here… in one hand these desings express a person instantly and are very pleasant to see even you can see people concepts, but on the other hand some are not that functional, they are hard to read and are even like over “self-steemed”- but think of all of the like one of those “concept cars” or “concept vehicles” they are: CONCEPTUALLY DELICIOUS
    dont you think?

  20. Tommy Lee’s wife remains seductive throughout the years that passed. Her charm has never fade even at at her forties. I grew up watching her movies and I find her absolutely beautiful and alluring despite her age and the unfavorable bad news that experienced. Even after experiencing unsuccessful affiliation, she still stands courageous. Since she is living a simpler life, not a icon, I pray that she would see the contentment that she should have before.

  21. I wouldn’t do any of these. Simply because I’m not a graphic designer :) What these really did was show how simple it would be to do a regular resume! Haha! I’ve been dragging my feet on typing one up, but these show how much time people will waste when it isn’t needed. Therefor, I’ll be typing up a normal resume in about 4 hours less than these folks spent on theirs…

  22. I think these are great ideas. For those of you that say you’d throw these out because they aren’t “readable” or “professional” – I’m pretty sure you’re at a company that these designers wouldn’t want to work for. Any company or hiring manager that sees these and thinks “wow, love the effort, love the design, I wanna talk to them” – that’s the kind of company these people probably want to work at, not the kind that throws out resumes because they’re “fluffy.” I also agree with ollie, who said these could just be conceptual ideas, we don’t know that these were actually submitted, but props if they were!

  23. I’m a 22 years old web designer working on a very nice and playful studio since 2009. And when I was on the painful path of job searching I realize that a lot of the companies were very “square” and that almost everyone in there was 40+ years old. I mean no offense by this, but that wasnt the kind of company or studio I wanted to join in. So after 2 months on interviews I found this job, and I love it.

    So I think the most important thing is to KNOW exactly what you want and what you DONT want. And literally dress yourself and your resume for the occasion.

    For someone who posted that this kind of designs & resumes wouldn’t get you to make “real money” I think its just a matter of priorities. I may not be earning piles of money, but I’m making enough to have a nice living. And I have the plus that I can wear jeans and sneakers to the office :) & I only work 4 hours per day.

  24. Joshua Drummond was to much but Jean Francois Résumé I believe is a great example of how you can keep your professional look but add your creativity to it. When your hiring a graphic designer or artist don’t you want to see Both expeience and creativity? Words on a blank peice of paper about how you went to university doesn’t stand out anymore. This is a new era…Why Can’t we expand our barriers.

    Take a Chance.

  25. Great designs, great idea and great post!

    I bet it took you some time to put all this together but it came out something that really caught my attention!

    Keep up, cheers!

  26. Let’s face it – most HRs are dumber than dirt and only hire from a database entry no-matter what. The way to address them is via keyword strategies. These graphic resumes may be useful to target the Creative Head and do an end-run around the HR gatekeeper. I had one CD take me aside and show me a bunch of creative resumes by other people – like these – as a heads-up to what my colleagues are up to. Therefore this strategy is valid, depending on the target audience. Those that trash resumes for being creative are short-sighted lazy gatekeepers. Go around them. They are less than useless.

  27. Wow. I don’t usually post comments, but some of the above comments managed to rile me. This type of CV is OBVIOUSLY meant to supplement the .docx version of the same resume and is in no way intended as the ONLY version. Creative examples, as shown above, work to give merit to the skills listed in the resume.

    And to Kati – this type of resume is for creatives, like graphic designers, etc. One would think that implicit, but perhaps that’s just me.

  28. Lets Face it, Most of these look like they were designed by kids just out of college with little to no design skills. I’m going to throw this out there: Does anyone even believe these resumes are from actual designers? Or perhaps from kids that got an ART degree and decided to try and market themselves as having design skills? I think these are prime examples of how N-O-T to get hired for a job… any job. I live in one of the top three cities for design, and the city with the top rated design college in the country, which has allowed me to create contacts in some of the country’s (and world’s) largest and most successful design firms. What did I learn from them? Anyone that puts out a resume like the garbage you see above, get laughed at and tossed aside. True designers wish to rid the world of bad design because it’s everywhere. If your prospective employer is a true designer/design firm, they will start to accomplish this goal by not hiring you.

  29. Hey, I’m french designer.
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