According to Professor Miller of the University of Kingston, Australia, "Compiling your best off-the-shelf products is a common mistake students make when building a portfolio."
Portfolio is increasingly cited as the main selection criterion for admission to courses related to the arts and creative fields of study, especially at foreign universities. A similar trend is observed in Russia.
Roger Miller notes in an interview with the Global newspaper that a letter of motivation and a portfolio are the most important documents that a recruiter (university management) considers when enrolling a student. He added that students from all over the world make mistakes when building portfolios. A common approach is that a portfolio is a collection of the best works.
Portfolio is not a black folder with the best works. An Instagram or YouTube channel can also act as a portfolio. “It's a testament to creativity,” Miller said during an interview. “I've seen fantastic work, and the most common advice I've given to students is to add context to their work,” he adds.
He claims that the future artist or scientist understands the ideas behind artwork, so sketches, sketches and rough drafts are just as important as finished masterpieces, showing the process from start to finish.
Art is not the only area where portfolios are accepted. In basic courses such as MBA, portfolio has been a prerequisite for 7 years already. The director of India Initiatives, the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, USA, Sudershan Tirumala, believes that it would be a serious mistake to send a sold story to the commission: trying to catch the formats, trends and anticipate the wishes of the commission members, the student loses individuality and authenticity. Whether the candidate realizes it or not, this inaccuracy manifests itself both in the application and in the interview.
The solution according to Tirumale is introspection. “Applicants put an effort to self-reflection, understand who they are, what they want to achieve, why the course they are applying for is the best step for them and what they can bring to it.” This introspection will make your presentation and portfolio effective.
A good portfolio is what gives a 360-degree view of the candidacy, Tirumala said. “What are your goals? What have you already achieved? Why are you the best candidate for admission? Why did you choose the institute to which you applied? What extracurricular activities you did that developed you as a person? How did your career develop? What do the referees say about you? How will you manage to study at the university? "
A Few Tips
- Try to include about 20 entries. Allowed 15-25 works, but the golden mean should be adhered to.
- Examples of the types of work you can submit include (but are not limited to) the following: drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, installation, printmaking, photography, multimedia, digital artwork, digital 3D design, and textiles.
- If you are applying for an undergraduate degree in Art and Design, show design elements in your work - such as 3D objects, textiles, or computer-aided design.
- The most important thing to include is the scanned pages of your sketchbooks, or a photo of them: this shows the process behind the work, how your ideas evolve.
- If you want to include any 3D elements, add photos of them that show a sense of scale, texture, material, color and context.
- Keep the work in chronological order, but remember that the order in which the work is filed in the portfolio determines the order in which it is viewed.
- Demonstrate your interest and awareness of contemporary art and design by providing testimonials and opinions about the exhibitions you have attended.
- If you want to include the content of the movie, make a synopsis or teaser in a 30-second snippet.
- Hands-on experience is appreciated. If you've done some practice before, be sure to add any evidence of this to your portfolio.
- Annotations and markings are required. Add project names to make it clear where they start and end, label elements and comment in context when needed.
To help the reviewer understand you and the portfolio better, include answers to the following questions in the portfolio description:
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Which piece do you like best of the included works and why?
- Who are your favorite artists? How do they feel about your work?
- What inspires you?
- What are you aiming for?
- Why do you need higher education ?
What does the university want?
When considering an application from a future student, any higher educational institution compares it with a number of requirements and rules of inner life. For example, the University of Birmingham welcomes:
- Willingness to experiment with different media, materials and technologies.
- Creativity and risk.
- Using a visible design process to develop an idea.
Format
- Submit your work as a single PDF or PowerPoint file. The size of your digital portfolio should not exceed 10 megabytes - compress the file if it exceeds the limit.
- Make sure your work has a good screen resolution.
- Add any video links, animations, and moving images to your PDF or PowerPoint. Please make sure these links work before submitting your portfolio and that they can be accessed. No passwords!
