Costume Designer Resume Examples
Costume designers are artistic professionals who visualize and design outfits for actors in the entertainment industry. They create costumes that accentuate the character’s performance. The United States boasts the largest media and entertainment industry in the world, which is expected to grow to $825 billion by 2023. This means that there will be more opportunities than ever for costume designers. Study our costume designer resume example, written by a certified resume writer, to learn how to craft every section of your resume.
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What is a Costume Designer?
A costume designer plays a pivotal role in making memorable cinematic characters. Similar to fashion designers, they sketch and design apparel. They design exclusively for performing arts, film and theatre companies.
Costume designers conduct research into the era in which the performance is set and create looks that will further the script and the director’s vision of the character. They manage a costume budget and, depending on the project, manager staff of assistants.
What Makes This a Great
Costume Designer Resume Example?
Costume designers operate in a fiercely competitive industry. However, even candidates with talent, skills and experience must deliver a resume that will impress hiring managers. Our costume designer resume example was crafted to show you all the elements of a strong resume.
Here are some advantages of using our resume examples:
- Industry-specific resume content: Study our costume designer resume example to learn which keywords and job-specific language to use to make a positive impression. For more help, use our Resume Builder, which will make pre-written content suggestions for every section of your resume.
- The best format: Studying our costume designer resume example can help you identify which resume format is best suited to your level of experience. The example above uses the combination resume format, which is perfect for an applicant with several years of work experience and a stellar skill set. Job seekers with less experience should consider a functional format, while highly experienced candidates should consider a chronological resume format.
- Industry-appropriate designs: Costume design is highly artistic and attracts people to whom self-expression is important. That means it’s usually appropriate to use a colorful, creative resume template. However, for more conservative roles, applicants should choose a more traditional resume template.
3 Costume Designer Professional Summary Examples
The professional summary plays a key role in emphasizing your skills and expertise. While brief, this section needs to pop to maintain the interest of the recruiter who is reading your resume.
Study our costume designer resume example to learn how to write a professional summary that will impress hiring managers. Or, review these three additional examples:
- Highly experienced costume designer with over eight years of hands-on experience in designing attires for themes ranging from ancient civilizations to modern-day fashion trends. Have worked for Broadway musicals and television shows. Skilled in using digital and traditional skills for designing costumes. Excellent administrator with experience of delivering quality costumes on a limited budget as well.
- Up-and-coming costume designer with over three years of experience. Graduated summa cum laude from Savannah School of Art and Design. Developed a network of high-profile clientele with the proven ability to transform a director’s vision for a character’s look into reality. Possess excellent interpersonal skills and a strong network of vendors.
- Detail-oriented costume designer with over 10 years of experience working with theatre and film production companies. Possess in-depth knowledge of the techniques of costume designing, and have an established track record of creating timeless cinematic attires that later turned into fashion trends. Proficiency in computer-aided designing tools and skilled in presentation and budgeting skills.
3 Costume Designer Work Experience Examples
Recruiters won’t notice you unless you have an outstanding work experience section that shows off more than just your job duties. Study our costume designer resume example to learn how to add data and metrics into your document to show recruiters the impact of your work.
Here are three additional work experience section examples that you might consider for this role:
- Arranged a company set-up with thrift stores to dispose of costumes, that reduced costume costs by 28%.
- Designed costumes for the legendary musical, Mamma Mia, on Broadway in 2012.
- Critically acclaimed for designing specialized costumes for many sci-fi films such as “Tracker” and “Alien Ship.”
Top Skills for Your Costume Designer Resume
The skills section of your resume must include keywords that help you stand out from the rest. Following are some recommendations for hard and soft skills that you might consider for your costume designer resume:
Hard Skills
- InDesign and Illustrator
- Sewing
- Storyboarding
- Budget management
Soft Skills
- Creative visualization
- Multitasking
- Problem-solving
- Collaboration
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Costume Designer FAQs
- How are costume designers different from fashion designers?
- What are the main types of costume designers?
- What does a day in the life of a costume designer look like?
How are costume designers different from fashion designers?
A costume designer designs apparels for the artists performing in movies, plays, television and other performances. The costume designer caters to the specific time period the piece is set in and for each individual character. Fashion designers, on the other hand, design apparel for clothing companies.
What are the main types of costume designers?
Costume designers can work in a variety of areas. Film costume designers are often given a tight deadline to meet the production’s requirements. Television costume designers, on the other hand, generally have more time to develop costumes in adherence to the character’s evolving style. Theater costume designers often have fewer costumes to create an impression, and immediate changes to contend. They need to ensure clothes are functional and easy to remove, as performers need to change outfits frequently.
What does a day in the life of a costume designer look like?
Costume designers bring their ideas to life through sketches, storyboards, photographs, fabric samples or rough designs. They usually create a timeline for the principal character’s storylines that evolves along with the story. The designers also make costumes for secondary and supporting characters. The direction and production team ultimately approve the designs and once approved, the costume designer then finds the fabrics and accessories to get the outfits to life.
