Resume PlaceBrand bookv1.1.0

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Resume Place

Brand book →Read the engagement →Figma →

Tangelo Orange leads. Midnight Blue carries institutional weight. Three cuts of Messina hold the editorial range.

Live system2024Tokens on disk, rendered live

00 · Overview

Resume Place

Tangelo Orange leads. Midnight Blue carries institutional weight. Three cuts of Messina hold the editorial range.

The design system behind Resume Place, the first-ever federal resume writing service. Brand Book v1.1 (September 2024) codified the Tangelo / Midnight palette, the Messina type family across Sans / Serif / Mono, the wordmark and circle-checkmark logomark, and the Ten Steps and CCAR Accomplishment Builder sub-brand systems.

2

Brand buckets

11

Type sizes

13

Space steps

5

Radius tokens

01 · Foundations / Color

Color

Named brand buckets layered over a semantic system. Product UI leans on the semantic layer. Marketing leans on the buckets directly.

Brand buckets

2 buckets

orange

3 stops

tangelo

#F94D00

mahoganyWood

#C04000

spicedTea

#B35C44

blue

6 stops

bright

#2F62C4

brightLifted

#5B8AE0

deep

#1C3664

evening

#0F264C

midnight

#223240

night

#0B1D3A

Neutral

3 stops

richGray

#010203

darkGray

#5B5E60

lightGray

#D2D9DB

Semantic roles

13 roles

default

#F94D00

focus

#C04000

content

#FFFFFF

default

#1C3664

focus

#0F264C

content

#FFFFFF

default

#B35C44

focus

#C04000

content

#FFFFFF

default

#5B5E60

focus

#010203

content

#FFFFFF

default

#FFFFFF

focus

—

content

—

default

#010203

focus

—

content

—

default

#F4F4F0

focus

—

content

—

default

#5B5E60

focus

—

content

—

default

#D2D9DB

focus

—

content

—

default

#D2D9DB

focus

—

content

—

default

#F94D00

focus

—

content

—

default

#C04000

focus

—

content

—

default

#FFFFFF

focus

—

content

—

02 · Foundations / Typography

Typography

The type families this brand uses, the scale it ships with, and the weights it relies on.

primary

Messina Sans

'Messina Sans', 'Inter', ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789

editorial

Messina Serif

'Messina Serif', 'Newsreader', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789

mono

Messina Sans Mono

'Messina Sans Mono', 'JetBrains Mono', ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, monospace

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789

condensed

Messina Sans Condensed

'Messina Sans Condensed', 'Manrope', 'Messina Sans', 'Inter', ui-sans-serif, sans-serif

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789

Scale

11 sizes

display

69px

Designing the system, not the skin.

h1

57px

Designing the system, not the skin.

h2

48px

Designing the system, not the skin.

h3

40px

Designing the system, not the skin.

h4

33px

Designing the system, not the skin.

h5

28px

Designing the system, not the skin.

h6

23px

Designing the system, not the skin.

lead

19px

Designing the system, not the skin.

body

16px

Designing the system, not the skin.

xs

11px

Designing the system, not the skin.

small

13px

Designing the system, not the skin.

Weights

5 weights

light · 300

Aa

book · 400

Aa

semibold · 600

Aa

bold · 700

Aa

black · 900

Aa

03 · Foundations / Spacing

Spacing

The brand's spacing scale and container widths. Mono-keyed for scan, not for memorization.

Scale

13 steps

1

4px

4px. Micro

2

8px

8px. Tight

3

12px

12px

4

16px

16px. Base

5

20px

20px

6

24px

24px. Comfortable

8

32px

32px. Spacious

10

40px

40px

12

48px

48px. Section gap

16

64px

64px. Large section

20

80px

80px

24

96px

96px

32

128px

128px. Hero breathing room

Containers

3 widths

narrow

720px

Reading / form / long-form article width

max

1140px

Standard content width

wide

1440px

Marketing hero / dashboard width

04 · Foundations / Radius

Radius

Corner-radius tokens. Small UI sharp. Large surfaces soft. Pills and avatars full.

none

0

sm

4px

md

6px

lg

12px

full

9999px

05 · Foundations / Motion

Motion

Durations and easings. Conservative product-UI motion. Quick hovers, gentle transitions, no theatrics.

