No. A CV and a portfolio are two different documents with two different jobs. The CV is a professional record: who you are, where you have worked, and what you have produced. The portfolio is the evidence: the actual work, presented with context and craft. A CV that tries to be a portfolio ends up being neither. Include a prominent portfolio link in your CV header and let the work speak for itself in its own space. Creative directors will go to the portfolio; they do not need or want a mini-portfolio embedded in the text document.
One page for most creative professionals. Two pages for senior creative directors or heads of design with 12 or more years of experience and multiple significant brand relationships to document. The discipline of fitting onto one page is a creative constraint in itself, and creative directors notice when candidates cannot exercise it. Every section and every line should earn its place. If the CV is going to two pages, cut the oldest or least relevant roles before adding a second page.
PDF. Always PDF for a creative CV. A PDF preserves the exact layout, typography, and spacing as designed. Word documents reflow differently on different systems; the carefully chosen font may be substituted, the spacing may shift, and the visual design can collapse entirely. Use this template's print-to-PDF or download function to generate a clean PDF. Name the file clearly: FirstName-LastName-CV-2026.pdf, not "CV final v3 (2).pdf." File names are part of the professional impression you make.
Yes, at the level of content emphasis rather than layout redesign. If you are applying for a brand strategy role, lead your profile summary with brand strategy experience. If the role is focused on campaign production, lead with campaign work. The visual design can stay consistent; it is the content hierarchy (what appears first, what is emphasized in your profile) that should shift to match each application. This is why an editable template matters: you can adjust the summary, reorder experience bullets, and update the portfolio link without rebuilding the document each time.
Smaller boutique studios rarely do; a senior creative director or studio director typically reviews applications directly. Larger agencies and creative functions within larger corporations usually do. The safe approach: design for the human reader, but structure the content so a machine can parse it. This means using clear section headings (Experience, Education, Skills), not placing critical content inside design elements like text boxes or shapes, and keeping your most important keywords in plain text that a parser can extract. This template is built to pass both tests.