Resume Post- Matt Colon

Design Strategy: I wanted a design that stood out, but also one not so quirky that it wouldn’t be taken seriously. When you have a hundred pieces of paper stacked on top of each other, it’s important to do what you can to stand out. To that end, I immediately started by putting my wordmark on the upper right side of the page instead of the left. Though traditionally the reader’s eye enters at the upper left, as the employer is going through that stack where 75% of the papers have it on the upper left or center, I figured the end result is what I wanted it to be—to help me stand out. On a piece of paper that size, it’s still noticeable. The wordmark itself is green, which is a very trendy color right now, as well as represents intelligence, youthfulness, and forward thinking. My content is not the greatest, nor the most quantitative, so I could get away with a more vertically-organized content approach that left plenty of white space to go easy on the reader’s eyes. At the same time, I did not want to convey wasted space—my margins are technically set at 2p all around, and each is defined, but much of the text does not reach them; again to promote ease of reading.

I gave the wordmark font a 20% italic in order to convey a sense of the dynamic, adaptability, and change—qualities in myself I value highly. The line stemming from the “T” in my first name leads over to the left, establishing the inner margin, and also down, guiding the reader to the content, separating the headers from the content, and also marking the lower margin. I knew I didn’t want to default to a standard 2/3^rd – 1/3^rd format, and the way it played out ended up as more of a 1/4^th – ½ - 1/4^th spread, which again helps to set it apart from usual layouts. Likely the most clichéd thing I did was to use horizontal bulleting, but it was the only logical way to organize the content and be able to go into sufficient detail while keeping the one-page limit in effect.

Choice of Typefaces: As far as font was concerned, I utilized two typefaces: Penumbra HalfSerif Std. and Adobe Caslon Pro. Penumbra is a monotone; an all-caps typeface used only in the wordmark. The half-serif appealed to me because it embodies a middle ground between old and new, between change and tradition, and how nothing in the world can be addressed in only black or white. The all-caps allowed for the valley effect with my name, and also conveys the sense of energy, assertion and dedication with which I perform my work. Adobe Caslon Pro, on the other hand, is a very versatile typeface with lots of options for positioning and is a nice, easy-to-read serif font that also stands out noticeably from the hackneyed Times New Roman. The italicized font in the headers conveys the professionalism I hope to convey as my content becomes more and more developed.

Color: The green I specifically used was, on the RGB scale, R 35, G 141, B 59, mostly due to its relatively neutral hue—not too bright so as to seem childish and immature, but not too dark so as to blend in unnoticeably with the black type. The use of the green bullets also ties the color theme together in a small, subtle way that does not distract from the overall seriousness of the content, given the small font size. Ideally, the bullets are just noticeable enough to pull it all together in a visual gestalt.