portfolioQuality

PORTFOLIO QUALITY

PORTFOLIO LEVEL WORK

Student's portfolio works can and do come from all of our courses. We each need to ensure that we are constructing our courses in a way that will provide a maximum portfolio opportunity for our students. However, the expectation of portfolio level outcomes do vary as listed below.

Portfolio level work could be defined as work that is at or very near professional level. That usually means it has been critiqued and polished at least once, probably more. Keep in mind, nobody gets hired to do student level work. And, the difference between student and professional level work is a judgement call that we will all need to make.

Introductory: Sophomore level courses will

sometimes yield portfolio level work for

some students, but that is not the expectation.

Program Electives: Junior level courses that

build on the introductory knowledge. The goal

is to create portfolio level work. Typically, much of

the student's work will qualify but some won't.

Thesis and Group projects: Senior level

courses have the expectation that portfolio

level work will be created, without exception.

ILLUSTRATION AND GRAPHIC DESIGN is at the core of everything we do:

I've been receiving feedback from employers and students for many years and have learned that when our students are not hired, it is usually for one or both of these reasons:

1. Their portfolio does not demonstrate enough mastery of fundamental illustration and/or graphic design skill and method.

2. They don't act excited about the job opportunity or seem arrogant.

It is rare that they are not hired due to insufficient technical skills.

Obviously this points out where our weakness and our strength lie. We should want to improve on the weakness without diluting the strength. That means integrating more creative process and rigor into our courses in a way that will insure that the core Graphic Design and Illustration skills are shining through the technology.

This may mean doing shorter, fewer and simpler projects with a higher level of conceptual development. There are few points given for quantity in the portfolio review process. It's not unusual for a Kendall graduate to be hired based on the quality of just 1-3 projects.

Each project, to be valuable in a portfolio, should have a clear connection to their career goals. In order to insure that is happening, each of us needs to be asking that 'career goals' question during the development of their project concepts. Be wary of the "I just want to do something fun" concept.

What I'm suggesting is that creative process become a formal part of your courses, in the same way that technical processes are. How you structure this into your course is up to you and would need to vary depending on the subject you teach. The goal is to require students to be methodical about the aesthetics and function and not turn in first draft material. A typical example for design due dates could look something like this:

Date 1: Project presentation that includes definition and planning documents. Some examples:

- problem statement, synopsis or pitch

- benchmarks (examples of professional work used for inspiration)

- sketches, storyboards or wireframes

Date 2: First look at the design. Some examples:

- characters and background for Animation

- graphics and layout for Interactive Media

- graphics and layout for Motion Graphics

- 1st draft Illustration

Date 3: Mid-project review. Some examples

- first look at an animated segment

- first look at interactive layout advanced and in HTML or Flash

- 2nd draft illustration

Date 4: Final critique

- this and other critiques and reviews can work well if the initial project presentation is revisited in an abbreviated form. The project can then be discussed in relationship to the problem statement, pitch, etc.

Note: I am working on a website that I use for my classes. Susan helped me with its construction so I give her credit for the design. It is in progress, but I do have quite a bit finished. The site is a detailed step by step guide to the "User Experience Design" process. Specifically, that is a process linked to the User-Experience Design philosophy, which has been utilized in the Industrial Design profession for decades, found its way into the Interactive Design world and is now being widely adopted across many media under various names. Anyone interested in applying any part of the process in their own course is welcome to review the site and take what you want. If you would like to add to or critique what I have presented.. I would welcome it. Here is the url:

https://sites.google.com/site/dmuserexperiencedesign/