creative resume skills

How to Undoubtedly Show Your Creative Thinking When Crafting Your Resume

Here are the top ways to show your creative thinking skills on your resume. Find out relevant creative thinking keywords and phrases and build your resume today.

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What is creative thinking?

Why is creative thinking important on your resume, what skills and accomplishments help you highlight your creative thinking, creative thinking: key takeaways for your resume.

To be able to think creatively means to be able to think in new ways, to think outside the box. Creative thinking can be applied when solving a problem, resolving conflict, finding a way to work together, or simply drawing new conclusions from a set of data you’ve already considered. It’s the ability to look at something with new eyes and overcome your own thought patterns.

Creative thinking is not a skill necessary only for creative people, artists or engineers. Actually, employees in all kinds of industries are valued for their creative thinking skills, as they bring a new perspective to the company or team.

It is important to break the myth that creativity is a mystical inspiration with a divine source. People often think that being creative is a natural gift, but the truth is, it is only a predisposition, an aptitude if you will. Creative thinking is a skill and just like any other skill, you get better at it by practicing.

Let’s unpack what it means to be a creative thinker. Firstly, it is the ability to stay open-minded and make something new. It’s to look for unexpected and unorthodox resolutions when hitting a dead end. Secondly, it means being able to relate different pieces of information and break down issues in order to solve them in a way that has never been tried before.

Creative thinking is crucial not only in your professional career but also in life. It constitutes solving problems, being pioneering and open-minded, having resilience, viewing obstacles as challenges and not as problems.

It’s safe to say that a person, expressing those qualities and nuances of the skill, would be a very valuable asset to each employer. Companies want people who don’t back away from a problem, but rather tackle it in a courageous and new manner.

This is why it’s important to showcase your creative thinking on your resume.

As you already noticed, there are quite a few different skills that can prove you have creative thinking. The most relevant can be summed up as:

• Analytical thinking : being able to decompose a problem into its integral parts, to get to the root of the issue, gives you the chance to define it better. Coming up with a well-structured action plan is almost a 100% guarantee of success.
• Unorthodox problem-solving : show you can think outside the box by mentioning pioneering solutions or action plans you’ve offered throughout your professional life or education. Think of original ideas you’ve pitched that proved as excellent resolutions in tough situations.
• Open-mindedness : before even talking about analysis or problem-solving, comes being open-minded and not judgmental. Keeping a positive and open outlook allows you to consider different alternatives, lets you weigh in other perspectives, and helps you choose the best course of action. When was the last time you showed that you’re open-minded?

How to demonstrate creative thinking on your resume

• Think of times when you were faced with what looked like an unsolvable problem and the path you took that led to its resolution
• Share examples of original or unexpected ideas you’ve had that got you out of nail biter situations at work
• Describe a time when you kept an open mind and that helped you overcome a challenge
• Talk about a brainstorm session you held or participated in that totally blew everyone’s expectations
• Mention examples of a lateral thinking approach when you and your team solved a problem by adopting an indirect and creative approach
• Tell about a time when you turned a defect into an effect - creativity and invention go hand in hand with reusing and reinventing

It’s easy to say you’re creative, and much harder to prove it. We hear you.

Writing on your resume that “I’m a creative thinker who thrives on change” does sound great, but to persuade your future employer, you need to substantiate your creative thinking skills.

Explore your own experience by asking yourself the following questions:

• What is your problem-solving technique at work?
• Did you participate in any creative thinking workshops?
• What examples of your open mindedness can you think of?
• What is usually your approach when you’re trapped in a corner?

We’ve prepared some real life examples from other Enhancv users. Let’s get down to business.

Example 1: Demonstrate creative thinking in your work experience

Job Situation: Marketing manager applying for a new the role in a big creative agency

• • Grew the team from 2 people to 20+ digital marketing specialists, advertising experts, and content writers.
• • Employed multiple growth hacking strategies to make up for almost 0 marketing budget in the beginning.
• • Achieved a marketing ROI of 273% over a two-year period by using guerrilla marketing tactics for clients like Nike, Iamsterdam, Pllek
• • Managed execution of $1.8M in branding and sponsorships annually.

