Good Portfolio??

seabee

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post but any way...I have to do an interview for college soon and I need to present a portfolio of my work. I've put together a "digital portfolio" - flash movie showing photoshop & illustrator images as well as 3d work I've done. I'm happy with the way it turnred out but I'm not happy with my paper portfolio. At the moment its a just a load of sheets together in a presentation folder and I'm looking for advice/suggestion to make it "special" or to "stand out".Help!

Figment

You didnt say what course it is for.
Previously when i was applying a few years ago the colleges were not interested in seeing any digital work. Not even for design/multimedia courses. They want to see visual potential in hand done stuff and and lots and lots of sketchbooks.
I dont thank that has changed much.

seabee

The course is a BA in Industrial Design (Hons). The paper portfolio I spoke of contains loads of sketches, designs development work etc. I'm just looking for ideas on how to present them well.

shane_mcc

get your self a proper black portfolio case, a1 a2 depending on the size you need, then you'll need the relavent sized portfolio inserts, they come with black sugarpaper but i wouldn't mount anything to them as they are too flimsy, so you should get mounting card two, all in all it'll cost you about 40 to 50 euro, find out the portfolio requirments, and follow them. submit your digital work as a single piece, putting about ten of your best pieces in a small black clip folder for consistancy. label everything clearly
you should go into eason and take a look at a DA&D mag called digit, they have a special this month on portfolios its targeted more towards designers etc looking for jobs, but you will put up a few good pointers from it. its only a few pages, not worth the 10.20 unless your interested in the rest of the mag so i suggest reading it in store.

Figment

Seriously do not make a 'Digital' portfolio for college. Any thing digital print out and mount in a portfolio case as shane_mcc suggests.
When you are portfolio number 400 after a long day of viewing they will not stop, find and start up a computer, put your CD into the computer and try and start up and navigate your presentation. Do you know if their computer is PC or MAC and are your sure your presentation can be read on their drive and played?

What they will do is open your portfolio for 2 minutes and tick the yes/no box on their evaluation form before moving on to the next portfolio.

CuLT

Figment wrote:

Seriously do not make a 'Digital' portfolio for college. Any thing digital print out and mount in a portfolio case as shane_mcc suggests.
When you are portfolio number 400 after a long day of viewing they will not stop, find and start up a computer, put your CD into the computer and try and start up and navigate your presentation. Do you know if their computer is PC or MAC and are your sure your presentation can be read on their drive and played?

What they will do is open your portfolio for 2 minutes and tick the yes/no box on their evaluation form before moving on to the next portfolio.

Could always bring a laptop

But yes, I'd go with shane and figment on this, they have rather enough experience.

Figment

For the first portfolio assessment you just drop off your portfolio. You don't get to meet the people doing it. Some courses now are starting to do away with the follow up interview which i think is stupid.

seabee

Figment wrote:

When you are portfolio number 400 after a long day of viewing they will not stop, find and start up a computer, put your CD into the computer and try and start up and navigate your presentation. Do you know if their computer is PC or MAC and are your sure your presentation can be read on their drive and played?

In all fairness I'm not that stupid - Of course I'm bringing my own laptop.
I've told them this and I'll be allowed a few mins to set up. Its interview & portfolio viewing all in one.

Figment

Ah sorry. I didnt realise they were doing both together now.