▍01 · Foundation
Position, mission, and origin.
Resume Place was founded in 1973 in a print studio on K Street as the first-ever federal resume writing service. The internet did not exist. People walked through the door with a job announcement and walked out with a federal resume. Five decades later, the engagement begins on USAjobs.gov and the SES interview prep room. The mission is unchanged.
Established
1973 · Catonsville, MD
Position
The original federal resume writing service. The first-ever in the country.
Founding belief
Federal service is the highest form of work, and the people who serve deserve the best help getting there.
Mission
Help federal job seekers, agencies, and the Ten Steps Certified Trainer community advance careers in service of the country.
Tagline
Stand Out. Get Noticed. Get Hired.
Homepage line
Honoring the legacy. Writing the next chapter.
Resume Place helps people write new chapters in their story of service and commitment to America.
— Brand Manifesto
▍02 · Heritage
Fifty years on the record.
Kathryn Troutman founded Resume Place in 1973 and still leads it. The K Street office. The early Washington Post classifieds. The team that wrote the first generation of federal resumes by hand on a Selectric. The brand carries this archive forward as a credential, not a museum.
Kathryn Troutman · 1970s
K Street office · 1980s
1972
1974
1978
1981
1988
1993
▍03 · Logo system
One wordmark, one logomark, documented lockups.
The wordmark is the primary mark. Use whenever space allows. The logomark stands alone at small sizes (favicon, app icon, social avatar, footer mark). The lockup pairs the two for cover layouts and certificates. Never invent a custom composition.
Wordmark · Three variants
Primary brand mark.
Resume Place® set in Messina Sans Black with the registered mark. Site header, brand book cover, primary signage, page mastheads.
Logomark · Three variants
Circle-checkmark shorthand.
Use when space is constrained or the wordmark would crowd. Favicon, app icon, social avatar, footer mark.
Lockup · Three variants
Wordmark + logomark, paired.
Cover layouts, awards, certificates. Available horizontal, stacked, and with the tagline.
▍04 · Color tokens
Three oranges, three blues, four grays.
Tangelo Orange is the primary brand color and the point of recognition. Use it for primary CTAs, key headlines, and any brand-recognition moment. Midnight Blue carries institutional weight and serves as the dark surface ground. Mahogany covers destructive states. The neutral ramp runs from rich black to subtle background.
Tangelo
#F94D00
Pantone 1655 C · Primary
Mahogany
#C04000
Pantone 8923 C · Accent
Spiced Tea
#B35C44
Pantone 8925 C · Warm secondary
Cool Blue
#1C3664
Pantone 8783 C · Secondary
Deep Blue
#0F264C
Pantone 2767 C · Tertiary
Midnight
#223240
Dark surface
Rich Black
#010203
Pantone 433 C · Copy
Dark Gray
#5B5E60
Pantone 8403 C · Body
Light Gray
#D2D9DB
Pantone 9423 C · Rules
Lighter Gray
#F2F3F4
Subtle bg
▍05 · Type system
Messina. Three cuts. Eleven sizes.
Messina from Lineto (Roman Wilhelm, 2018). Sans is the workhorse face for headlines, subheads, and body. Serif is for long-form publishing and federal-aesthetic moments. Mono is for kickers, version stamps, and meta — set all-caps with extra tracking as the house treatment. Type scale is modular at a 1.2 ratio.
Messina SansWorkhorse face. Black for hero, SemiBold for subheads, Book for body.
Sans / Black / Hero
Sans SemiBold for subheads.
Messina SerifLong-form publishing, editorial moments. Italic marks certifications and program names.
Serif Roman holds the legacy.
Italic for program names like Ten Steps to a Federal Job.
Messina Sans MonoData, kickers, meta. All caps, tracked. The house treatment.
CFJST · CFCC · ECQ · SES · GS-15
Type scale · 1.2 ratio · 11 sizes
Modular scale lifted from the Website Design Figma file.
Display69pxResume Place
H157pxHonoring the legacy
H248pxFederal hiring is a craft
H340pxStand Out
H433pxCard heading
H528pxSmall heading
H623pxEyebrow / kicker
Lead19pxLarger body for ledes.
Body16pxDefault body copy.
Small13pxSecondary text.
XS11pxLabels · Meta · Mono
▍06 · Photography
Four themes. Real subjects. Federal workforce.
Subjects in the image library reflect the federal workforce population. Photography creates a shortcut for the audience to see themselves in the message. Photo selection is checked against three questions: Does this reflect our audience? What is the image saying? How do we want our audience to feel?
Theme 01
Washington DC
General use for federal-career content. Capitol, federal buildings, K Street, monuments framed editorially rather than touristically.