Duration

4 durations

instant

0ms

No animation (reduced-motion fallback)

fast

150ms

Hover, focus, micro-interactions

normal

300ms

Standard transitions

slow

500ms

Reveals, page transitions

Easing

4 curves

default

500ms

Standard ease. Most transitions

in

500ms

Ease-in. Exits

out

500ms

Ease-out. Entrances

linear

500ms

Linear. Progress and continuous motion only

03 · Components

Component library

A token-driven component set. Every component reads from the brand scope above. Swap the brand and the same components reskin without code changes.

Button

Six variants (primary, secondary, accent, neutral, ghost, outline), three sizes, default and pill shapes.

Tokens

--primary--secondary--accent--radius-md--radius-full--font-primary

Variants

Sizes

Shape

State

Input

Text input, textarea, and label. Standard size scale with hover and focus states tied to the primary token.

Tokens

--primary--base-300--background--foreground--radius-md

Sizes

State

With label

Email address

Note

Card

Default, soft, and outlined surfaces. Composable header, body, and footer regions.

Tokens

--background--base-100--base-200--base-300--radius-lg

Default

Standard surface for product UI. Sits on the base background with a subtle border.

Soft

A muted variant for secondary content. Reads as supporting, not primary.

Outlined

Transparent background with a defined edge. Good for placement over decorated surfaces.

Badge

Status indicators and chips. Pulls from brand and status tokens for semantic meaning.

Tokens

--primary--accent--success--warning--danger--radius-full

Brand

PrimarySecondaryAccentNeutralSoft

Status

InfoSuccessWarningDanger

Size

SmallMedium

Avatar

Image or initials, four sizes, optional brand tone for placeholder fills.

Tokens

--primary--secondary--accent--neutral--radius-full

Sizes

HL

CL

EA

YL

Tones

P

S

A

N

Tabs

Underline and pill variants. Active tab uses the primary token; inactive tabs sit at 60 percent foreground.

Tokens

--primary--foreground--base-100--base-300

Underline

Active lesson workspace.

Pill

Home view content.

07 · Patterns

Composed patterns

The applied design studies, ported onto the platform and driven entirely by the tokens above. Two registers: the document stays ATS-quiet (ink, Messina, mono federal data); the frame carries the brand (navy ground, bright-blue signal, tangelo as a whisper).

Accent discipline · buttons & pills

Tangelo is rare: one primary action per view. Bright book-cover blue carries the signal; navy is the ground. Condensed handles acronyms and editions.

Composes

ButtonPillMono noteCondensed labels

Start your résumé →Bright blueNavyQuietText link →

Ten StepsOPM ruleSES · ECQWebinarArchive

ONE tangelo action per view. Bright blue carries the signal. Navy is the ground.

Federal job block · the mono data strip

The metadata a federal résumé must carry — series/grade, hours per week, salary, supervisor may-contact — set in Messina Mono as a bordered strip. The title is the one Serif moment in the document body.

Composes

Serif titleMono stripCondensed cell labels

Management & Program Analyst

Bureau of Land Management — U.S. Dept. of the Interior

May 2021 – Present

Series · GradeGS-0343-12

Hours / week40

Salary$98,496 / yr

May contactYes

CCAR accomplishment · result in the signal

Four labeled beats — Context · Challenge · Action · Result — so a hiring manager scans it in six seconds. Only the quantified result carries the bright-blue signal.

Composes

Serif folioCondensed beat labelsMono metricSignal blue

01Cleared a 14-month FOIA backlog and ended the bureau’s litigation exposure.

ContextBureau carried 1,200 overdue FOIA requests across three field offices.

ChallengeNo triage system; two pending lawsuits and an open IG audit finding.

ActionBuilt a priority-scoring workflow; trained 6 records staff; set weekly SLAs.

