01 / Where we come from
Turning obstacles into opportunities for almost 50 years.
The Resume Place, Inc. was the first-ever federal resume writing service. Since 1973 we've seen a fair share of competitors and imitators, but there is only one original.
When The Resume Place was founded, we were essentially a design and print studio that employed storytellers to help people tell their unique career stories within the confines of a federal resume.
The internet did not exist, everything was done on paper, and people literally showed up at our door to get help. Some of us still remember the smell of ink, paper, and sweat when many eager job seekers would walk into our K Street office on a hot DC summer day.
We are charismatic storytellers, innovators, and leaders committed to helping people see the best in themselves and find meaning and purpose in their work in the federal government. We know that a thriving federal workforce is vital for the health of the country and we are determined more than ever to support our government and its citizens in providing resources and tools to keep our federal agencies staffed with the best and brightest.
Brand Character
The Resume Place is cut-and-dried but certainly not dry or dull.
Brand Pillars
Originators and Innovators
Over 50+ years of responding to Washington's changing rules, regulations, and culture.
Educators and Resource Center
Giving people the tools to transform their careers and their lives. Guiding leaders in finding the most qualified candidates.
Advocating for Changemakers
Empowering people to advance themselves by properly highlighting their talents, skills, accomplishments, and being their best selves.
“The Resume Place helps people write new chapters in their story of service and commitment to America.”
02 / Finding our true colors
Finding our true colors.
For almost half a century, we've helped people further their careers and build a legacy in the service of our country. The brand's colors are as warm, vibrant, and sharp as the people who have come through our doors over the decades.
03 / A fresh but familiar face
Balancing novelty and familiarity.
We have designed the secondary brand elements to give people a simple bridge from the old identity to the new, helping avoid confusion and giving them an opening to refamiliarize themselves with our brand.
04 / The marks that hold it together
The marks that hold the system together.
The Resume Place wordmark is the primary mark. The checkmark logomark is shorthand. They are documented as separate elements, and should rarely be paired together.
05 / Less talk, more walk
Photography selection, made simpler.
The following are some basic guidelines to help guide art direction decisions when planning a photo shoot, procuring stock photography, or browsing our back catalog of images.
When considering photography, ask yourself these questions:
The subjects in our image selection should reflect the federal workforce population. Consider demographic factors, keywords, and composition when selecting images.
Let the picture speak for itself, but always make sure it is in conversation with surrounding content and not clashing.
The simplest way to gauge the emotion of an image is to reference our brand character list. To invoke optimism, focus on the brand character words that best align with that emotion: visionary, charismatic, empowering.
General use for all federal-career related content.
Training and consulting.
General use, publishing, and online learning.
General use for all career-related content. Military families and spouses.
06 / How we sound
Cut-and-dried but certainly not dry or dull.
Charismatic · Empowering · Plainspoken
Federal hiring is technical. Name the rule, the document, the window. Earn the reader’s time with a specific signal.
Fifty years of helping people serve. The voice respects the seriousness of the moment without losing its humanity.
No federal jargon for its own sake. Short sentences. Direct verbs. Sources cited when stakes are high.
07 / Who we serve
Federal job seekers, the federal employees and executives now moving into the private sector, and the agencies and trainers who carry the work forward.
Federal employee moving to the private sector
A current or recently separated fed facing a reduction in force, a reorganization, or plain uncertainty. They have a decade of real federal accomplishments and a resume built for USAJOBS, not for a private recruiter who reads it in six seconds. The move is not a step down. Their federal experience is the most valuable thing on the page, once it is translated.
SES candidate or senior leader, federal or private
A senior leader applying to the Senior Executive Service, or carrying executive-level federal experience into the private sector. The documents are heavier and the stakes are higher: ECQs, the five-page narrative, the two-page executive resume. They expect a partner who has written at this level for years and who treats their time accordingly.
Federal job seeker, GS-7 through GS-15
Someone with real accomplishments and no clear way to fit them into a federal resume. Mid-career or moving into government, facing OPM rules, GS levels, and a USAJOBS form that does not reward modesty. They want to serve, and they want the work they have already done to count.
Federal agency HR, procurement, or workforce-development lead
Responsible for finding qualified candidates and training the people already inside the agency. They buy SES ECQ workshops, trainer certifications, and curriculum on a government rate and a government timeline. They need a partner who has done this for decades and can show the receipts.
Ten Steps Certified Writer, Trainer, or Coach (CFRW, CFJST, CFCC)
An educator or career-services professional who teaches the federal job search using the Ten Steps curriculum. They earned their certification through the program and carry the methodology into resource centers, military transition offices, and private practice. They are both the brand's audience and its extension into the field.
08 / The wider system
Curriculum + Certification Program
The Ten Steps shelf is one of the most prominent ways customers engage with The Resume Place, through the many book editions, training sessions, and the sheer wealth of information and opportunity associated with the brand. Familiar design elements from the previous Ten Steps brand (banners, stars, flags) are combined with new brand elements (color, logomarks) to enforce the connection between the Resume Place's legacy and its future.
Proposed brand addition
Part of the proposed Resume Toolbox family. A simple encapsulation of the brand typography used for other familiar products and programming. The straightforward box motif around 'BUILDER' links the product back to the family of tools.
09 / In the world
Full-color business identity system. Print specs to be added.
Issued for Resume Place certification programs.
digital
Brand-aligned presentation template for workshops, training, and agency-facing decks.
10 / The system that builds it
Spacing
The brand's spacing scale and container widths. Mono-keyed for scan, not for memorization.
Radius
Corner-radius tokens. Small UI sharp. Large surfaces soft. Pills and avatars full.
Motion
Durations and easings. Conservative product-UI motion. Quick hovers, gentle transitions, no theatrics.
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).
Tangelo is rare: one primary action per view. Bright book-cover blue carries the signal; navy is the ground. Condensed handles acronyms and editions.
ButtonPillMono noteCondensed labelsONE tangelo action per view. Bright blue carries the signal. Navy is the ground.
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.
Serif titleMono stripCondensed cell labelsFour labeled beats — Context · Challenge · Action · Result — so a hiring manager scans it in six seconds. Only the quantified result carries the bright-blue signal.
Serif folioCondensed beat labelsMono metricSignal blueLives 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.
Serif numeralSignal meterMono keyword chipsTangelo gapReal 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Resume Place · Brand book v1.1.0 · reconstructed from the Figma brand guide
