I was hired based on the color of my resume paper.

If you're on Threads, you may have seen that I shared this story there — and it went pretty viral! This is the extended edition with some extra details. 

If this inspires you to take a closer look at your branding and you find that you're ready to update yours to match your *current* business and self, I have time open in September! This is the absolute perfect time to start your rebrand if you'd like to have a refreshed look together for the holidays ;) 

In 2013, I was hired for my first full-time job based on the color of my resume paper.

I had no idea that this was how it went down until my art director told me the story over lunch six months later.

When I applied, I hadn’t graduated with my design BFA yet, but my portfolio was solid. I had started interning and working part time design jobs since my sophomore year — mainly in order to stay in NYC over the summer instead of having to head back to South Carolina. 

That extra experience turned out to be the only reason I was being considered, because it came down to me and one other candidate, who already had a few years of full time working experience.

The art directors couldn’t make a decision, so they called a meeting with the creative director, who I hadn't even interviewed with, to break the tie.

They set each of our resumes on the conference table in front of him, mine on bright white paper, and the other on off white paper. 

He didn’t read them.

He immediately pointed to mine, and said that because bright white was more in line with the agency’s aesthetic, I would be a better fit. 

I got the phone call, and that was that. 

You can imagine how my life flashed before my eyes when I heard this. I was aghast that it had really come down to THE PAPER itself, not the hours of experience or skills on it.

At the time, and honestly for years later, this felt like a blow. Had I really been hired based on a paper choice? It felt random and arbitrary. A fluke. It made me feel that I didn't really have any control over my life, and that my fate was hanging by a thread. 

(In fact, I got several replies to my viral thread about this story from exasperated job seekers to that effect.)

Especially considering the job market at that time. I only knew two other seniors out of a few hundred in my department (and at a ~supposedly~ prestigious art school) that also landed full time jobs before graduating, and frankly, I'd expected to keep looking for a while. 

I knew that a Full Time Job was my ticket to stay in the city permanently and start my life there. The stakes had been high, and then to find out that I was really THAT close to losing out was horrifying. 

But in hindsight, my perspective has shifted. This decision hadn't actually been random. It was completely intentional, both from the standpoint of my creative director and my deliberate choice of paper. 

On the agency's end: they had a very specific aesthetic to uphold (think 90s Calvin Klein ads and Voss water). Of course they would choose the bright white paper — because my choice of it meant that my design style would be more compatible with theirs than someone who preferred off-white. 

Even if the other candidate had chosen the off-white to "stand out," this was not what the agency was looking for — so they were free to find a job somewhere where their aesthetic would be more appreciated. 

On my end: I had intentionally chosen bright white to match my own design style — my personal brand, if you will. And like so many branding decisions that are seemingly minor, it mattered when the right person noticed. 

At that job, I was further trained in the luxury and premium design cues that I was interested in, and was their specialization. 

So, this is what I mean when I tell people that visual details matter. Using blue ink instead of black matters. Wearing one brand over another matters. The color of the paper matters. 

The right people will always notice, and gravitate toward you on some level. The wrong people will also always notice, and be repelled. Tbh I could NOT imagine an off-white paper person having a good time working at that agency!

When all other things are equal, they VERY literally make the difference between being hired or not. 

And that's how intentionally choosing and creating my visual brand got me my first job, and determined the trajectory of my entire career.

If you've been here a while, it may also be HILARIOUS to you that I was a bright white paper girlie back in the day. Rest assured that the Allsaints across the street from the office put me in credit card debt 😌

But I hope it IS obvious that I come from a background of working on very elegant premium brands, and bring that level of detail and finish to every brand I touch — because those details, that sense of balance, and the understanding of an extremely specific and exclusive customer are what sets a truly beautiful, functional, and premium brand apart from a just-ok, hard-to-use, generalist brand. 

I finally formalized this level of work into a new rebrand process specifically for unconventional businesses that need an unexpected, stand-out brand that lets them shine in their full weirdness and connect to the clients that are ready for them. 

For the first time since this spring, I have availability to start in as soon as two weeks. if you've been waiting for the right time — and would love to have a fresh brand to share for the holidays — this is it! Get started here.