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Top Tips on Building a Creative Portfolio
Thursday, 4 January, 2024 — Wondering how to get started on your portfolio? Check out our top tips on how to best showcase your work for university and college applications.
<p dir="ltr">When you apply for a course at Arts University Plymouth, you’ll be asked to share a portfolio of your work. This is your chance to show us your creativity, what you're passionate about, and for us to help guide you to the course that’s right for you.<strong><br /></strong></p>
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<p dir="ltr"><strong>Don't forget the deadline for portfolio submission is Wednesday 28 February 2024.</strong></p>
<p>A portfolio is a collection of your creative work that you believe best represents the range of your talent, development, and ideas. </p>
<p>It might include: </p><ul><li>A curated collection of 2D artwork, paintings, drawings, moodboards, or photographs </li><li>A showreel of moving image, animation, music, or digital drawings.</li><li>3D work, or samples of fabric designs, costumes and prop ideas. </li><li>Written samples of your work, such as essays, scripts or storyboards. </li></ul>
<p>The important thing is that it says something about you, and your creative interests. It is a chance for us to get to know you, your skills, and what you’re passionate about. </p>
Remember - we are genuinely excited to see your work. Reviewing student portfolios can be the highlight of my week, I can think of nothing better than looking at ideas and imagery from the next generation of creatives about to join us at AUP
<p dir="ltr">A portfolio can include initial ideas and incomplete work, as well as finished pieces. We want to get to know you, the way you develop ideas, and what inspires you, as well as your skills and creative potential. </p>
<p dir="ltr">We recommend having no more than 20 pieces of work as part of your portfolio. All work presented should be your own work. Where work has been made as part of a crew or a group project, it’s good to describe clearly what your contribution was.<br /></p>
<ol><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Be selective and reflective, you don’t need to include everything you’ve ever done. Curate the story you want to tell us, and let your personality and passion shine through.<br /></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Show your versatility! If you can, include a broad range of your skills and work.<br /></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Showcase your strengths - prioritise quality over quantity.<br /></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Do not underestimate the creative value of sketches, doodles, or unfinished work. Often this work tells us the most about your potential as an art, design, or media practitioner.<br /></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Put your work in the order you want us to view it. If you attend an applicant day, we might ask you to discuss it with us so be ready to tell us a bit about the work you’ve included.</p></li></ol><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://pca.objects.frb.io/production/files/Main-menu/Outreach-Schools/Arts-Uni-Plymouth-Printable-Portfolio-Poster-A3-2022.pdf">Check out our handy guide</a> for more advice on how to create a portfolio.</div>
Don't worry if your portfolio is mostly one type of artwork, you can still apply for any of our courses, even if you haven't had a chance to try out the specific techniques of that discipline. Being able to look through your portfolio and see your creative potential in the work is more important than seeing perfect examples of finished work.
<p dir="ltr">You will be invited to <strong>submit your portfolio digitally</strong> by sharing a link with us. You can choose to present your portfolio in a number of different formats. </p>
<p dir="ltr">For example, you might convert your portfolio into a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation, a PDF, a Canva presentation, or you might send us a link to a website, blog, YouTube or Vimeo film. Alternatively, you can send us an image file, sound file, video file, or an alternative digital format.<strong>*</strong><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">The most important thing is to ensure we are able to access your portfolio link, so please check your sharing settings and ensure your portfolio link is accessible.<strong><br /></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Once your digital portfolio is ready, we ask that you </strong><a href="https://forms.student-crm.com/Forms/view/88b827ee-dc32-49bc-838e-188cf2c77b68" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>complete our portfolio submission form</strong></a><strong>.</strong> We normally review all portfolios within 7 days of receipt.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>If you would prefer to submit your portfolio in-person</strong>, you can bring your portfolio along with you to one of our Applicant Experience Days. You will receive an invite to book on to one of these via email.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We base our decisions on the work you show us and your creative potential - we know that you are much more than your qualifications, and will make sure that your application is considered fairly.<br /><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>*</strong>The file types we accept are: </p>
<p dir="ltr">Images: bmp, gif, jpg, jpeg, png</p>
<p dir="ltr">Audio: mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, wma</p>
<p dir="ltr">Video: avi, mp4, mpg, mpeg, mkv, mov, WMV.<br /></p>
