Many employers are no longer following the standard “apply and wait” application model.
Now, they’re checking applicants on social media, visiting their personal sites, and accepting more creative job applications.
WATCH: Infographic resume design tips
An infographic resume is a creative way to show employers why you deserve their attention.
While infographic resumes generally shouldn’t replace a standard resume completely, they’re perfect for bringing to interviews, publishing on your site or social media pages, and attaching to email applications.
But if you aren’t a designer by trade, how can you create an infographic resume that impresses employers?
Easy: start with a customizable infographic resume template. Pick a template from the examples below and use Venngage’s infographic resume builder to edit it easily. It’s free to get started!
Not sure what an infographic is? Our beginner-friendly post includes a definition of infographics and simple examples.
Now, let’s take a lot at 20+ infographic resume templates you can use, along with some design tips to help you make a great impression:
- Spice up a traditional resume template with subtle visuals
- Visualize your interests and skills using charts
- Add a decorative border to your infographic resume template
- Use a mind map to highlight your most positive characteristics
- Use a header image that relates to your personal goals or your industry
- Don’t be afraid to add a bit of color to your resume
- Use a creative font for your infographic resume header that reflects your personal brand
- Use a timeline resume to show your career progress and achievements
- Use a monochrome color palette for a sleek, professional infographic resume
- Use a bold background color in your graphic resume design
- Pick a brightly contrasting color for your infographic resume header
- Emphasize important information with icons
- To set yourself apart, use an unconventional graphic resume layout
- Make typography the central design element of your graphic resume
- Highlight numbers on your infographic resume that back up your achievements
- Create a logo for your personal brand
- Divide your graphic resume into two columns for an unconventional layout
- Use a muted color scheme for a modern resume design
- Include a section that highlights your core qualifications
- Make a statement by using bold colors on your resume and a dark background color
1. Spice up a traditional resume template with subtle visuals
Maybe you don’t feel comfortable straying too far away from the traditional template format, which is totally fine! You can still add a dash of creativity to your visual resume with some simple (and strategic) visuals.
At Venngage, we’re pretty big fans of icons (which is why we have over 40,000 of them available in our library!) When it comes to your graphic resume, you could use an icon to help your header sections stand out.
You could also incorporate a simple bar chart to showcase your skills, like this subtle visual resume:
Or this:
WATCH: How to customize this graphic resume template [Venngage tutorial]
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2. Visualize your interests and skills using charts
An infographic resume gives you the opportunity to present your qualifications in a visually engaging way. Look for dates, numbers, and key points in your graphic resume and use charts to visualize them.
For example, use a word cloud to visualize your interests, or where your expertise lies. Or you could use a donut pie chart to rate your experience level for different skills, like in this visual resume:
With Venngage, you can use over a dozen different kinds of charts to spice up your infographic resume template.
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3. Add a decorative border to your infographic resume template
A border is an easy way to make your resume template more eye-catching. Start by picking an image for your border. Then, use a rectangle icon for the area where you’ll put your text. The result is an attractive resume that says a bit more about your personality than a plain old document:
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4. Use a mind map to highlight your most positive characteristics
Infographic resumes give you the opportunity to creatively show off your qualifications. One way you can do that is by creating a mind map of your most marketable qualities.
Use a circle with the central idea in the center (or a picture of you!) and branch off from that with different talents, personality traits and skills that make you a desirable hire. You can also use icons to represent each quality, like in this highly visual resume:
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5. Use a header image that relates to your personal goals or your industry
Adding an attention-grabbing header to your infographic resume is not only an aesthetic choice, but a strategic one as well: an image that reflects your chosen industry will help enforce your personal brand as a professional within that industry.
Another option is to use an image that reflects your personality and interests. This will give employers an idea of who you are and if you will fit in their company culture.
If you want your text to stand out from the header image, try this simple image hack: use a semi-transparent filter to mute the colors in your header image.
To create this effect, place a rectangle icon over your header. Then, adjust the opacity of the icon so the header image shows through. This will make your header text easier to read.
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6. Don’t be afraid to add a bit of color to your resume
Color on resumes isn’t necessarily unprofessional. Contrasting colors can be used to emphasize header and key text. If you’re adding a border, header or images to your resume design, make sure the color scheme is consistent.
Look for a dominant color from your images and use that for the text you want to emphasize. For example, this infographic resume template uses a shade of blue that matches the sky for the headers:
To pull the exact hex code for a color, you can use a tool like ColorZilla. Then, paste the hex code into Venngage’s color picker tool. Easy peasy.
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7. Use a creative font for your infographic resume header that reflects your personal brand
For the most part, it’s best to stick to a simple, readable font for your infographic resume. Your header font, on the other hand, is the perfect chance to get a little more creative.
Different fonts have different personalities. If you’re not sure what to pick, look at the kinds of fonts that are commonly used in your industry and use one of those. For example, companies in the tech industry tend to use sleek, sans serif fonts. But news and print publications tend to use serif fonts.