As you can see from the description, this marketing manager used only active verbs to illustrate their experience - “grew”, “employed”, “achieve” all speak of proactiveness and progress.

Also, they used a lot of quantitative measures - 20+ employees, 273% ROI, $1.8M budget. This brings an extra special touch in the description - rock solid proof and specifics.

Apart from that, key phrases such as “growth hacking strategies […] for almost 0 marketing budget” and “guerrilla marketing tactics” imply that this person has creative vision and knows how to employ unusual approaches. We’re left with the impression that they know how to make the most out of their opportunities and be forward-thinking.

Example 2: Resume summary

Job Situation: Marketing specialist applying for a Content marketing manager

This summary hits home for 3 different reasons: it gives background of the candidate’s experience, it underlines the hard skills they’re good at, and it highlights 2 important soft skills - they’re detail-oriented and creative.

Craft your summary carefully - usually it’s enough for an experienced talent specialist to tell if you fit the perfect candidate profile just by matching keywords from the job ad requirements with your resume bio.

Focus on the most relevant details!

Example 3: Achievements

Job Situation: UX/UI designer in the market for a new inspiring gig

“Achievements” is the section where you can write your own recommendation for yourself by showing off key moments from your career and combining that with your strengths.

In the example above, this U/UI designer showcased original creative thinking for achieving publicity and outreach - giving out high-quality freebies and international exposure in web design awards platform. How inventive, huh?

Example 4: Extracurricular activities & Courses

Job Situation: PR specialist describes her extracurricular activities

• • Designed the Creative Writing & Storytelling training program from the bottom up
• • Taught students aged 12-16 about creative writing methods and narrative styles
• • Held multiple workshops on how to think outside the box and develop one's imagination
• • Helped facilitate over 18 different training groups
• • Delivered interactive workshops on subjects such as giving constructive feedback, effective teamwork, creating mindmaps, 6 thinking hats

Job Situation: Software developer describes his coursework

An ideal way to show further your creative thinking is through one of the additional sections - such as volunteering, extracurricular activities, courses or training you’ve undergone. You may even add important projects that have helped you build, improve or shine with your creativity.

• Quantity and quality can go hand in hand: don’t just say what you did, use quantitative measures and results to support your words (%, $, count)
• Make sure to include relevant experience and examples to illustrate your creative thinking skills - be explicit in your description, don’t hint it but explain clearly
• Keep it short and sweet - use keywords and phrases to connect your experience with the job ad requirements, and don’t write walls of texts. Use bullet points and to-the-point sentences to prove how original and inventive you are.

About this report:

Data reflects analysis made on over 1M resume profiles and examples over the last 2 years from Enhancv.com.

While those skills are most commonly met on resumes, you should only use them as inspiration and customize your resume for the given job.

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40 creative skills for your resume

Whether you are in a creative role or not,  adding creative skills to your resume is a great way to impress recruiters.

But which creative skills should you be adding to your resume?

Browse through our list of 40 creative skills for your resume, plus our guide on how to add them.

Resume templates 

Essential creative skills

Here are the top essential creative skills to include on your resume :

• Innovation – e.g. “Created an optimized user experience by overhauling our website design with UX and extensive prototyping.”
• Attention to detail – e.g. “Color-coded website to reflect company branding and create an optimized customer experience.”
• Design software – e.g. “9+ years working in Adobe photoshop, creating custom posters, flyers, leaflets, and business cards.”
• Design – e.g. “Designed our customer feedback surveys to encourage personalized responses, helping us create market funnels based on customer behavior.”
• Idea generation – e.g. “Innovated our new online advertising strategy and video campaign, resulting in an 845% increase in click-through in PPC advertising.”
• Planning – e.g. “Organized a 6-month long advertising campaign and influencer-marketing campaign, cultivating brand awareness and brand recognition online.”
• Visual Communication – e.g. “Organized visual strategy for the shop floor redecoration, opting for spacious aisles and a more customer-centric physical experience.”
• Creative writing – e.g. “Wrote company’s SEO blog and all LinkedIn content, increasing organic traffic and click-through.”
• Product development – e.g. “Developed sketches and 3D prototypes, collaborating with the design team to optimize user functionality.”
• Critical thinking – e.g. “Decided to move our team to a new CMS, changing our communication strategy to encourage idea generation and brainstorming.”