<p>For the BA (Hons) Animation and Games course, we want to see portfolios filled with creativity and innovation. Show us your ongoing projects from the course and personal work related to animation and game design. Feel free to include concept art, storyboards, character designs, animation sequences, and game prototypes. Your portfolio should showcase your passion for storytelling and visual aesthetics, along with your technical skills. Include both works-in-progress and completed pieces to give us a full picture of your abilities and growth. We're excited to see how you express your unique perspective and potential through your portfolio.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We are looking for a portfolio that gives us an insight into how curious you are about photography and what interests you about commercial photography. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Show us examples of your practice that include still images, moving image, social media accounts, zines, blogs, creative writing, books and experimental practices. Include any examples that showcase your interest in fashion, editorial and lifestyle photography, along with examples of any other creative practice you may have, including drawing, graphic design and any personal projects that showcase your interest in photography.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">We are looking for a portfolio that gives us an insight into your interests of costume making or design and other visual arts and media. Adding in examples of textiles, experimental samples and sewn items that you like is also a good idea, so that you display a range of techniques and design processes. Do not worry if this work is not costume and performance related, we just want to see your creative process. </p>
<p dir="ltr">We would also like to see photos of finished pieces and final outcomes whether they be within your studies or for a private project that demonstrates skills in sewing or creating 3D objects or sculptures. Do mention your interests and any experiences of creating characters for an event or just helping out with making items. In all this you’ll want to display a range of techniques and design processes that you are proud to show us. <br /></p>
<p>You don’t have to have worked with all the materials that we have on offer on the course but we would like to see that you have an interest in the exploration of materials in your creative practice. </p>
<p>You can include examples of artists, objects and places that inspire you, and act as a catalyst for your ideas, then show us how you have translated these through your research, and design development. You could show examples of the evolution of a project from initial ideas and drawings to models, tests and/or material samples. </p>
<p>We encourage you to include your work in progress as well as your final pieces, and to explain the process and outcome of your work.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We are looking for exciting and imaginative ideas. Show us the projects you are currently working on in your course or personal work you believe relevant to the course. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Feel free to incorporate mood boards, photography, film, reports, and other visual elements that illustrate your love for fashion. Your portfolio can encompass a variety of mediums, including styling examples, illustrations, zine designs, social media campaigns, and film or photography work. Include both work in progress and finished outcomes to give us a comprehensive view of your skills and potential. <br /></p>
<p>Show us the work you have been doing on your current course. We want to see your creativity and potential in the work you include in your portfolio, so let your love of fashion shine through. Show us the way your design process leads to realising your final design ideas; this could include inspirations, research, 2D and 3D experimentations, including drawings, illustrations, technical processes, textile samples and sewn garments. Tell us what you think about your process and the outcomes.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We understand that presenting a portfolio to support your Film & Screen Arts application, might be a daunting task. Because of this we'd like to offer some advice and reassurances.</p>
<p dir="ltr">1. Don’t feel that you need to link to moving image works, unless you have them, not everyone gets the opportunity to create film work as part of their further education so we totally understand.</p>
<p dir="ltr">2. Don’t send video produced for social media unless you are exploring an idea or a technique (eg: editing) - no memes or TikTok trends please.</p>
<p dir="ltr">3. DO send photos - especially those that show an understanding of image framing, shot type, colour, mood and narrative. Essential film making skills.</p>
<p dir="ltr">4. DO explain any work you send through a written commentary or a Google slides.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We also like to read your writing, especially film reviews or script treatments, and we love to see a passion for film as a subject and filmmaking as a practice. <br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">We value your unique interests and passions, and there's no need for your work to be overly polished. We are also interested in seeing how you make work, what your processes are and your use of different materials and experimentation. To make a strong impression, consider showcasing your key works, leading with your most impactful pieces.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Show your skills and experience of working with different methods and mediums, such as 3D work, sculpture, drawing, photography, video, installation, painting, sound, life drawing. You can include images of large works, or videos of your studio.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Additionally, we appreciate insights into your creative journey through the inclusion of sketchbooks. You can present them online by uploading a film of the pages being turned by hand or by sharing images of select sketchbook pages.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We encourage you to submit around 20 pieces of work, this can include works that didn't go to plan and you can explain how you dealt with that, and what you learnt.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Overall we are looking for your skill, potential and dedication, your interest in art and life, exhibitions you have visited, books you have read and places and objects and things that inspire you.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Please show us the work you have been making recently, and depending on your current course or experience, this might be a range of projects from graphic design, illustration, animation, fine art, textiles or photography.</p>It's always great to see any opportunity you have had to explore a range of media and materials. This can range from your digital skills through to drawing, painting, 3D work, print-making etc.<br /><br />We enjoy looking at combinations of finished work alongside the development of your ideas in sketchbooks or workbooks. This means you could show us the evolution of a project from initial ideas and drawings to models, tests and/or material samples.
