Creative Resume Templates
Unique and creative non-traditional designs
Table of Contents
If you are looking for a job in a creative field, or one that requires you to stand out from the crowd, these creative templates will help you show your personality and impress potential employers.
Use one of these creative resume templates to show that you know great visual design. They can also be edited and customized to further show off your design skills.
Mix of object photos, including pencil, cellphone and doodles, make a creative sample. Olive-green section divider lines and arrow bullet points for descriptions. Social media expert, writer, communicator or technical sales resume template.
Color icons and shadowed stars make your key strengths stand out with light-blue backgrounds and bold, white fonts completing the creative look. Suited for marketing, public relations or publishing.
Black and blue backgrounds and header shadings with graphic icons make this resume template pop. Skills section includes a meter to rank your expertise. Great resume for communication, creative and design professionals.
Dark and light-orange backgrounds with orange bubbles inset with grid lines. Bordered profile picture and lowercase section titles complete this artsy resume template. For a creative, graphic or hospitality resume that makes a statement.
Conversational and whimsical style. Tones of purple with a little brown and black. Alternating paragraph shading for sections. Great designer resume template for creative professionals.
Lots of white space offset with light blues for backgrounds and font types. Circle bar meters rate your attributes. Broadway-style font titles and circle backgrounds for dates catch the eye.
These resume templates highlight your sales and marketing abilities using creative ways to display professional achievements.
The optimal utilization of space and clearly highlighted sections allows this resume template to portray all the relevant information needed.
Eye-catching skyscraper icon for the engineer, planner or contractor. Soft-gray header backgrounds and light-blue fonts and arrows add to the sophisticated, city-feel of this print-ready resume template.
Bright orange and blues make this sample attention-grabbing as do the chevron-style banners. Open circles used for bullet lists. Great style for teachers, service industry professionals and technicians.
An impressive resume template for job seekers with impressive skills. Use the square callout sections with dashed bar graphs to showcase your abilities. Full-page gray background makes the white sections pop. Great for IT managers, programmers and specialists.
Large Awards section with ribbon-type graphics for all your sales, teaching or service honors. Blue shading and white fonts add appeal with a section for a profile picture.
A creative resume template featuring your professional portrait is great for everything from sales positions to acting jobs.
Russet borders, section backgrounds and lines, and titles give a warm feeling to this template. Medium-sized profile picture outlined with russet circle. Three-column key skills area with filled-in circles to rate your skills.
Thick page border and section lines with a small, full-frontal profile photo capture the attention. Maroon coloring highlights key titles and strengths. Public speakers, proposal specialists and sales managers shine with this sample.
Highlighted column in blue background, round profile photo and bold white fonts. Spotlight key titles and descriptions with the blue font color. Creative and expressive example for designers and social media experts.
Large profile picture set in sweeping blue background. Perfect resume template for a realtor, branding specialist, interior designer or entertainment professional.
Orange colors brightens up this template. Bold, white section titles make each area stand out along with the red and white arrow graphs ranking your skills. Healthcare, public relations and event planners stand out with this example.
Single-color header with your image prominently displayed. The slight angle of your picture adds a touch of informality to give this resume a friendlier feel.
Full-length profile photo with orange headings and light-gray titles. Functional-style resume for key competencies and qualifications. Perfect resume template for sales, marketing, health care or fine arts.
Large, full-color profile picture to feature yourself, and light-blue meters to showcase your strengths. Three-column format offers plenty of room for detailed accomplishments. Icon images complete this exceptional resume template.
Interior designer, sales executive, realtor template. Large headshot with pink bannered job title. Oversized skills area with bar meters separates the conventional information.
transatlantic - america - new york
This modern resume template has a decidedly American theme. Featuring the Statue of Liberty set against the iconic New York City skyline, this template is suited for professionals seeking extra attention for their location. You can change the skyline to create a different resume theme. In this three-column format, you can highlight your work experience, skills and accomplishments.
When applying for entry-level positions or changing careers, it’s best to limit your resume to one page. Creative layouts in this category are designed to be presented on a single page.