ResultCut the backlog 38% in two quarters with zero new litigation referrals.

Analysis rail · frame register

Lives only in the frame, never on the paper. Big thin-Serif match numeral in bright blue (same family as the marketing hero stats); covered keywords sit calm, a single required-but-missing term is the one tangelo whisper.

Composes

Serif numeralSignal meterMono keyword chipsTangelo gap

Match score

96%to the
announcement

Keyword coverage · 11 / 12

program analysisFOIArecords mgmtdata visualizationGS-0343auditstakeholder! data governance

08 · Screens

Real screens

Composed pages built from the foundations, components, and patterns above. Live, not stills. The marketing homepage and the résumé workbench — the two surfaces the whole system exists to serve.

01

Marketing homepage

We wrote the book on the federal résumé.

The marketing surface. The light editorial hero with its USAJOBS-ready preview card and serif proof stats, the navy Ten Steps books band with bright-blue covers, the "not dry, nor dull" character quote, the three-practice pillars, the core-services icon system, the newsroom and live-events bands, and the darkest-ground CTA. Navy is the ground; tangelo whispers once per view.

resumeplace.com

The original federal résumé service · since 1973Books & ShopCart (0)202 · 491 · 6498

Start a consultation →

The original federal résumé serviceRP / Est. 1973

The people who wrote the book on federal careers.

Federal, private sector, or the move between them. It starts with one hour: a certified consultant reads your résumé against a real announcement, names the keywords it screens for, and tells you exactly what to change.

Start your consultation →See who we help

1973First federal service

50+yrsTracking OPM rules

8th ed.Ten Steps guidebook

Kathryn Troutman, founder of The Resume Place and author of the Federal Résumé Guidebook — Kathryn Troutman
Founder · author, Federal Résumé Guidebook

The Resume Place newspaper advertisement, 1974 — Our ad, 1974

Since 1973The original federal résumé service

Ten Steps®The methodology agencies train on

CertifiedFederal job search trainers and coaches

HundredsOf federal careers advised, and counting

01

Who we serve

RP / Audience

Federal is the proof. It travels.

Fifty years inside the federal hiring system taught us how a résumé wins. That expertise now works across the whole field, from the first federal job to the senior executive panel, and out into the private market.

Federal

Federal job seekers

The original federal résumé service. We write the two-page OPM format, target the announcement, and frame your service so a hiring manager sees it in six seconds.

See the work →

Federal ↔ Private

Transitions, both directions

A reduction in force, a planned move, or a step back into government. Your federal years are the most valuable thing on the page, once they are translated for the recruiter reading them.

See the work →

Executive

SES & senior executives

The ECQs, the executive core qualifications, and the interview simulation. The senior application is its own discipline, and we have run it for decades.

See the work →

Private industry

Private-sector careers

A résumé built for the private market and the people who read it fast. The same rigor that clears a federal panel, aimed at a hiring manager and an ATS.

See the work →

Military spouse

Military spouses

The four federal hiring paths for active-duty spouses, and how to win on each. The book that mapped them is ours.

See the work →

Early career

Recent grads & early career

Pathways, internships, and the first federal job. We turn a short record and an education into a résumé that ranks.

See the work →

02

What you can get

RP / Services

Three ways to work with us.

Most people start with one hour and know exactly what to change. Some have us write the résumé. Everyone can take the method home in print. You choose the depth.

Start here

1Talk to a consultant

The consultation

$210/ hr

A working session, by phone or video, with a certified consultant who reads your résumé against a real announcement.

Verbal review against one real job
The keywords it screens for
A plan you can act on

Start a consultation →

2We do the writing

Done-for-you résumé

$210/ hr · quoted

After the consultation, a professional writer builds your two-page résumé. Priced to the work, quoted up front.

Federal, private, or transition
Written to the announcement
Quoted before any work begins

Get a free estimate →

3Take it home

Books & guides

From $15.95

The Ten Steps® method in print. The shelf that anchored federal career publishing, now in its eighth edition.

