5 portfolio select

Preparing a Portfolio

ART 287

Reasons for Portfolios

• Personal: to protect and preserve your work

• Occupational: to present your work to obtain a job, either employment or freelance

• Educational: to demonstrate your qualification to be admitted to higher levels of formal art education

Making the right selections

• For occupational and educational portfolios, consider the type of job (or courses/degrees) you are capable of and want to pursue

• Your portfolio should be created and arranged to support your goal

• If you have multiple goals, you may need multiple portfolios

Demonstrating your skill

• Concepts: ideas

• Design: composition, expressive use of elements

• Techniques: mastery of the craft

When preparing your employment (or educational portfolio that shows your abilities on three levels:

Demonstrating your skill

• Show a larger number of examples in your area of primary emphasis

• Included pieces in other formats/media if they show good concepts or related skills

• Versatility can increase your marketiblity!

In most cases you want to show both depth and breadth

Portfolio preparation steps

1. Determine the primary purpose of your portfolio

2. Compile and select the artwork that might fit the purpose of your portfolio

3. Narrow down your selections to 18-24 examples, with 10-12 for refocusing your portfolio for different employers (or schools)

4. Determine what new work you need to produce to supplement your portfolio


While you certainly may (and should in some cases) carry a physical portfolio, there will be times that you want to present your work when you will not be present.

For these occasions, and to use as a reminder of your visit, you should have an electronic version of your portfolio.


5. Decide on the electronic presentation method: website or PowerPoint presentation.

• Each has its advantages — a web site can be accessed any time, but the viewer must remember your URL.

• A PowerPoint can be burned to CD and left behind after an interview — but if you use any type that isn’t in image format, there can be problems when viewed in a computer without your fonts!


6. Digitize all selected work: scan, digitally photograph, convert from PDF; .jpg format in RGB color space.

7. Organize your work: choose primary and secondary methods — by Theme? Media? Subject/concept? What information should you include with each piece? (name, email, phone, size & media, etc.)


8. Design and create the presentation: what sort of background would showcase your abilities as a designer and set off your artwork effectively?

9. Rehearse your presentation. Know how to effectively navigate your electronic document, and know what you are going to say about each piece. Use your work to explain concept, design and technique. Tell your story.

Next steps…

• Start by collecting all of the work you’ve saved in one place. Depending on your background, you may have many pieces, or just a few.

• Sort your work: you may want to sort by medium, by the class you took when you created them, etc. The idea is to make it easy to look at similar works together.

Next steps…

• Don’t discard anything yet, unless you have a very large number of pieces (more than 50).

• If you have lots of work, start grouping similar pieces together, and eliminating the ones you don’t feel demonstrate your best work.

• You will bring all your samples to the meeting with the instructor to begin the process of selecting your final collection.

Next steps…

• Sign up for your portfolio meeting today, or as soon as possible! Bring all your work and meet with your instructor for about an hour, and review all your samples and talk about your goals.

• Sign-up sheet is on the instructor’s door.• Individual meetings will take place on during the

next three weeks. During that time, we will not meet as a class.

Documents

5 portfolio select