Design your resume

- Professionally designed resumes by Pure Resume from $24.99 & cover letters from $14.99
- Includes writing tips approved by recruiters
- Instant download after purchase
We’re reader-supported and may be paid when you visit links to partner sites. We don’t compare all products in the market, but we’re working on it!
For most professions, a simple black and white resume is the most appropriate. But in creative industries, a colourful resume can grab the attention of the hiring manager and show your suitability for the role.
Here's our guide to how you can use a colourful resume to land your next job.
A colourful resume uses a colour scheme to demonstrate your design skills or draw attention to certain sections of the page. The use of colour can range from a pastel background hue to a brightly coloured box to bold font that emphasises certain words.
A colourful resume uses blocks of background colour, borders, boxes, coloured headings, graphics, icons or fonts to make an eye-catching page that will stand out among a pile of applications.
Colours convey certain ideas and meanings. For example, blue is considered a corporate colour, green is used for environmentally conscious campaigns, orange suggests productivity and grey denotes professionalism. You can use these to create a certain impression beyond the words written in your resume.
There are several ways you can use colour to your advantage in designing the layout of your resume:
You don't have to create a resume from scratch; there are many websites that offer colourful resume template designs for a one-time fee or as part of a subscription package. You can download pre-designed files to customise in Word, Google Docs or Adobe suite applications. You can change the colour scheme, layout and any graphics, or you can simply fill in your information. Prices range up to the hundreds of dollars for the more intricate designs.
If you don't want to buy an expensive template, you can also find free colourful resume templates online that you can download and customise.
Pros
Cons
Creative roles such as graphic designer, illustrator, web developer, creative director, branding manager, hair or makeup artist, and so on, are more appropriate for using a colourful resume. Resumes for professions like accountant or lawyer should stick to black and white.
If you want to use just a hint of colour on your resume, stick to pale blue, grey or beige as third colour alongside black and white to highlight headings or divide sections.
If you are going to design a colourful resume, avoid using clashing colours, too many boxes or graphics, incompatible fonts, inconsistent colouring, and blocks of text. Make sure there is plenty of blank space to break up the page, so each section is easy to read.
If you are going to design a colourful resume or use a template, make sure you save it in PDF format so that the colours and layout you use are not lost when the document is viewed on other devices or operating systems.
Today's best Finder Daily deals include: 58% off Memory Foam pillows, 60% off Sandisk Micro-SD memory cards, 70% off massage guns.
We talk you through how to get home office insurance.
How to find out your credit score using this free tool.
We evaluate Legal123's document template services, including its packages for specific businesses.
Work, learn and play with one of the best Chromebooks you can get your hands on in Australia right now.
We’ll show you how to compare your options and choose a drain cleaner for your home plumbing needs.
If you can stand the price point, there’s an awful lot to like about Samsung’s highest tier Galaxy S21 handset.
Use this legal template as your starting point to earning extra income in your hair salon.
Here are the top Fitbit devices you can get your hands on here in Australia.
These are the best air mouse remotes you can get your hands on in Australia.