Federal Resume Guidebook, 8th ed.
Jobseeker’s Guide, 10th ed.
Military spouse & transition titles

Shop the bookstore →

Certified consultants · serving federal careers since 1973

Washington, DC · since 1973

Fifty years inside the rules.

1973Started on K Street, by hand

11OPM format eras tracked

2 ppToday's federal format

We wrote the book · order direct

Ten Steps to a
Federal Job®

Kathryn Troutman pioneered the federal résumé and the methodology agencies still train on. The shelf that anchored federal career publishing for decades, now in its eighth edition.

Shop the bookstore →

Ten Steps to a Federal Job, Jobseeker’s Guide 10th Edition, stacked — Ten Steps to a Federal Job® · Jobseeker’s Guide, 10th ed. · by Kathryn Troutman

03

Success stories

RP / Testimonials

In their words.

Success story

“More than a half-dozen federal job offers.

On working with Kathryn directly

Kathryn Troutman, the owner of The Resume Place, literally wrote the book on federal resume writing. Her personalized feedback and coaching has been absolutely invaluable in helping me receive more than a half-dozen federal job offers (and still counting). Particularly in a few instances when I feel I’ve hit a wall, Kathryn always seems to know what I’m doing wrong and how to fix my mistake.

An offer the next day.

We discussed and reworked my résumé, also developing a suitable cover letter. I sent it out to four potential employers, and I was amazed to receive an outstanding offer the next day. True story, and I am grateful to Resume Place for the exceptional result.

A federal résumé in under a week.

Rita dedicated herself to understanding my concerns with my old resume. In under a week, she took my federal employment history with its disparate collection of duties and accomplishments and helped me craft an easy-to-read professional resume.

On working with Rita Chambers

Ready for an SES interview.

Before a key agency Senior Executive Service interview, Kathryn efficiently designed an interview simulation, application, and post-op review. Her no-nonsense guidance provided lifelong tips on the “Last 5 Percent” interview elements crucial to placement success. I could tell the positive difference during the extensive agency interview that followed.

Jim S.

04

Federal career & résumé news

RP / Newsroom

From the Resume Place newsroom.

OPM rule

May 2025 · Policy

The two-page federal résumé is official. Here's what to cut.

OPM's format change ends the ten-page résumé era. We break down what stays, what goes, and how to keep every qualifying accomplishment in half the space.

Read →

SES

Guide

Writing the 2-page SES résumé

The Senior Executive Service has its own rules. A field guide.

Read →

Hiring

Analysis

USAJOBS in 2025: the keyword math

How the automated screen reads your résumé before a human does.

Read →

No more guessing

Work with the experts who wrote the federal résumé.

A free estimate, a certified consultant, and fifty years of knowing exactly what the next rule change means for your application.

Get a free estimate →Call 202 · 491 · 6498

02

The résumé workbench

Centerpiece

A two-page federal résumé, set in the system.

The centerpiece, and the artifact at the center of the business. The two registers made visible: a disciplined ink-on-paper federal résumé (Serif masthead, Mono metadata strips, CCAR accomplishments with the win in bright-blue) held inside the expressive navy frame — match score, keyword coverage, format checks, and the one tangelo whisper on a missing required keyword. Runs on JSON Resume plus a federal extension.

app.resumeplace.com/builder/rivera-jordan

The system, applied to the product · not the page

The brand sells résumés.
So the system has to set one.

The marketing tile dressed the homepage. This layer dresses the artifact at the center of the business: the two-page federal résumé, the structured information beneath it, and the analysis that proves it. It runs on JSON Resume plus a federal extension, and it works in two registers.

Document register

Ink on paper. ATS-safe.

The résumé itself stays disciplined so USAJOBS and applicant-tracking systems parse it cleanly: black ink, one navy rule, Messina Serif for the name, Mono for federal data. No bleeds, no orange, no decoration.

Frame register

The brand, full voice.

Everything around the document carries the expressive system: navy workbench, bright-blue match score, tangelo reserved as a whisper for one thing only, a required keyword that is missing.

02

The artifact · document register inside the frame

A two-page federal résumé, set in the system.

