The last part of making my CV was creating a physical version. I had just kept this as something I thought about throughout the semester, so I was pretty much ready to put it together when it came to it.
I wanted to keep things pretty simple when it came to paper and just got some 160g/m^2 paper so it would feel high quality. Due to the monotone colour palette of my personal brand, I just went for white rather than an off-white colour.
I was slightly torn about what sort of envelope to go for as I had two as front runners. The first was an A5 with a string loop close, and the other was a sturdier A4 envelope which has a “Do not bend” print. In the end, I chose the A5, and folded the CV and Cover Letter, as I preferred the smaller size which made it feel more quality. I also made an A5 card insert to improve the sturdiness of the package which made it feel really nice to hold and pass. I thought this was a great addition as was a subtle thing that actually made the package feel confident when you were first handed it.
I had got some large package labels to use on the envelope and typed the address and recipient lines using an old typewriter. I felt this would give a unique look and show a bit more thought around putting the package together which would stand out to employers. When it came to actually trying to do this, the typewriter wasn’t producing the best quality lettering, so decided to take another path with this. I instead designed a label in InDesign using the same style as my CV. This actually looked much neater and made the whole thing feel like a complete package, rather than a muddled mix of different ideas.
A unique part of my CV design was my brand mark which was featured on the letterhead. Due to the solid geometric nature of the mark, I thought having it as an ink stamp would look really good and be another stamp-out feature of my CV. To do this, I used some lino I had cut the brand mark out of it, and then rolled ink onto it to print the mark. I found when using the stamp that it just ended up looking clumsy. To be fair, this was partly due to my lino-cutting skills, but also the inconsistencies with the ink didn’t match my brand aesthetics. This was similar to my idea for the typewriter label which was a nice idea but didn’t really fit into the style of my brand.
I was really happy with my finished CV. I felt it had a lot of unique and impressive features without being gimmicky and the features fitted my personal brand well. While I didn’t end up using it when searching for placement, I’m still pleased I did this as it was a fun task and something that could be really useful in the future.