Strategically picking your fonts will help you seem like a better fit for the jobs you apply for.
If you use Venngage to create your infographic resume, you’ll have over 140 different fonts to choose from! If you don’t find anything that suits your fancy, you can also upload your own fonts!
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8. Use a timeline resume to show your career progress and achievements
Have you worked a straight track since school, made your own opportunities, or even changed careers? A timeline resume is a great way to showcase your professional growth.
Timeline infographics are an engaging way to visualize information over a period of time. A timeline resume will help paint a picture of your experience in the reader’s mind.
You can even use icons to illustrate and emphasize different points in time, like in this infographic resume template:
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9. Use a monochrome color palette for a sleek, professional infographic resume
Maybe you don’t want a bright and punchy infographic resume. Maybe you want something more understated and elegant.
A monochrome infographic resume template can help you appear confident and organized. Pick a color for your resume like blue or green and use different shades of the same color. Or simply do shades of grey.
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10. Use a bold background color in your graphic resume design
A simple but effective way to make your resume design stand out is to use a bold, eye-catching background color.
Color on resumes should communicate the effect you want to have on the hiring manager. For example, according to color theory, colors like orange, yellow and red communicate determination, energy, intellect and creativity.
As a rule of thumb, use dark colored text on light colored backgrounds, and vice-versa.
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11. Pick a brightly contrasting color for your infographic resume header
If you don’t want to make your entire resume background a bright color, you can settle for just the header. The pop of color will help draw the eye to your name, without overpowering the rest of your graphic resume.
To create a sense of balance, use the same color as your header along the footer of your resume.
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12. Emphasize important information with icons
Because icons are simple, compact visuals, they’re perfect for embellishing your infographic resume. Not only do they make your resume design more interesting, but they also help to clarify and emphasize information.
For example, the icons in this infographic resume template make it easy to scan quickly for information. That may very well come in handy for employers, who often have to sift through hundreds of applications:
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13. To set yourself apart, use an unconventional graphic resume layout
If you’re applying for a job in a creative field, you can showcase your creativity by making a resume that defies expectations. The key is to make sure that your information is still easy to read the understand.
For example, this creative resume for graphic designers uses different colored blocks to organize each section. The header’s white background draws the eye first, so that the design still follows a logical reading order:
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14. Make typography the central design element of your graphic resume
If you want your graphic resume design to err on the side of formal, then you may be hesitant to add too many visuals. In that case, you can embellish your design using fonts and some simple color accents.
For example, pick a font with character for your name and section headers. Then, try using a bold color on your resume that contrasts with the background for your headers.
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15. Highlight numbers on your infographic resume that back up your achievements
If you want to make a good case for yourself, it helps to be able to back up your achievements with numbers. For example, metrics like sales numbers, customer satisfaction ratings, or tickets completed are all numbers you could highlight to show employers you mean business.
Use big, bold fonts to highlight key numbers on your infographic resume. You could also place an icons beside the numbers to draw the eyes to them.
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16. Create a logo for your personal brand
Having a clear personal brand is more important than ever. In many cases, employers will look to see if you have your own website or a solid social media following. So why drive home your personal brand and reinforce your authority with your own logo?
You can create a simple logo design using icons and font, like in this infographic resume template:
Want something more sophisticated? Our logo maker can help.
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17. Divide your graphic resume into two columns for an unconventional layout
If you want to try using an unconventional layout for your resume — but nothing TOO crazy —organize your information into two columns. While most other resumes will follow a standard left-to-right reading format, yours will stand out for its creative layout.
For example, you could create an eye-catching photo side bar, rather than a photo header. This simple placement switch makes the resume design look new and different.
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18. Use a muted color scheme for a modern resume design
Do you want your personal brand to have a sleek, minimalist aesthetic? Then you may want to steer clear from bold, bright color schemes and use muted tones instead.
Instead, opt for soft shades of grey and beige. To prevent your design from looking bland, add a subtle accent color on your resume, like the pops of orange in this template:
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19. Include a section that highlights your core qualifications
Similar to how you would include a summary of yourself at the top of your resume, you can also include a section with key “highlights” for employers to consider. You could include information like you strongest skills, your most important past positions, and your career goals.
When creating a graphic resume, consider a contrasting background color to help your highlights section stand out from the rest of the page.
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20. Make a statement by using bold colors on your resume and a dark background color
Do you want your resume to really stand out from the competition? Color on resumes, especially a bold, brave color scheme, will certainly set your resume apart.
If you’re applying for a job in a creative field, then taking a risk with your resume’s color scheme may pay off. For example, this neon and black resume template certainly stands out from the rest:
This creative resume would be perfect for a graphic designer, for example.
Also, it pays to remember what you should not do when creating your resume, so check out this helpful guide on resume killers to avoid, too!
More resume guides:
15+ Resume Design Tips, Templates, and Examples
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