Theme 02
Conferences and Classes
Training and consulting context. Workshop rooms, certification cohorts, classroom settings. Subjects represent the federal workforce in age, race, and rank.
Theme 03
Studying and Online Learning
General use, publishing, online learning surfaces. Solo study, Ten Steps materials in use, books open on tables, screens with USAjobs.gov visible. The work is the subject.
Theme 04
Families
General use for career-related content, plus military families and military spouses. Multi-generational, multi-racial. Real homes, real living rooms.
Do
Use real workshop photos showing federal-workforce diversity in age, rank, and background. Show study and work materials in use. The Ten Steps book open on a table. USAjobs.gov on a real laptop screen.
Don't
Use stock photos of generic 'business people' in suits clustered around a laptop. Stage materials on marble countertops with plants. Use Washington DC imagery touristically with flags and monuments.
▍07 · Sub-brands
Four sub-brands sit under the parent.
Ten Steps is the curriculum and certification engine. CCAR Builder is the free interactive tool. ELTP is the agency training program. Online Learning is the on-demand course library.
Shipped
Curriculum + Certification
Ten Steps to a Federal Job®
The most prominent way customers engage with Resume Place. Many editions of the book, training sessions, and the CFJST + CFCC certification program. Familiar legacy elements (banners, stars, flags) combine with the new brand color and logomark.
Proposed
Interactive Tool
CCAR Accomplishment Builder
Free web tool for federal applicants to draft Challenge / Context / Action / Result statements. Sits inside the Resume Toolbox family. Uses condensed sans (acronyms) paired with serif italic (connective words).
Shipped
Agency Training
ELTP
Institutional training brand. SES ECQ Writing Workshop, Executive-Level Promotion Training. Sold to federal agencies on GSA. 1- and 2-day formats, $5,486 per cohort of 20. Voice tightens for procurement audiences.
Shipped
Self-Paced Courses
Resume Place Online Learning
On-demand learning surface. Sits between the free CCAR Builder and high-touch consultation. Pill-shaped buttons are reserved for this sub-brand only.
▍08 · Audience
Three audiences. One identity.
Every surface declares its audience. Never write copy that tries to address all three at once.
Federal Job Seeker
Applicant · GS 5–15 · USAjobs.gov
Applying for a federal job for the first or fifth time. Knows the application differs from a private-sector resume but not how. Has tried USAjobs.gov, gotten a Not Referred, and is looking for someone who can explain the rules.
Agency Training Lead
Federal HR · Procurement
Procures workforce training. Needs a vendor with GSA scheduling who can deliver SES ECQ workshops to 20+ attendees and handle the paperwork. Cares about institutional credibility almost as much as content quality.
Ten Steps Trainer
CFJST · CFCC · Independent
Career coach, military transition counselor, or independent consultant who uses the Ten Steps curriculum as their backbone. Depends on the brand's continued credibility for their own client trust.
▍09 · Applications
The brand in the field.
Campaign banners ship against the federal-news cycle. Books and guidebooks carry the type system into print. Certificates, capability statements, sell sheets, and presentation decks extend the system into agency surfaces.
Campaign banners · 2025–2026
Ship against the federal-news cycle.
Determination · 2025
Merit hiring · 2025
New graduate · 2025
SES ECQ updates · 2025
Military transition · 2025
Capabilities · 2026
Books and guidebooks
The shelf customers know.
The Ten Steps shelf
Federal Resume Guidebook · 8th ed
Magazine mockup
Agency collateral
Capability statement, certificates, one-pagers, posters.
Capability statement
Trainer certificate
SES ECQs · 2026
Federal hiring chart
Folded poster mockup
Presentation system
Slides for workshops and agency training.
▍10 · Voice
Warm. Direct. Plainspoken.
Cut-and-dried but never dry or dull. Federal-services language without bureaucratic fog. The voice rule that holds everything together. Five derived rules govern surface copy.
Rule 1 · Plainspoken
Cut-and-dried but never dry or dull. Bureaucratic fog has no place here.
Rule 2 · Charismatic
Speak like a charismatic storyteller helping someone see the best in themselves.
Rule 3 · Legacy
Honor the fifty-year legacy without sounding stuck. The brand is rooted, not museum-piece.
Rule 4 · Service
Always treat federal service as a meaningful choice, not a fallback or a consolation.
Rule 5 · Audience-explicit
Name the audience explicitly when there is any chance of confusion. Never write to all three at once.
Adjectives
Warm. Direct. Plainspoken.
The Resume Place — Brand Book (PDF)
Version 1.1 · September 2024 · 18 MB · Full PDF including logo grid, applications, and sub-brand specs.
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