What is a creative resume template?
Resumes are designed to catch an employer’s attention — and creative resume designs are great at that. By combining hints of color and unique design elements without sacrificing professionalism, applicants can stand out while showcasing their expertise.
Among all resume templates, creative designs stand out for their unconventional and innovative looks. Choosing one of our free resume templates will give you a headstart when you’re ready to make a resume. Or, if you’d like to create your own, explore our resume design ideas for inspiration.
Creative resumes are especially well-suited for applicants who want to:
- Work in the arts (i.e., graphic design, illustration or photography) or other creative industries (i.e., advertising, architecture or entertainment)
- Show their personality
- Add some style to their resume
Continue on to find a creative design that’s right for you, and learn about the three distinct resume formats.
5 reasons to choose a creative resume template
With so many options to choose from, why use a creative template? Creative resumes are for you if:
You want to stand out from the crowd.
Creative resume templates feature rich colors and interesting designs. Using one will make your resume stand out in a sea of traditional documents.
You are applying for work in a creative field.
Leave the plain black and white resumes to those looking for work in conservative industries. If you’re applying for jobs in a creative field like advertising or graphic design, you’ll want a resume design that looks the part.
You want the freedom to customize the design.
Use our color picker tool to personalize our creative resume templates to your taste. Choose your color palette, fonts and more to make it your own.
You want to ensure your resume passes the ATS..
Like all of our resume templates, our creative templates are designed to be easily skimmed by both the human eye and an applicant tracking system (ATS). Making an ATS-friendly resume is critical to beating the bots.
You don’t want to waste time fixing formatting.
Our creative resume templates are perfectly formatted, allowing you to focus on the content and not the resume layout. And the formatting stays intact no matter how many changes you make to your content.
FAQs about our creative resume templates
Last Updated: February 13, 2024
A creative resume is not unprofessional, however, it might not be appropriate for all jobs and industries. If you are a graphic designer, a creative resume is a great choice since it conveys your artistic side. However, if you are applying for a job in finance, government, law or another conservative field, a creative resume may not be appropriate. For those roles, choose a more buttoned-up resume template.
A creative resume is not unprofessional, however, it might not be appropriate for all jobs and industries. If you are a graphic designer, a creative resume is a great choice since it conveys your artistic side. However, if you are applying for a job in finance, government, law or another conservative field, a creative resume may not be appropriate. For those roles, choose a more buttoned-up resume template.
You can find many creative resume templates in our free Resume Maker.
Creative templates include some of the most eye-catching designs. Such templates should be used by creative professionals in fields like visual arts or marketing or by anyone who wants to stand out from a sea of black-and-gray resumes while appearing professional.
While creative templates differ dramatically from one another, they often have a few qualities in common, such as:
- Bold or eye-catching colors
- Distinct, easy-to-read font
- Plenty of white space to counterbalance the color
- Space for social media handles or a personal website URL
- Visualized resume skills section
Yes! Once you’ve finished building and downloading your resume for one employer, we’ll save your information for you. You can then choose a new template for another employer and populate it with your saved resume information, or you can update your information with the new template using our builder. Easy, right?
Absolutely! Our fast and easy Resume Builder provides editing tools to help you build the best version of your resume. Edit it as much as you need — just be sure to save your changes each time.
Our Builder gives you the option to save your resume as a Word, PDF or plain-text file.
Creative resumes, like all resumes, need a cover letter. Our certified professional resume writers recommend writing a cover letter to accompany every resume. They help you shine by allowing you space to expand on your resume, express your enthusiasm for the job and the company, and introduce yourself to the hiring manager.
You can start by browsing our cover letter examples and templates. Then, when you’re ready, our Cover Letter Builder will help you create the perfect cover letter to accompany your resume.