<p>We want to see what you’ve been working on. This might be paintings, drawings, textile designs, product designs, photographs or films that show us your creativity. Show us work you are passionate about. </p>
<p> If you have done some interior design or styling, perhaps reimagined your bedroom, created moodboards, or sketched some ideas, then share that too. The work you have done can be digital or hand drawn. It can be work in progress or completed pieces, as long as it says something about who you are and what you are interested in. Tell us about the interiors you love, which designers inspire you and why.</p>
<p>We would like to see a combination of finished work and works-in-progress. We want to see how you think and solve problems creatively; this is much more important than how nice your finished works are! Include what you have been working on - this might be textiles designs, graphic design, art, film or photography.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We would like to see how you think in terms of sketch-books, convey your thoughts into visual experiences. Therefore these can be scribbles, marks and attempts that are incomplete, false starts and so forth rather than polished finished beautiful books of drawings. We are interested in how you make drawings and equivalents of what you see from observation, what is directly in front of, translating experiences of looking. These thinking books are your private work, not given class work, your making at home. We do not need writing to tell us what is what or where it is, simply drawings with no explanations is very good</p>
<p dir="ltr">All other work, finished and in progress, glorious failures, as well as your proudest moments, plus the work you make for classes and exercises, designs, photographs, prints, paintings, 3D work, everything that helps explains how you work, think and create that makes you want to apply for a PAINTING Degree course that values Drawing & Printmaking as key components as a potential synergy to explore paint, colour and composition. We will be interested to ask you what you're reading, what films you like, have seen, and music, poetry, you might have a taste for, let alone cooking skills you possess and activities that engage you.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">We are looking for a portfolio that gives us an insight into how curious you are about photography and what interests you about commercial photography. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Show us examples of your practice that include still images, moving image, social media accounts, zines, blogs, creative writing, books and experimental practices. Include any examples that showcase your interest in fashion, editorial and lifestyle photography, along with examples of any other creative practice you may have, including drawing, graphic design and any personal projects that showcase your interest in photography.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">The Extended BA is the initial year of the four year degree route. The benefits of this initial year include broadening your creative skills base and expanding on your existing academic and practical skills, in readiness to hit the ground running in the first year. Therefore, when initially applying for the Extended BA, your portfolio simply needs to demonstrate a genuine passion for art and design, reflecting your creative interests, capability and potential.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">You may include work from previous education, but please also feel free to include creative work that you have generated in your own time, in whatever format this might take. It is great to see sketchbooks that reflect research and thinking skills, representational or experimental drawing, photography, collage, textiles, 3D and digital experimentation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In fact, include anything that reflects a curiosity for colour, line, form, shape, tone, pattern or texture in any material. <br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">We want to see what you have been up to! In your portfolio include some textile sampling using your favourite techniques and processes, show us your love of material and approaches to playful patterns. We would also like to see a varied approach of drawing from mark making, observational drawing, painting to collage. If you love photography, add this in too. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Every textile designer loves colour! Show us some colour work, this could be using bits of material and collage to make colour combinations or a piece of art or design that has an inspiring colour palette.</p>
<p>Finally show some design development, including a project that shows a clear design journey from research, visual inspiration, design development to final idea.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Have any questions? </strong>Contact our friendly team at <a href="mailto:hello@aup.ac.uk">hello@aup.ac.uk</a> or WhatsApp us on <a href="https://wa.me/447722744184" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">07722744184</a>.<br /></p>