Graphic Design

Good with photoshop? Here are the top essential graphic design skills you should include on your resume:

• Photo editing – e.g . “Used InDesign to retouch professional headshots, promotional photographs and stock photographs.”
• Adobe – e.g. “ Used Adobe Creative Studio to create compelling visuals for our online store, creating mock-ups to demonstrate how clothing items would look when worn.”
• Typography – e.g. “Created company font and logo used for business stationary, all merchandise and all visual communication.”
• Photography – e.g. “Shot the advertising campaign over the course of 2 days, working with marketing team to create collaborative finished product.”
• Canva – g. “Created and branded all our Instagram infographics and posts using creative tools in Canva.”
• UI/UX Design – e.g. “Identified core tasks and analyzed behavioral data to optimize the website and create a more user-friendly experience.”
• Print design – e.g . “Created printed flyers and point-of-sale graphics for our shop floor during promotional and seasonal periods.”
• Branding – e.g. “Designed all company branding, logo, color themes and font, applying the styles across all of our social media channels and any online presence.”
• Digital literacy – e.g. “Trained design staff in UI/UX optimization, in how to identify core goals and interpret behavioral data.”

Video editing

Here are some of the top essential video-editing skills to include on your resume:

• Final cut pro – e.g. “10+ years’ experience creating video campaigns in Final Cut Pro for various clients in the finance sector.”
• Visual marketing – e.g. “Headed up our marketing team to develop our brand identity and brand story, using visual marketing and word-of-mouth to increase brand recognition.”
• Self-motivation – e.g. “Managed several clients while working as a freelancer, completed all projects to deadline and retained 13 of 21 clients long-term.”
• Color correcting – e.g. “ Color-corrected 300 hours of black-and-white reels from the 1930s, showing how they’d look if filmed in color.”
• Adobe creative suite – e.g. “ Created stills and short music videos using Adobe creative suite, winning a Webby award for one campaign for a client in the education sector.”
• Sound editing – e.g. “Cut and synchronized audio to video, mastering over 400 television programs for broadcast television.”
• Trends – e.g. “Picked up on specific trends while working on video campaigns for high-street fashion retailer, with one viral ad campaign gathering over 10 million YouTube views.”
• After effects – e.g. “Used After Effects to create grainy, vintage videos for a documentary series about Victorian Britain, with successful rendering.”
• Editing – e.g. “Finalized TV episodes, cut long scenes, took creative direction over storylines and presented the final product to our production team.”
• Collaboration – e.g. “Created and stylized music video according to client’s brief and instructions, with the music video reaching the top 50 in the UK charts.”

Here are the top essential web design skills to include on your resume:

• CMS skills – e.g. “Build a software designed to be integrated into WordPress, with over 500,00 downloads EOY.”
• JavaScript – e.g. “Consulted with engineer team to re-write JavaScript and remove unused JavaScript and increase website rapidity and functionality.”
• SASS/SCSS – e.g. “Simplified CSS operations using SASS, adding extensions and decreasing graphic rendering time.”
• Problem solving – e.g. “Worked with clients to help assist in any troubleshooting problems that occurred after the installation and launch of their website or themes.”
• CSS – e.g. “Changed website CSS to optimize buyer experience and decrease poor levels of visitor click-through.”
• SEO – e.g. “Optimized our web content with SEO keyword research, link-building and high-quality copywriting and written blog content.”
• Creative thinking – e.g. “Designed a user-centric customer shopping experience, allowing customers to select products according to their needs and budget.”
• Initiative – e.g. “Turned website homepage into lead magnets for returning customers to receive on the landing page, increasing email lists and encouraging customer loyalty.”
• WordPress – e.g. “Built and distributed over 500 WordPress themes, with accessible user-friendly features and bright, reader-friendly aesthetics.”

What are creative skills?

Creative skills are any skills that are used to create content, and usually relate to artistic endeavours such as videos, music, and web-design.

Creative skills can encompass anything from technical skills (such as proficiency in various design software e.g. Photoshop ) to soft skills such as self-motivation and critical thinking.

