What work should I include in my portfolio? » School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
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What work should I include in my portfolio?



Assembling Your Portfolio

Your portfolio should comprise 10 to 12 samples of original work that demonstrate a wide range of ideas and competency with different media and tools. At least one piece in your portfolio should present word(s) and image(s) that communicate a message.

In addition to the types of work listed below, 8-10 scanned pages from your sketchbook or concept/idea book are required.

Your portfolio should contain your best work from at least 3 of the following areas (areas 1-6 are highly recommended for inclusion):

  1. Two-dimensional design work e.g. designs for posters, logos, letterheads, book/magazine covers and interior page spreads.
  2. Typography e.g. poetry or words using an expressive font or page layout, typeface designs, expressive lettering, projects with text settings designed for clear communication. Drawings and experiments with typographic form.
  3. Interactive media e.g. web site design and/or other interactive work.
  4. Motion graphics e.g. video or animation using images and typography. Short pieces with a strong message are preferred.
  5. Drawing & Illustration e.g. direct observational drawings are preferred (not drawn from photographs). Imaginative drawing is also welcome. It is good to demonstrate the use of a wide variety of media (pen & ink, charcoal, pastel, coloured pencil, marker pen, collage, digital drawings).
  6. Photography e.g. B&W prints, colour prints, hand-tinted prints, digitally manipulated.
  7. Painting e.g. representative and/or non-representative in oil, acrylic, watercolour, gouache.
  8. 3D Design/Sculpture e.g. scale models from plan drawings, craft and fibre experiments.

The sketchbook or concept/idea book is a very important component of the portfolio. It should contain a variety of studies and examples of your media/tools experiments and demonstrate an exploration of visual and annotated ideas, comments and critiques. It will represent a variety of things that interest you and the ongoing development of ideas. Include 8-10 scanned pages from your sketchbook as a single file.