Black and white icon images set in open blue circles connected with blue lines. Functional resume to list education and skills for school administrators, daycare workers or new graduates.
Lines and open circles with dots frame your work experience in a timeline-like format. Green-colored headings and bold font types complete the look.
Concrete gray section with headers highlighted in an auburn and white background set on a colorful rainbow-shaded ribbon for the page background. Fine arts, industrial and architectural feel.
Two-column layout with green and blue backgrounds and bold, white headings make this resume template a Sunday front page. Make yourself the top story as a writer, architectect, systems manager or public relations specialist.
Bold, modern layout with angled brackets in a header and three-column layout — great for creatives with little work experience.
Looking at this resume the employer will have a strong expectation of the type of person who’ll be walking through the door. Be prepared to meet that expectation. Perfect format for kindergarten teachers, daycare professionals and nannies.
Full-page, three-column format with thin grid lines to section off areas. Creative style for artists, designers or publishing professionals.
Strong formal template with dark backgrounds and white and black font colors. Thick divider line separates two columns, and metered bar images showcase qualifications.
Engineering, operations and data managers' feel with this resume template. Banner-style process arrows for dates, point to experience descriptions punctuated with coffee circles and vertical lines.
One color scheme but in different shades works well, and the checkered pattern gives it a twist. Great format for a single-page resume.
Dark and light grays provide a backdrop for each section in this sample. Shadowed stars with colorful icons make your skills stand out. Analysts, programmers and office staff benefit with this one.
Shadowed stars used to rank your expertise. Large orange and deep-gray background shading with bold, white text add structure to the template. Great for architecture, accounting, IT and management.
Layout on a colored background. Pick high-quality cardstock to create a professional high-end impression. Fancy format with geometrical shapes for original headings that really stand out. But, maybe not the best choice if you have a lot of text.
This resume template shows what can be done using a grid layout with different colors. Notice how important the white space is between each section. The colors used are also very subtle and contemporary.
Sections divided with light and dark-blue backgrounds with dashed grid lines, and experience shaded in white. Technical and mechanical feel with this resume template Mechanics, statisticians or analysts are well-served here.
Open circles around a blue dot connect with light blue lines help guide the reader’s eye. Serif fonts add to academic look.
Large, blue-shaded circles for dates and titles quickly draw in the reader. Deep-blue backgrounds with dashed white borderlines and a gray page backdrop finish this bold look.
The shadow effect makes the headings into headlines. The images say 'finance' and 'organized' — someone who delivers.
Shaded page with oblong, white rectangular main section and shadowed header make your key strengths stand out on the page. Ideal for managers, sales and science job seekers.
Vibrant images of a grassy field and leafs border this sample with muted green section titles to showcase all your attributes. Creative professionals looking for landscape jobs help you stand out.
White-outlined main section and light-blue headings pop on this page with a dark-brown background. Use bar meter lines and large About Me area to describe yourself.
Two-column layout with thin borderlines connecting each area. Bold, white section headers with dark-blue backgrounds. Light-blue squares for rating key strengths and an opening My Motto section.
The times you should use a creative resume are fewer than when you should use a formal one.
Still, it’s a good idea to make your resume reflect your desired career opportunity and ideal work environment. If your dream job is creative, then you may want a resume to match.
“In a creative business, it’s almost standard to have a creative resume,” said professional resume designer Rick Mundonto to the Business Insider. You might use one when applying to a very innovative company like Google, or when your future employer values creativity.
This type of resume allows you to showcase your creative talent and skills on the document itself. If you’re applying for a job in marketing, for example, a creative resume can show off your ability to sell something: in this case, yourself. If you want to be a graphic designer, you can show off your graphic design skills.
Of course, even in creative fields, some companies will place more value on the traditional resume. So, it’s a good idea to have both a creative resume and a standard resume.
The following are some fields in which a creative resume can be a good fit:
Always pay close attention to any guidelines the company posts regarding resumes. If they request a Word document in standard 12-point font, they probably aren’t looking for a modern resume.
