Portfolio Advice and Information

Plan Your Portfolio

Your portfolio should contain a well-presented selection of your work.

Art Design infographic

Do take advice on this from your tutors but please remember that we want to see a range of work that reflects your overall experience of art and design practice, but also include work that supports your chosen area of specialism.

Your portfolio should be unique to you and represent both your experience and interests in your chosen field. Broadly, we are looking to see strong ideas and concepts that have been executed to a high standard. However, your portfolio should not only be about the final piece. Your development work, or 'creative journey', is equally important and will allow your interviewer to determine your research skills, commitment and aptitude. We will also be looking for worksheets, ideas sheets, storyboards, samples as well as finished pieces, sketchbooks and notebooks that document your visual interest and thinking. Depending on your area of study, a good mixture of 2D and 3D work may be appropriate.

Think carefully about the order of your portfolio. Generally, it is a good idea to start and end with your strongest pieces of work, or those about which you have the most to say. You should aim to deliver a strong first impression, then end on a high!

 

Undergraduate Video Guidance

Video 1 - What is a Foundation course?

In this video, our lecturer describes what a foundation is and how this course will help you develop your skills.

Video 2 - What is a Portfolio? Who are we looking for?

In this section, Lindsay explains what a portfolio is and some ideas for how you can build your portfolio.

Video 3 - Drawing Skills

In this video you will see some examples of previous students' portfolios - mainly focused on drawing skills with some additional guidance from Lindsay.

Video 4 - Photography

In this section, you will get an idea of how to use your camera in order to take pictures for building your portfolio.

Video 5 - Exploring, Investigating and Developing ideas

This video explains how you can show your thinking and creative process in your portfolio.

Video 6 - Experimentation, Media Exploration and Final ideas

And finally, this video explains how you can show examples of experimentation in your work with some examples from former students.

Postgraduate Video Guidance

Video 1 - What is a Pre-Master course?

In this video, our lecturer describes what a Pre-Master's course is, and how this course will help you to develop and improve your skills.

Video 2 - Who are we looking for?

In this section, Lindsay explains the profile of the student that we are looking for.

Video 3 - What is a Portfolio?

You will discover in this video a key summary of what we'd expect to see in a portfolio.

Video 4 - Ways to build your Portfolio

In this section, our lecturer uses examples to explain how you can build your research into your portfolio.

Video 5 - Exploration, Investigation and Developing ideas

In this video you'll learn how to build your portfolio further by showing your exploration and how you have developed your ideas.

Video 6 - Experimentation

This video shows you some examples from our former students, and gives you some ideas about experimentation and media exploration.

Video 7 - Final ideas

In the final video, you'll see some final pieces and get an idea of what a final portfolio looks like.