To begin designing my CV I first had to conduct some research to find what direction to take it.
I began by heading over to Pinterest to see if what stuck out to me from cv designs that I could find. I found myself taking a great liking to designs that had great foundations, those that you could tell were mapped out using a grid felt really pleasant to look at. Not only this but it reaffirmed to me that these are designers CV’s and not just anyones. Here are some examples that I liked.
Once I had realised how much of a role grid systems seem to play in CV design I couldn’t help but think back to my 102 design history class in which we looked at Josef Muller Brockmann. Brockmann seemed to employ grid systems perfectly in his work. I always felt it gave his designs a real literary feel that you don’t find often. I think the strict adherence to the grid allows for text to be used much more without crowding the design. I think this is something that will prove to be very relevant when designing my CV.
I think type, in regards to a CV, is where you might show your style/personality best. The few CV’s that I had grabbed of Pinterest were very minimal with their type. This is partly what drew me to them as I like to think a lot of my own work falls close to that category. I would say they maybe are a little too mundane, perhaps this is a combination of the safe type and lack of colour. I do think I will be sticking with a clean sans serif for this one keeping the purpose of the CV at the forefront of any design choices.
With this in mind, I recently used the font Satoshi in a previous project and I felt it was a refreshing but familiar escape from the typical Helvetica and usual sans serifs you see. I think this would be a good option for my CV.
Much like type colour can be a good way to demonstrate style and personality. I think within a CV it must be limited and calculated. I can’t seem to escape that Brockmann-esque thinking when planning my CV, it feels as though when using a grid to such extremes that everything else also falls under the microscope. The CV’s I showed above feature no colour, this is probably my biggest gripe with them. I feel as a designer you should be able to demonstrate some creative use of colour within your CV as it’s likely to be something of note for whatever role you progress to.
I’d like to play with one colour to try and communicate just exactly the kind of work I produce. With my desired role of working directly with Product I feel a strong, professional blue might help convey this attitude and provide that punch of colour that’ll help bring the CV to life.