Some companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS) before the resume is read by a human. With an ATS, some creative designs might not be read accurately by the software, so a simple layout is a safer choice. Consider the size of a company and how many applicants they may be fielding at a given time to speculate whether or not they may be using ATS to sift through resumes.
It’s also a good idea to find out who’ll be reading your resume, if possible. If you’re applying to a creative job, but your resume will be read by recruiters who don’t work in your field, the creative elements of your resume may be lost on them.
Think a creative resume is right for you? Let’s find out what goes into producing one.
With a creative resume, the sky’s the limit on what design elements you can play with. However, there are several tried-and-true ideas to get you started. Here are a few of the possibilities to consider.
You can use color in more whimsical ways on a creative resume than on traditional or modern ones. It’s OK to use bold, bright and multiple colors. Just make sure your document is still easy to read.
If the company you’re applying to has a corporate color scheme (check their logo, website or offices for ideas), you might want to reflect that in your design. This is a good way to subtly signal that you will fit into their work environment well.
A creative resume might contain symbols or graphics that are related to your industry. You can use a different icon for each section, or have a single graphic related to your field featured prominently on your resume.
No matter what graphic you choose, make sure that it’s high-quality and fits with the content of your resume. Several of our creative resume templates below have excellent built-in graphics.
Maybe you’re applying to work for a quirky local business where personality is a bonus. Or maybe your field is direct sales or marketing, where you’ll be interacting face-to-face and forming business relationships with new clients.
In any field where your personality or professional appearance is a key component of the job, a photo is a good way to show that. Including a professional photo of yourself can be a great addition to a creative resume.
Make sure your photo is professional. A silly, heavily edited or unconventional photo is a detraction. It doesn’t provide potential employers with helpful information about you and might hurt your chances of getting a job interview.
Creative resumes have been made to look like everything from movie posters to subway maps.
You don’t want to copy another candidate’s unique design, but you can use designs like these as inspiration. Then use one of our free templates to make your own appealing resume.
Get creative with your own resume layout if it’s appropriate for the job you’re applying for. What documents are relevant to your field, and how might you model your resume after them? For example, a resume that looks like a playbill might be a fun twist for a job at a theater. A resume that’s modeled after a popular social media site could work well for a social media marketing position.
Beyond the traditional text-based resumes, there are other innovative ways to present yourself that could help you make a bold impression on a potential employer.
Some people may opt to make a creative resume in an exclusively online format. Some job seekers have created resumes using the presentation software Prezi. Others have made short videos that tell the story of their achievements and work experience. Several websites exist specifically to help you make an attractive visual resume.
These can be viewed online or saved as an image to send to potential employers. An online resume is a bit unconventional and best for creative fields. If you think an online or video resume will help you stand out from the competition, go for it — just make sure you have a paper version handy, too.
The infographic resume uses a visual format to provide information about you and your experience. It might include a graph, a pie chart or another visual way of presenting this information. Or, the entire resume might be modeled as an infographic.
Creating a good infographic resume from scratch can be difficult and time-consuming. There’s more to it than just making a simple table or chart. Instead of doing it all on your own, check out our infographic resume guide and templates to make the job easy for you.
Whichever creative resume design you choose, the content must be easy to find and logically organized. Your resume tells a story about you and your experience. Is the story arranged in a way that makes sense?
Don’t waste a hiring manager’s time by including unnecessary information or making critical information difficult to find. Make sure your contact information is clear, prominent and easy to read. Include all the necessary information about your professional experience and education.
You can still use a chronological, functional or combination resume format with your creative resume design.
If you go with a creative format, it’s still crucial that your resume is free of grammar and spelling errors. Although it takes a different approach to presenting information, your creative resume should be just as professional and polished as a formal resume.
A good creative resume design will enhance and highlight your content, not obscure or distract from it. No matter how creative or unique your resume design is, it’s the content that will get you the job.
Here are some links where you can find even more creative resume ideas and inspiration:
