I can't remember the title off hand, but Waterstone's and Borders stock a book all about this kind of thing. Plenty of examples of clever foldy stuff for promotional use, and even has a cd with eps templates. Could be just the ticket if you can get hold of a copy.

I send an origami inside every Christmas card for my customers, a different kind every year. I've seen them around after Christmas, so I suppose it works.
Might not be the thing for you, though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0906212790/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2_cp...

and some other ideas for books on there as well.

Tim

any other ideas for creative cv's? what do designers like to be sent? what do they like to receive in creative froms? something useful taht they can use for the office or something creative that forms into something useful? i opt for the 2nd one but what could it possibly be?

Here in Washington it's customary to have a plain resume and customize the design/text appropriate to the employer. A really wild design that might get you a job at a three-person design firm could end up right in the trash if it goes to the HR department of a big-firm looking for in-house people. Having something simple can also make it easier for you to use it for digital submission.

Consider producing a really good-looking promotional piece that showcases your work and include a well-typeset traditional resume along with it. This way you get to show off your creative ability without having to worry about offending people who don't like creative resumes.

hmmmmm, im not sure jpad. That might not be the case in Britain.

Had a quick search, there are a number of promising looking options here:

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/simpleSearch.do?simpleSearchSt...

Best of luck with it

I would be very careful with the idea of trying to "add a little extra item thast creative and that they can have in their office." You would have to do something very, very clever to be able to pull this off. Otherwise it will be another really lame attempt. I got an 'interview' once for a senior position (I was a junior) only because I had used Quadraat on my well-typeset CV. I didn't get the job, but I got to spend 1 1/2 hours with a senior designer, talking about all sorts of things. Now that design firm is a client of mine for type-specific work. Funny how these things work out.

—K

I agree with Kris.

Plus, if we gave you a great idea, is it really yours?

If you want to look different (not always wise) without being showy or impractical, a subtle but memorable thing about your CV can really click. Like making it portrait format. But it has to make sense, not be gratuitous.

hhp

I remember my tutor saying that extravagant cv formats and ideas were soooooo last summer and that we should keep it clean and sober and blah blah blah but the same year some guy in our course sent a cv that was identical to a parking ticket (the English one, yellow and black) and put in on the car's windshield of the "employer". He did get the job and the whole story was also published on the local newspaper.

i guess what lore said makes sense but it probably wont work all the time i guess. depends how much humour the employer got. he could either love it or hate it all together.

oh yeah, he was lucky. He thought it was a good idea and took the risk when everyone was telling him to play it safe. But it was an idea and when an idea is set in motion who knows where it will all end?

But it was an idea and when an idea is set in motion who knows where it will all end?

That can be said about any resume, not just “creative” ones. And if I had a creative resume idea as good as that one, I'd definitely go for it. Hell, if the parking tickets here weren't the size of baseball cards and run off on thermal printers, I'd steal that idea in a heartbeat.

Lore, obliquely, brings up a good strategy, try to find out what you can about potential employers (this is useful when you have the classic interview question, "why did you approach this agency?"), if the Creative Director has a birthday soon, for example, you could create a cv around a birthday card or maybe base something around a recent project of theirs.
Do not stalk them or go through their bins though.

Tim

had a presentation from a design company today about cv's etc. Some examples they gave were shocking. One guy just sent them a paragraph which was poorly printed and fuzzy with lines across it becoz the ink must've been runnin out.

someone said that somebody sent a cast of their foot which said on it "well now that ive got my foot in the door......." Got him an interview.

another person said that they were required to send of three examples of their skills but the employers could only see two. They called the guy up and he said "look a the envelope."
when they looked at it, he had hand-drawn the stamp and fooled everyone. even the royal mail. got him a job.