Among other benefits of creating work collected in the article for the “Trade Schools, Colleges and Universities” website, the authors specify finding new and innovative ways to do things. Thus, if you dedicated your professional part of life to the creative sphere, your great and highly developed esthetic sense must be applied naturally to everything you face in your life. Even in such a rank-and-file task as composing a cover letter to apply the vacancy.
There is no universal guide for composing a perfect cover letter. But, there’s still one main idea: when writing for a creative position, reflect your individualism as much as possible. The text and visual content of this document must correlate with your professional direction and then the desired chemistry between candidate and employer will happen.
In the article, we provide working tips for the creative job cover letter.
Contents
Employers love with their eyes
Professionals with extended experience in visual arts, design, image-making, and photo or video production know that a great cover letter is just one more way to demonstrate your own personal brand.
Creating a visually engaging cover letter can be an effective way to set yourself apart from other job candidates. It may sound strange but the significant part of hiring managers actually “love with their eyes”.
So what should you try to apply when designing your creative job application letter?
- search for the document templates library;
- grab some ideas from Pinterest or other design-related web resources;
- use references to implement the latest visual trends.
To impress your hiring manager you’ll need irresistible design ideas for your application documents for getting a job in the creative industry. Try other websites that bring ready decisions. getcoverletter.com is one of the best platforms which contains a lot of useful information.
Keeping the balance
Cover letter for a creative job requires the perfect balance of the form and content because both factors are equally important. Even perfect design not reinforced with incredible filling text won’t make your cover letter stand out.
Here are some practical recommendations to increase the efficiency and quality of your job document content.
- address your letter correctly: beware of the phrases like “to whom it may concern” and call your recruiter by name;
- structure your letter to make it more readable and visually pleasant – don’t make a single block of text;
- avoid slang, cliches, buzzwords, clericalism and other things which can irritate the reader;
- customize your letter each time you’re applying to the new position and try to learn more about the company before writing;
- don’t use too many “I’s” – your immodesty can play a bad joke for the first impression about you.
A useful article by Sara McGuire for the authoritative Venngage explains how to impress employers in your cover letter with the help of real examples and templates. It substantially tells about the design and visual issues of document-making. And it also includes some valuable testimonials and recipes from recruiters, hiring managers and heads of talents.
Humor is the secret weapon
The best cover letter for creative work must attract the reader’s attention. Naturally, a sense of humor is one of the key features for people who are eager to build a career in the creative area. Adding some inartificial levity to written communication is always a great idea. Ironic style of your text is a simple way to reach such an effect.
Humor should be strategically integrated into your cover letter concept just to underline certain main points. But make sure you don’t overdo it. There must be a fine line between comical and disgusting. Before sending your letter to the hiring manager, ask yourself if your tone of voice is cheerful and your writings are rather entertaining. Charm your hiring manager and get a desirable vacancy!
The rule of 3 fonts
This advice is also mostly about the visual part and reflecting the psychological perception of the document. There is a widely-known design rule of thumb: use no more than three different font types in one design. If you use too many different fonts, the outward of your letter can look messed up.
Don’t forget that a cover letter is an informative document first of all. So, try to make it as simple to read as possible. Use more traditional and readable fonts, such as Calibri, Cambria, Georgia, Verdana or Times New Roman for the headers and body of the text.
If you are a candidate for visual arts or design-related position, the outward of your cover letter may tell your employer even more than the portfolio. Here are a few more elements that you can add to your document to make it exceptionally attractive:
- decorative border;
- sidebars or columns;
- header and footer;
- personal logo and signature;
- infographics and icons.
Break the rules: crash the format!
Looking at problems from a unique angle can often save even the most hopeless project. Not long ago The Muse told about an outstanding effect in which one cover letter written from the dog’s perspective had made. Former communications manager Sarah Levy got a position of a brand content producer, just playing with the traditional format of the cover letter and crashing its narrative.
Though it is the real extraordinary case when creativity and a non-standard decision made the candidate stand out from the crowd, it can’t be a call to action or undoubtedly working formula. Of course, the end result justifies the means, but try not to overdo with your creativity if your hiring manager doesn’t expect it from you!