Write Winning Resumes

Writing a Design Resume

By Delphine Hirasuna | July 12, 2019July 19, 2019

Writing a resume for a job in a design studio is different than applying for a corporate manager position. Aside from wanting to know the usual list of previous employment and education, design employers look for clues that the applicant has the skills that designers need and will fit compatibly on the design team. It’s not just what you say, but how you present it.

Here are 10 tips on preparing a resume that works:

1. Do your homework first.

Check out the design studio’s website and do a google search to look at the firm’s design style, past projects, industry recognition, staffing, philosophy, etc. This will reveal a lot about whether you are a good fit for the studio, and vice versa.

2. Include a Cover Letter

Include a brief cover letter with your resume, even if you are sending an unsolicited application or responding to an online job posting. A personalized letter is not only polite, it indicates that you specifically want to work there, and are not blanketing the entire design world with your resume. If you have been referred by someone known to the firm, include that too.

3. Tell Them Where You Worked

Provide a career chronology and dates of employment. Also cite your primary duties and name some of the key accounts you worked on. If you were freelancing, name some of your clients and the scope of your assignments.

Publishing

Anatomy of a Perfect Serial Crime (Novel)

By Delphine Hirasuna | July 27, 2015July 28, 2015

Book_Jacket_Anatomy

When it comes to looking for the latest crime novel by your favorite best-selling author, fans don’t want the mystery to begin in the bookstore, so publishers sprinkle graphic clues on the jacket cover to lead shoppers to the writers they want. The covers, shown here, are by designer Peter Mendelsund, associate art director at Knopf, for the Jo Nesbo series; design firm Richard, Brock, Miller and Mitchell (RBMM) for the Dick Francis horse-racing murder mysteries, and designer Michael Stirrings for the Sue Grafton alphabet murders. In such cases, the cover design “brands” the book as part of a series, and signals the likely appearance of recurring main characters — e.g., Nesbo’s detective Harry Hole and Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone. Familiarity sells.

Posters

Herman Miller Picnic Posters by Steve Frykholm

By Delphine Hirasuna | July 20, 2015July 24, 2015

Steve Frykholm is rare among in-house graphic designers, who tend not to make a career in one company for fear that they may become stale and repetitive. Frykholm joined Herman Miller in 1970, and has produced an impressive graphic communications portfolio for the celebrated furniture maker over the past 45 years. Back when financial annual reports were the design showpiece for most companies, all eyes were on Herman Miller to see what Frykholm came up with. Inevitably, it was something wonderful, fresh, and engaging. Frykholm established a graphic brand for Herman Miller that didn’t emphasize the repetition or placement of the logo, as much as meeting the company’s reputation for bold, original design. So, it is not that surprising that the silk-screened posters that Frykholm produced for the annual company picnic over the past 20 years have been included in New York’s Museum of Modern Art permanent collection. This brief video was produced by Dress Code, a New York-based production company.
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Posters

AIGA Celebrates 100th Anniversary

By Delphine Hirasuna | October 7, 2014November 26, 2014

The American Institute of Graphic Arts, better known as AIGA, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. That’s a remarkable milestone when you consider that graphic design didn’t really exist as a profession until the 20th century. Before that, printers and commercial artists handled such tasks. Interestingly, graphic design owes its rise in part to the First World War, which started in 1914 and set off a scramble for army recruitment and war bond posters. This accelerated the production of posters (and demand for graphic artists) as governments sought to rally citizens to support the war effort. The First World War also happened to coincide with the widespread adoption of offset lithographic printing, which enabled mass production of affordable pulp novels, magazines, packaging and other paper-based media.The graphic arts industry was suddenly born. Today there are more than two million graphic artists and designers in the U.S. alone.

Design Education

Founding Fathers Stiff Flag Designer

By Delphine Hirasuna | July 7, 2014September 4, 2014

As we celebrate Independence Day in the U.S., it seems fitting to give credit where credit is due to Francis Hopkinson, who substantial evidence shows designed the first American flag in 1777. Hopkinson, a New Jersey lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence, had a natural love of heraldry and art, and dabbled at graphic design (a profession that didn’t exist back then). During the American Revolution, Hopkinson was serving as chairman of the Navy Board’s Middle Department, when it got an urgent request to come up with an official banner of some sort that soldiers could carry into battle. At the time, the rebelling colonies were flying a flag that featured a variation of the British Union Jack in the canton surrounded on three sides with horizontal red and white stripes. (It looked like a knock-off of the British East India Company flag.)