I actually thought the first bit was pretty decent and have no suggestions, but I'm not sure about the second half (theory / photography, etc.). I don't know if I would include it when you send it to employers electronically. My impressions have been that people don't have much time to look over it, and they really don't care that you are into photography (most architects are) and unless you are interested in very traditional design, no one will ask you to ink anything, ever. Perhaps you can include another project instead since I thought those were more impressive than your extra stuff. My advice comes from the slant of someone who knows more about firms and little about grad school portfolios though.


Because you want some real honest criticism, I don't think your photographs are good enough to go into a portfolio in any case. Sorry. Your ink renderings are nice though.

Random thought (as they pop):

-It takes waaaaaaay too many pages before you see any actual work.
-The bullfight?? Why?
-Keep your CV as a separate document. Having it on a random page of your portfolio is counterproductive.
-Table of contents: if you must have one in a 40 page document (that really should be 20 pages) have it on the page with the bullfight. Again why bullfight?
-Whats a Theatre? Are you a Canadian-Texican? That project looks like a basilica in plan. The symmetry is killing me. I know it's the most recent school project, but I would keep that one last in the list of three.
-You should say where these projects are located more clearly. It's just not obvious in the 3 minutes any employer will take to flip through this.
- All three of your academic projects look very rigid and corporate. That's not necessarily a bad thing. You need to understand what type of offices you should apply for.
-The magnet school project is the only one that uses 3D modeling. Are you not much of a fan of doing that? Art museum project uses a physical model, which is nice, but not that useful for most arch. offices.
-The Italy project would be useless for an internship application, but very useful for a grad school application.
-'Walls for the lonely' is just plain creepy. It looks like an abandoned section of an aqueduct. It's where one goes alone. To get raped. The narration of the project is worthy of a new-age christian-ish cult manifesto.
- The sketches, while nice-ish, should not take up more than 2 pages (at most).
-Inkwash renderings are cute for being quaint. Is your professor 180 years old? Be prepared never to do that again in your professional career.
-Your photography should be on Getty images. With corporate-inspiration friendly captions such as 'contemplation', 'future', 'God', 'perseverance'.

If you ignore the one computer model you did, your portfolio is genuinely late 1990's. Your competition has moved onto all kinds of scary computer tool implementation. Not to worry, you will do fine in this profession. You just need to know where your skills/interests are at.

My guess would be second tier new urbanism :)

smaller fonts please.

Clean, conservative, consise, and nice work. I actually kind of like it at the first glance. Just get straight to the work though.... Too much introduction.

Good use of sketches. Renderings are pretty good enough. The test is okay but needs to be a bit smaller. You should stick to the same graphics language throughout.

Thanks for the feedback so far you guys. It is helping me gain some insight and a better direction of what to adjust and what stands out.


Given: I appreciate your insight from the perspective of a potential employer. I wanted to include other related projects and such that grad schools tend to look at as well. But then again, I probably shouldn't assume an identical copy of a portfolio will be sent to a potential employer and a grad school. Not hard feelings on the photographs, I can use that opportunity to replace it with another project.

Unicorn Ghost: Can't go wrong with a unicorn with a massive boner.

steelstuds: I'll try an clear some things up and help break it down...

- The bullfight is a opener and an attention getter. A small diagrammatic way to show why I'm at (insert firm or grad school) with a portfolio.
- Consider the CV on its own done. However, some grad schools require it to be a part of the portfolio though.
- Not a bad idea to try and combine the bullfight and contents pages.
- Theatre or theater. Whatever. Deal. Also, if I tried to explain my ethnicity and background, I'm pretty sure I'd make yours and everyone else's head explode. But back to the subject matter, the project required that it followed those ten canons of architecture listed on the project which does include: symmetry. It was part of a research based studio focusing primarily on classical architecture. What project stuck out the most to you?
- Thanks for this one, I'll definitely document where the projects are more clearly. I'll be damned if don't make those 3 minutes count :)
- No beef with 3d modelling. My education at UTSA has been an odd one indeed. I began primarily with hand-drawn projects, and then was introduced to digital media at the end of lower-division/beginning of upper-division studios. Then I went abroad and did more hand-drawing. Came back (where this magnet school project sits) and then had my final research studio which was back to hand-drawing and rendering. Simply put, I've had way more exposure to traditional media than digital.
- 'Walls for the Lonely' wasn't so much a design, it was more of an idea, so if it seems out there, it is. (but guess I went to far? rape = bad) The narration may seem preachy, got any suggestions there?
- Yeah, my professor was quite old, that a problem? I understand that I'll probably never have to do that again in a professional setting, but I had a hell of time doing it and learning something about a dying art.

While very sarcastic, you do have some very insightful and helpful points. Thank you.

fluxbound: You got it dude, how small is too small though? Or anyone else know a good size range?

med.: Thank you, I will limit the intro to get to the work quicker and adjust the text.

take out the first project and the lonely wall....if you must keep the first project then certainly don't open with it, some grad admissions committee members might stop looking right then and there..

it's not a digital presentation, take out the black backgrounds

Digital Presentation = objects are represented with light(pixels) against no light (black screen)

Printed Presentation = objects represented with ink against a surface without ink (white paper)

Super: I think your strongest project is Magnet School. Art museum is nice, but not documented as well. The professor who had the idea to run a design studio that follows 10 canons of architecture should be taken outside and shot in the face. What's next? Greek Temple design studio?

The wall for the lonely just says SO MANY POTENTIALLY HORRIBLE THINGS about you. Hide that project. Delete it out of existence (including the original files). And don't worry; we have all been there with creating one-off's that are cringe-worthy. Mine happened in 1st year. A one week project called for a design of a house extension for one of my professors. I stuck a wooden box between the existing trees and called the project "Outhouse". Yeah, it got the desired reaction, but at no point did I think that project was portfolio worthy.

You better have a damned good explanation of that atrocious lonely wall project.

Also take out the last page on photography, anyone must understand scale, form, shape, light, whatnot- they form the basis of architecture. Your layout is alright, but there are some dispensible projects in there and some really unnecessary items.

I like it. I just quickly went through. Like the mixture of projects. Would cut back on some of the text. Also there were a few pages with a lot of white space. But that might just be a personal prefrence