I was flicking through one of my old design scrap books earlier today and came across an old image entitled Dave on the Dole. The image was of a magazine style curriculum vitae belonging to an out of work Lancashire Designer, Dave Towers. To try and get himself noticed he had created, designed and printed his CV on found paper such as P45s (a form you get in the UK when you leave a job). The image was shown in Creative Review Magazine so it certainly got him some publicity, I wonder if it got him a job? Dave if you’re out there let us know (and I hope you don’t mind me showing your old CV).
This got me thinking: What does it take to get a designer noticed for a design job, especially a graduate with no proven design experience? I cringe to look back to when I had just left college (all those years ago) and made myself a pop up CV with my face on it 
. Mind you I think it got me a couple of interviews, even if it was just out of amusement. A friend of mine from college who really struggled to get his first job started to make individual brochure CVs targeted at the individual company he was writing to. This eventually landed him a job (would he have got it otherwise – who knows, but initially it got him an interview).
Another unusual curriculum vitae – a man screen printed his resume on to a t-shirt and wore it at a tradeshow, while handing out copies of his resume. This resulted in 5 interviews and 3 job offers, you can read about it at http://www.ideasitefor business.com.
Now everything is online, perhaps an online CV is the way to go, or does this just get lost in the crowd?
So what is the answer, I’m not sure, how creative do you think a designers CV should be? What are the most creative resumes or CVs you have heard of?
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19 Comments
it depends on who you’re showing your resume to…if you’re applying for a job in a corporate environment, or in a design studio that caters to corporate clients, your resume should probably be pretty standard….but for smaller design studios it’s probably ok to show something more “designed”. but either way it has to be clear and legible.
When I’ve recruited designers (for projects – not for full time jobs), I like to see a bit of creativity in the CV/portfolio. Not just in the examples of work shown, but in the way all those examples are collectively presented.
Hi Frank and Aaron,
Thanks for your input, some good points there.
Hello I’m Dave on the Dole, or at least I was. I got loads of interest from that CV. The Face magazine were the first people to give me freelance work and it sort of snowballed from there. It opened so many doors. I’d travel down from Liverpool on the overnight National Express and get in a phone box and ring up any designer or agency who I thought was good. Because they’d seen the article I usually got to see them that day. I love a novelty CV but its got to be a true reflection of who you are.
I’m now really really posh and head of design and typography at Lowe London, doing things like this
http://www.dandad.org/awards2007/entry.asp?entry_id=28092
Hi Dave,
Thanks for leaving a message, your CV certainly worked well for you, what a great story. You’ve certainly proved that a creative CV can work.
Todays society is so much harder than yesterday.The people sitting in in the creative directors chair picking out CV’s..it is so much harder today than it was yesterday. On the point of sillyness I could do almost anything to create a really imaginative cv. But when does it stops and become downright silly? Sure I am really creative but at some point I just can´t stand the fact that I have to create something that costs a lot of money to be seen!
I followed the ideasiteforbusiness.com link and got a little motivated as there were some great ideas, the T-Shirt resume stands out a bit – although the dog poop scoop business is pure genius, who would think that would be profitable?
Jerry
Hi. Im 14 and i am thinking of becoming a Graphic Designer in later life. This may seem like a bit of an amateur question, but i was wondering what GCSE Subjects are best for someone hoping to pursue a Career in Graphic design? Thankyou.
Hi Rory
I would definitely take art as after your GCSEs/A Levels this will be important to get onto a foundation course in Art which is the route many people go before going on to a degree or HND in graphic design. If your school offers any other design subjects this would be useful too.
Hope this helps
Tara
Thanks a lot, Tara.
I think my school has a specific A-Level course for people wishing to do Graphic Design. I’ll look into it. Thankyou.
Hi there, I’m trying to get a job in graphic design, but at this stage it’s probably with smaller local firms (I live in the West of Scotland, near Glasgow). I have an HND level qualification and have done a few bits of freelance work but have never actually been full-time employed as a designer. Should my C.V be separate from my actual portfolio of work? I don’t want to annoy potential employers by emailing loads of pdfs to them. What program should I use for the basic info?
Hi Feargus
If you don’t want to try the video approach – why don’t you set up a blog showing your work and then you can send your PDF (or just a general email about yourself offering to send them a CV PDF) to an employer with a link to examples of your work. Its pretty easy to set up a WordPress blog if you check Gideon’s becomeablogger.com there are loads of FREE videos to show you how to do it. If you don’t want to pay for hosting WordPress also do sites they host for you WordPress.com. Other options for creating online portfolios are http://www.coroflot.com and deviantart.com
Hope this helps
Tara
I have a question regarding creative CVs – I don’t have any formal qualifications, but have worked as a graphic designer for the last 2 years for a mail order company dealing with corporate (newspaper) clients. I am looking for a new job due to my boss winding his company down to retire and I want to stay in design. Would a creative CV help me find a new job without the qualifications? I have the grasp of the adobe suite due to using it most of my computer life.