Creative skills don’t just relate to your work experience but can also include training programs you’ve completed. If you’ve successfully completed or even self-trained in any creative software, you can include these on your resume.

In general, most creative skills will demonstrate your innovation, self-motivation and critical thinking skills, as well as technical competencies.

Why are creative skills important?

Having strong creative skills is key if you want to land roles in industries like web design, graphic design, social media management, videography, website design and fashion design.

Creative skills also demonstrate to a potential recruiter that you’re an independent thinker who can offer an innovative dimension to their team. Even if you’re not applying to a creative role, having creative skills demonstrates that you’re detail-orientated and thorough in your work, capable of generating ideas and brainstorming.

With so many industries now focused on visual marketing and brand storytelling for their marketing campaigns, having creative skills will give your resume a competitive edge.

How to include creative skills on your resume

So, how do you include creative skills when writing your resume ?

You have two main options: you can include your creative skills in your main resume profile, or you can add them into the jobs section of your resume, in the same place where you list your roles and responsibilities.

In your resume summary

If you’re trying to establish yourself as a creative professional and applying to creative jobs, you should include your core creative skills in your resume summary (the intro paragraph at the top of the page).

Your resume summary is your first chance to make a good impression with a busy recruiter, so it’s a good idea to highlight your creative skills right away and make it clear that you have the relevant skills and work experience for the role.

While you’ll still be including your creative skills in your work experience section, tailoring your resume summary to the industry you want to work will prove to be key to landing an interview.

In your jobs

To provide hiring mangers with real detail on your creative skills, you need to include them in the work experience section of your resume, when you list your jobs.

This is the best way to show recruiters not only the creative skills you have; but how you apply them in the work place to benefit your employers.

Make sure to also list important achievements alongside your technical knowledge. For example, if you’re listing technical knowledge, make sure to add how many years you’ve been using the software or technology. “ Adobe Creative Suite (8+ years)” is much more compelling to a recruiter than simply “Adobe” or “Adobe creative suite skills.”

What to avoid

When it comes to adding creative skills to your resume, don’t be generic. It’s important to be able to back up any claims you make about your skills, so make sure you’re able to give solid evidence of your skills in action.

Creative jobs might require the presentation of a portfolio, so you should be prepared to present some of your previous work during your interview. You can add “Portfolio available on request” if you list specific technical skills on your resume, such as video editing or graphic design.

Most importantly, only highlight the creative skills that are relevant to the job, and that you can back up with examples.

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Get Creative By Listing These Creative Skills on Your Resume

Need to show creativity on your resume? We’ve compiled the top creative skills recruiters are looking for and resume examples you can follow.

a year ago   •   5 min read

Some job requirements are fairly cut and dried — you either have the right experience or you don’t.

Others are … not so much. Creativity, like any soft skill , is one of those. But that doesn’t stop recruiters from asking for it — and it shouldn’t stop you from putting it on your resume. In this guide, we’ll cover how to prove that you’re creative, what creativity skills your resume should include, and bullet point examples to get you started.

How to list creativity skills on a resume

• First, find out exactly what creative skills you should be targeting by reading the job description or searching for common keywords by industry or job title .
• Now make a list of your creative skills. Can you think outside the box? Come up with creative solutions to problems? Are you a design whiz?
• Once you have your list, try to match up each of your skills to something mentioned in the job posting. If you have any skills that don’t quite fit, it’s okay to discard them — stick to highlighting your most relevant skills for each job you apply to.
• For each skill you want to include, think of at least one example of how you demonstrated that skill. This should include a short description of the task or project (what you did) and some numbers or metrics (what the result was).
• Put this example into bullet point format by starting off with a strong action verb .
• List bullet points in your work experience section (if you can) or in another section like volunteering , projects, or extracurricular activities .
• Include any supporting evidence — for example, an award for “Most Creative Advertising Strategy” or experience using common design software.

Creativity skills resume samples

You can show creativity on your resume in a few different ways:

• In your work experience bullet points — this is the best place for any soft skill
• Through other types of experience, like volunteering or extracurricular activities
• In a projects or additional information section
• By listing qualifications in creative software or other technical skills

Let’s take a look at what each of those should look like on your resume.

