I personally like Antique Olive. It's got a lot more personality than most sans serifs. Its non-uniform stroke weight contributes to this, as do the vertical cutoff on the C, G, and S, and the idiosyncratic shape of the bowls on the B, P, and R.

I've never used Antique Olive smaller than 12 point. You may be able to read it at 8 point--if you're an undergraduate, you're probably younger than my children--but I can't, and some of the people you want to read your resume are my age.

Hi there, that's a great thing you pointed out, thanks a lot. My worry is that the letter shapes will start to call too much attention to themselves (with the big counters and vertical emphasis, regrettably, some of the very things I like about the typeface), especially since it's used as body text.

Maybe it's too much for a resume...I'll keep experimenting with Antique Olive and also trying out some other options. In the mean time, does anyone have suggestions for a similar sans serif that's a bit more understated and appropriate?

I actually like your choice of Antique Olive, but I think that 8-point type is too small for a resume, no matter what font you use.

"does anyone have suggestions for a similar sans serif that's a bit more understated and appropriate?"

Shiyao, have a look at FF Balance:

http://ilovetypography.com/2008/06/04/typeface-review-ff-balance/

which seems to be a very readable typeface, and shares some features of Antique Olive - the top-heavy weight distribution in particular. Its designer, the late Evert Bloemsma, is higly appreciated among typophiles. But I don't know how Balance could work when paired with Chaparral.

When working with such an unconventional and expressive typeface, I would strongly consider relying on its family of weights and styles alone. Optionally, you can leave the expressiveness to display and tone down the text.

Btw, Bloemsma’s Legato and Avance are also worth exploring.

Nicola, thanks for the suggestion. The idea of tension between shape and counter-shape is very intriguing. It's fascinating how the shapes stand out so much when the letters are seen large, yet becomes almost invisible (or rather becomes something else) when used at text size.

Hi there. Legato is a beautiful experiment, I wonder how well it works – guess I have to set my mind to buying the typeface in order to find out. Thanks for the tip about Antique Olive : )

I'm a big fan of Legato, not least because in the couple of books I've seen where it's used, it does work.

hhp