I’ve done bits and pieces of freelance all my life and plan to do some practice briefs to build up a portfolio. My basic plan would be a simple resume for corporate, ‘posh’ clients and a more creative one for more individual creative companies and I’m aiming at entry level in terms of what i’ll apply for. Any advice or thoughts?
Hi Loma,
If I were you I would definitely get a blog with an online portfolio set up or at least set up an online portfolio somewhere you can then at least point potential employers to your work very easily. As to the CV I would mix it up a bit and like you say maybe send something more creative to creative companies. If there is a company you specifically want to work for you could try and find out more about them and target you CV very heavily to them.
I am creating a number of CV’s at the moment to target different job roles. Being a designer and trying to get hired is one of the most challenging things a designer will do as it is all about standing out from the crowd and also taking in to account what has worked in the past. I have just moved to Oxfordshire and I am looking to be hired as a designer full time, after running my own graphic/web business, there was always too much paperwork and not enough creativity.
A good resource for inspiration is: http://cvparade.com
Hi,
I’m in a similar position to Loma. I’ve worked in publishing most of my life and made the mistake of not going down the college route in my early career to get graphic design qualifications, but ended up in journalism as I’d written a book on my passion and studied distance learning sub-editing and production. However, I’ve always hankered for getting back into design and I managed to get a job in production back in 2003 for a trade organisation publishing magazines. Although I did some graphic design work here I was basically a layout art worker. I’d always dabbled in design for friends and wherever I worked, using letraset, cow gum prior to the computer graphic revolution and while working as an art worker I signed up through a website for a course at learncomputergraphics.com This didn’t offer qualifications, but it helped feel a few gaps in my experience and I highly recommend this. The question is do I have enough experience to find a role or be offered a position in this way? I worked as a Mac Designer for a motors port company a year or so ago on a freelance basis producing press ads, vehicle graphics, clothing design and other work. Unfortunately, the company relocated and I haven’t had any regular design work since. I’m 50 now and worried time is running out is anyone going to seriously employ me without a degree? Should I look to study part-time or is it going to be tougher for me as an ‘older’ designer to ‘break in’ to the market? I can’t afford to go back to college and study full-time as I have commitments. I do have a website, and I’m working on my portfolio which I know isn’t strong enough at present. I would appreciate any advice you can give or at least steer me in the right direction. I’m doing ‘bits and pieces’ when I can for people.
Hi Kevin, have you tried getting in some extra practice by offering your services to a local charity, or perhaps just trying out some sample briefs to build your portfolio, you will find a few on this blog. Keep an eye on some of the big design blogs to see trends – like Smashingmagazine.com. If you want to drive more traffic to your website I would recommend setting up a blog and writing on it regularly which Google will like and help you get found. I put together a free guide to creating a blog or you can find other resources to help you. There are as you are probably aware also a lot of sites online where you can get work like Elance and Getafreelancer but unfortunately in general they don’t pay well as you are competing with people who live in countries where wages are much lower and cost of living cheaper. I honestly can’t see how having a degree would make any difference as you can sell yourself more on your experience, but that’s just my opinion. Have you signed on with some of the design recruitment agencies too – http://Creativepool.co.uk http://www.blueskiescareers.co.uk/
Hi Tara,
Thanks for coming back to me. I did offer my services to a local charity and a rambling club. I designed them a couple of logos. I guess I could do that again or approach companies directly by offering a discount on design. I did find when offering my skills free that people took advantage and I spent more time than I would usually on a paid job going back and forth with emails. I like the blog idea I’ll give this a go and I also like the idea of sample briefs. I’ve signed up to creativepool, but haven’t heard much from them. I guess I’ve been conscious my portfolio needs more work and my CV needs a revamp. What worries me is I apply for design jobs and here anything, is this usual in design? I guess there are so many candidates out there and they can ‘cherry pick’. I actually thought returning to study even part-time, would help me regain some confidence in my work and get some critique. I wonder if anyone knows any part-time either correspondence or college courses which won’t break the bank!
Hi Kevin, Have you looked at http://www.lynda.com they have lots of videos on learning software but also some of graphics too – Last time I looked you could subscribe for about $30 month and watch all the videos. If you google Lynda.com voucher you might be able to find a free day pass to try it out.
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