Liagi Ramilo takes an interesting approach with her resume – making it look like something doodled on a piece of notebook paper, with her picture attached. It’s almost a reverse of the usual resumes people design, with carefully beveled lines and calculated fonts – she goes out of her way to make it look almost aggressively informal.
When I first saw this resume, I confess, it was unexpected – and that shock is part of the charm. Some people think out of the box, she decided the box needed to be more casual and personalized.
Looking over this resume I see several things it has going for it:
- It has marvelous personality, and paired with the picture, gives a sense of whimsy and informality. It’s almost comforting in its casualness. The job search is a formalized affair, and she brings a welcome informality.
- It still gets in all the things a good resume needs, but in a more casual sense. As you look it over, you see how much detail there is, and it speaks to real talent in design.
- It’s also a good example of her design work in that she had to go out of the way to make it look informal and put in the right information.
- The little doodles really sell it – it makes it look much more like what it’s supposed to – a piece of paper someone scribbled things on. Without them it really wouldn’t “sell” the design.
- Including a picture adds a personal touch that works well with the informality – and it’s not a formal picture, which is appropriate.
Now a few issues with the resume:
- This is definitely not a scannable resume – it’s something that probably has to be paired with a more formal resume.
- The clever “doodle” look does come at the expense of readability – it’s not exactly the clearest resume in some areas, such as where the text crosses one of the blue lines. That might annoy some people.
I could see this resume being used as the basis of a portfolio – imagine several other pages of doodles with pictures of her other works, creating a portfolio with the casual theme. Such a themed portfolio would add power to the resume, and vice versa.
Steve’s Summary: If I got this resume, I’d really enjoy the fact I felt I got a glimpse into the personality of the artist, and appreciate the effort. I’d want a formal resume to scan or send to less creative people.
[“50 Shades of Resume” is an analysis of various interesting resumes to celebrate the launch of the second edition of my book “Fan To Pro” and to give our readers inspiration for their own unique creations.]
– Steven Savage