Showing creativity through bullet point accomplishments

Your work experience is what recruiters care about the most, which makes it the best place to list any essential skills you need for the job. Depending on the position, this could include creative thinking, problem solving , communication , and design skills .

A good way to check if the accomplishments in your work experience section highlight your creativity is to upload your resume to the tool below — it’ll let you know if you’ve shown enough creative skills and soft skills.

Demonstrating creativity skills through projects

If you’re looking to supplement your work experience with other evidence of creativity, why not use a dedicated projects section? Linking to a GitHub or design portfolio allows hiring managers to see your creativity skills in action.

Highlighting creative technical skills, awards, and qualifications

Want even more proof of your ability to think creatively? Design skills, techniques, creative software, awards, and certifications can all help demonstrate creativity. Title this section “Skills,” “Certifications,” “Awards,” or “Additional Information” and use subheadings to keep your resume easy to skim.

Essential creative skills for a resume

“Creativity” is very broad, and so are the expectations of hiring managers. The best place to find out exactly what kinds of creativity a company is looking for is in the job posting, but here are some of the most common in-demand creative skills to put on a resume.

Creative thinking skills:

• Open-mindedness
• Brainstorming
• Storyboarding
• Mind mapping
• Creative problem solving
• Visual communication
• Experimenting
• Lateral thinking
• Making observations and connections
• Asking questions

Creative design skills:

• Graphic design
• Design software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite)
• Photo and video editing
• Product design
• UI / UX design
• Visual layouts
• Creative writing

To find out which of these skills you should be prioritizing:

• Check the job description — the kinds of creativity skills required by a marketing director are very different to those needed for a graphic design position.
• Use our skills and keywords finder to search by job title or industry.
• Run your resume through our Targeted Resume tool to find out if the skills you’ve listed are a match for those in the job posting.

Synonyms for creativity on a resume

Ready to start writing your resume bullet points? You’ll need to start with an action verb that describes what you did with a focus on creativity. Try verbs like:

• Conceptualized
• Brainstormed
• Illustrated

Once you have a strong foundation, it’s time to add your accomplishments . Keep scrolling for examples of how to describe creativity skills on a resume.

Creativity skills: Examples of resume bullet points

Looking for the right way to say you’re creative on a resume? Here are examples you can use for just about any situation.

Creative solutions and problem solving

Utilized web scraping techniques to help the firm download public data, including 10,000 company descriptions and quotes, resulting in 50% increment in research efficiency.

Creativity isn’t just restricted to creative fields. Hiring managers for all job types want employees who can think creatively and come up with new solutions to existing problems, from automating repetitive tasks to integrating new and emerging technologies.

Creative thinking and multiple perspectives

Used a random forest algorithm to pinpoint 2K loyal customers by predicting their likelihood of buying a recommended product with a 70% accuracy.

If you excel at lateral thinking and “outside the box” solutions, emphasize your creative thinking skills by describing a time when you did things a little differently — and it paid off.

Creative marketing, branding, and advertising

Devised proposals for new platforms & media strategies, & grew TikTok by 25K followers in 4 months.

Creativity is essential for any jobs involving social media, marketing, advertising, branding, or public outreach. Choose accomplishments that show your ability to develop creative strategies, use platforms effectively, and get concrete results for a company.

Creative design skills

Created 3D plans of designs for 15 commercial buildings in collaboration with 3 architects and engineers using AutoCAD.

If you’re looking for work in a creative or design field, recruiters want to see evidence of creative thinking, design skills, and familiarity with creative software. While listing technical skills in your skills section is good, showing how you’ve used them in action is even better.

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15 Creative Resume Examples That Will Land The Job

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

While you may think of this adage while preparing for your next interview, how often do you think about it when submitting your CV or resume to a potential client or employer?

The average length of time someone will look at your resume is about 5-8 seconds. That means you need a way to grab their attention quickly. Now, imagine competing with hundreds of other applicants for that same opportunity. As you might have guessed, the chances of getting noticed are reduced even more.

So how do you tackle this problem? How do you get your resume to stand out above all the rest? One way is by submitting a creative resume .

What Is a Creative Resume

A creative resume is one that steps away from the traditional, text-only resume and instead adds creative elements into the mix. This can be anything from interactivity, videos, infographics, and even things like custom chocolates and candy wrappers – although I don’t recommend those last two.

With a creative resume , the sky is the limit; you’re only capped by your imagination. Well, that and whether or not you really want that job.

Many recruiters and potential clients and employers may not appreciate a creative resume. If the important details get lost in the design, it’s not going to fare well for you. In fact, if you’re going to use a creative resume, it’s important to understand where they’ll work, and more importantly, where they won’t.

That said, you need to tailor your resume to the type of job you want. For example, you’re likely not going to send a creative resume if you’re applying for a job as a court clerk or a delivery driver. However, if you’re applying for the Creative Lead position at the local publishing house, it might just be the perfect opportunity to show off your design skills.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at some examples of creative resume designs to help give you an idea of what’s out there, and what can be done. We’ll also give you some guidance on which industries will work best for a particular design choice.

Creative Resume Examples

Unique resume / joe kelso.

This unique resume, created by Joe Kelso in 2007, will surely turn heads. When asked about it in an interview, Joe revealed that it was his secret weapon to getting noticed. In fact, it was so effective that he was often called in for interviews in which he wasn’t a perfect match.

Industry: Media. Entertainment. Design.

Interactive & Fun / Robby Leonardi

If you’re looking for a fun resume idea, check out Robby Leonardi’s interactive resume . Robby’s resume, which looks a lot like a video game, takes you on a journey through his experiences by allowing you to control the player using your mouse or keyboard. When you make it to the end of the game, you’re rewarded with an opportunity to send Robby a message.

Industry: Animation. Design. Game / Web Development.

Simple Creative / Chen Zhi Liang

Infographics are all the rage these days, and it’s no surprise that they made their way into the resume design space. In this simple creative CV , Chen Zhi Liang makes use of them to highlight his skills, and I think he nailed it.

Industry: Design. Development.

Amazing / Joseph Acena

Another resume that uses infographics to highlight skills and other areas of interest is this amazing resume by Joseph Acena. The only issue I have with this one is related to the placement of the contact information – it’s a little hard to spot – but otherwise this is a brilliant looking resume.

Industry: Education. Publishing.

Artistic / María Camila Soto

María Camila Soto shows off her skills and her personality with her artistic resume . There’s just something about the hand-drawn look that I love.

Industry: Design. Art. Illustration .

Interesting / Gloria Edith Escalera Manzano

Gloria’s resume is the most interesting resume on the list . Although she created it for a school project, she clearly gave it a lot of thought, and I think she has something special here.

Industry : Design. Art. Illustration. Children’s Book Publishing.

Beautiful / Stuart Mayhew

This beautiful resume by Stuart Mayhew uses a single accent color to highlight the important bits of information. The font choice is also brilliant. Many people forgot how important readability is when they focus too much on the flashy design elements. Stuart clearly did not.

Industry : Design. Marketing.

Designer / Anton Yermolov

Anton Yermolov created this elegant designer resume in which he also uses infographics to highlight his skills. This simple design reminds me of something I might see in a magazine, and it certainly caught my attention.

Industry : Design. Development. Print Media.

Creative Marketing / Mathew Lynch

Although there’s not much room for, well anything, Mathew Lynch sure knows how to ask for what he wants! With his creative marketing resume, there’s no question about what he’s after. The fantastic typography alone will surely draw some attention.

Industry : Publishing. Development. Design.

Awesome / Jimmy Raheriarisoa

Jimmy Raheriarisoa’s awesome resume is two-color, noir perfection! It’s simple, elegant, fun, and best of all… his skills are up-front-and-center. I’d call him in for an interview in a heartbeat.

Industry : Publishing. Media. Art. Entertainment.

Innovative / Paula Del Mas

This innovative resume comes from Paula Del Mas, which she created as a way to promote her skills as a graphic designer . Technically more of a portfolio than a resume, Paula spent a lot of time designing this thing. She looked at every aspect of this book, including cover design and font selection, and put into it only things that would highlight her abilities.

Industry : Design. Publishing.

Creative / Lim Zhiyang

Lim Zhiyang uses infographics to highlight his skills and general interests in this fantastically fun and creative resume. A resume like this is great when you have skills, but not a lot of experience.

Industry : Design. Development. Illustration.

Cool / Francesco Rivieccio

Francesco’s cool resume gives us a look at the anatomy of a creative professional. His resume highlights his skills in a way that I’ve not seen before. If I were recruiting for new creative talent, Francesco would make it on the list, for sure!

Industry : Design. Illustration. Publishing. Gaming.

Creative / Allison Brunton

This creative resume by Allison Brunton reminds me of a technicolor version of Jimmy Raheriarisoa’s resume (#10). The important information is easy-to-find and the use of infographics brings things together nicely.

Industry : Design. Creative Arts.

Creative Genius / Rebecca Fisk

When I first saw Rebecca Fisk’s creative cv I was immediately reminded of those old Pantone color-chips from back in the day. While I’m not sure how practical of a cv this is, it’ll absolutely make a lasting first impression.

Industry : Creative. Design.

Creative Resume Design Tips

Now that you’ve seen some creative resume examples, you might decide to make one of your own. Before you do, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Choose legible fonts. One of the most important tips is font selection. Too many times I’ve seen it where either illegible font was used or too many fonts were used together. The basic rule here is keep it simple, keep it clean. Don’t select crazy fonts just because they’re available.
• Keep your contact information easy-to-spot. This should go without saying, but when your contact information is more difficult to find than the ark of the covenant, no one – not even Indiana Jones – will find you. If you want people to contact you, make sure you make it easy for them to do so: don’t hide your contact information behind a terrible design.
• Include important information, but keep it brief. If the average read-time is about 6-8 seconds to determine whether or not you’ll be getting a call, then imagine how much time is spent reading the rest of your resume. That said, keep it clear and concise. Don’t include irrelevant information, and don’t use big words when smaller ones will do.
• Let your personality show. Be creative. Let your resume speak to your personality. While my own resume isn’t exactly “creative” – I use a traditional style – my personality still comes through. In my profile section, I have the following bullet point:

Zombie aficionado — should there ever be a zombie apocalypse, it might be nice to have me around. Just sayin’.

• Use infographics to highlight your skills. Infographics can play a huge part in making a resume stand out, but it’s important to understand what infographics are , and how to make them work. Otherwise, you run the risk of having your resume look like a photo collage put together by a second-grader.

Creative Resume Templates

If you’re not keen on designing your own creative resume, you might consider starting with a template . A word of caution, though… with a template, you run the risk of not being original. However, resume templates do offer a good starting point.

Here are a few to help get you started:

the TRUE SCOUT

$99.00 USD: Get it here This template offers a nice balance between traditional and creative. The important information is easy-to-spot, and the color and font selection are spot on.

Resume Template by Abdullah Al Mamun

Free: Get it here This is another simple design being offered as a free download by Abdullah Al Mamu. The design comes in four colors and can easily be customized to meet your needs. If you’re looking for something free and simple, this is your best bet.

Clean CV Resume

$16 USD: Get it here This template comes jam-packed with extras, including matching business cards! It also comes in three different formats: .psd, .docx, and .doc.

Flat Resume with Infographics

$12 USD: Get it here If you’re looking for an entry-level infographics format, this one by Creative Graphics is simple, flat , and fully customizable. However, you’ll need Adobe Illustrator for this one.

Infographic Resume/CV

$15 USD: Get it here A solid choice in my book is this one by Whitegraphic. It features both a light and dark style, and it uses free fonts and comes in two formats: .psd and .ai.

There are tons of templates online. Some are free, some are not. The best advice I can give, go with what speaks to you and your personality. Just keep in mind where it is you’re sending it.

Creative resumes aren’t for everyone, and they’re certainly not for every type of job – but they do have their place, and they can be an effective tool when you’re looking for new opportunities. Just keep things tame!

Bottom line: just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should . Creative resumes do have the potential to get you noticed, but you want to make sure that you’re being noticed in a good way, and for the right reasons.

About the Author Tammy Coron is an independent creative professional and the host of Roundabout: Creative Chaos. She’s also the co-founder of Day Of The Indie, the organizer behind Indie DevStock, and the founder of Just Write Code. Find out more at TammyCoron.com .

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