RP-DS / Document

rivera_jordan · federal · 2pp.pdf

USAJOBS readyReviewed · Certified CoachExport →

Jordan A. Rivera

Program Analyst · GS-0343-13 · Announcement DOI-25-IM-12384

Arlington, VA 22203jordan.rivera@email.com(202) 555-0148US CitizenVeterans’ Preference: 5-pt (TP)Highest grade held: GS-12

Professional summaryfiled · profile

Management and program analyst with nine years of federal service in the Department of the Interior, specializing in records administration, FOIA compliance, and operational data. Proven record building triage systems and dashboards that clear backlogs and survive audit. Seeking a GS-13 program analyst role applying data governance to bureau-wide reporting.

Work experience2 positions · federal format

Management & Program Analyst

Bureau of Land Management — U.S. Department of the Interior · Washington, DC

May 2021 – Present

Series · GradeGS-0343-12

Hours / week40

Salary$98,496 / yr

SupervisorD. Whitfield · (202) 555-0102

May contactYes

01Cleared a 14-month FOIA backlog and ended the bureau's litigation exposure.

ContextBureau carried 1,200 overdue FOIA requests across three field offices.

ChallengeNo triage system; two pending lawsuits and an open IG audit finding.

ActionBuilt a priority-scoring workflow in the case system; trained 6 records staff; set weekly SLAs.

ResultCut the backlog 38% in two quarters with zero new litigation referrals.

02Stood up the bureau's first operational data dashboard.

ContextLeadership reported field metrics by hand from 11 spreadsheets each month.

ChallengeNo single source of truth; figures disagreed across offices.

ActionDefined shared definitions, modeled the data, and shipped a self-serve dashboard.

ResultReclaimed ~30 hrs/mo of analyst time; adopted by 4 field offices.

Program Support Specialist

National Park Service — U.S. Department of the Interior · Denver, CO

Jul 2017 – May 2021

Series · GradeGS-0343-11

Hours / week40

Salary$72,030 / yr

SupervisorM. Okafor · (303) 555-0188

May contactYes

03Ran the grant-closeout process for a $14M regional program.

Context42 grants approaching closeout deadlines across the Intermountain Region.

ChallengeManual tracking risked de-obligation of unspent funds.

ActionBuilt a closeout checklist and calendar; coordinated 9 grantees and finance.

ResultClosed 100% on time; preserved $2.1M in at-risk funds.

Jordan A. Rivera · Program AnalystPage 1 of 2 · DOI-25-IM-12384

Educationfiled · degrees

M.P.A., Public Administration
University of Colorado Denver2017

B.A., Political Science
University of Maryland2012

Certifications & trainingmono · credentials

PMP · 2022FAC-COR Level IITen Steps to a Federal Job® · CFJSTTableau Desktop Specialist

Skillskeyword coverage → see rail

FOIA administrationRecords managementProgram analysisData visualizationGrant closeoutStakeholder coordinationData governance — not yet evidenced

Referencesavailable on request

Supervisory references listed under each position above; both authorized for contact. Additional professional references furnished on request per agency standard.

Jordan A. Rivera · Program AnalystPage 2 of 2 · Generated by The Resume Place

Same tokens as the marketing tile. The difference is discipline: inside the paper, the system goes quiet so a machine can read it. Around the paper, it speaks.

04

The rules that keep it honest

Four laws of the résumé layer.

RP-DS / Doctrine

01

The paper stays quiet.

Inside the document: ink, one navy rule, no bleeds, no orange. If a machine can’t parse it, the design failed. The brand lives in the frame.

02

Mono is the federal data.

Grade, hours, salary, supervisor, dates. The fields that make a résumé federal are the fields that earn the monospace, set as a bordered strip on every job.

03

Blue marks the win.

One signal color in the body, and only on a quantified result. Everything a hiring manager should catch in six seconds is bright-blue, nothing else competes.

04

Tangelo only whispers a gap.

The accent never decorates the résumé. It appears once, on a required keyword that’s missing, because the brand’s job is to point at the next thing to fix.