Berkeley had a limit of something like 15-16 double sided pages. That's what I ended up keeping them all at. 30 seems a little high, unless that's singe sinded.
I had about 2-3 pages per project and that worked out fine. Too much and it'll blend together. Look at some monographs that only have 2 pages per project. It's plenty of room to put the info, it just takes more creativity to get it to work. Filling the pages is the not the objective.

It's something like 'a great short story is much more difficult to write than a book'.

when i submitted mine, it was only 12 pages long. I had 5 studio projects (1 page for each project was enough for me) and the rest are sketches and photographs

By time mine is done it will be about 13 pages (11x17) or 26 pages if you count every page. Mine reads kind of like a magazine, when opened, images from one page carry on to the next, that's why i sorta consider 2 pages as one.

As for length per project, Mine varies according to the scale of the project. My most involved project lasted an entire semester, so I have a total of 5 11x17 pages of that. Other smaller projects have as much as a half a page (one 8.5x11 size page).

Just make sure everything you put in the portfolio is meaningful. "Fluff" doesn't get you anywhere.

Fluff rocks...specially when you get "fluffed"

11X17...er you should check the school you're applying to...almost all of them require 8X11...no exceptions....also 11X17 portfolio’s are too clumsy.

Threads, I agree. I probably didn't describe it clearly enough, I meant that when you lay it flat it's 11x17. It folds to 8.5x11. I haven't seen any schools accept portfolios with covers larger than 9.5x11.5.

oh, yeah OK, I like that. It gives the book some weight.

I took the remove the "fluff" approach and like everything I have in my portfolio, unfortunately it is now only 14 pages (7 front and back). Is this too short? I have a lot of art work shrunk down and arranged on a few pages but can enlarge these to make the content longer, although I am not a big fan of having one or two large photos per page.

I agree with most above, I would keep it short and precise and show the work you are most proud of. Be more concrened with the content than it's length. They recieve many of these and will more than like know within a few pages if you fit the bill of what they are looking for.

A few pages? Doubt it.

PMPN, don't overestimate the amount of time someone on a review panel is willing to sit and look at your particular portfolio. If you give them 30 pages, they're going to look at about 30 seconds worth and pass it. If in those 30 seconds (say 12 pages?) you can show them 6 projects clearly, why not do it? Isn't that better than only showing them 2 projects in those 12 pages? The goal isn't to describe your project at length, it's to describe yourself, your achievements, and your objectives, not through words, but through your studio work.

Also, on a side note (not mentioned here, but probably applicable), be wary of too much text. There's often an impulse to "fill" the whitespace with relevant text, things you have explained to the professor, the critic, or some sort of manifesto which is relevant to the project. This is a portfolio killer. Text is black blur to someone reviewing your portfolio. Big, full paragraphs won't be read in most circumstances. As I said, 30 seconds, maybe 2 minutes at the most. In that time, they can either read a paragraph about why you like glulams and green design, or they can see 5 or 6 of your projects and let the images do the talking.

That said, I'm by no means an expert. This is just what I've gleaned from having trusted professors review my portfolio and from books and various clinics. I've sent two of my 5 graduate application portfolios in the past month. They are each 13 pages (7 front and back) and, in my opinion, give a perfectly acceptable level of detail and visual information about the project. Text was kept to a bare minimum.

.mm

MMatt, I think a portfolio with substance is important. One other thing is that it depends on what degree you hold. For instance, your portfoio will undoubtably be longer if you have a B.Arch than it would if you have a BS. Arch. Personally, I have 7 academics projects, 4 professional projects, and two personal projects with a total of 35 doulbe sided pages. And text on each project is located on the first page in form of a couple of descriptive paragraphs the little text after that only found under pictures etc.

I can't help but think that they would read and understand each project then come to a judgement. Instead of just looking at the pictures - I mean what is the $80 plus dollars for anyways?

no way...look then read...that's the nature of architecture.

Penn specifies only 14 double sided pages.

37 pages is pretty impressive...did you edit? or did you place two elevations on a single page? or are you just a mad scientist with mad skillz?

I donno, 37 pages is more that the student works book I recieved from Pratt....how much did a single portfolio cost?...I need to get a job a kinko's.

peace.

It was 35 pages, Yes, I did edit and included only relevant information (no fluff). Showing process on each project was important, not just showing hot renderings, instead opting to put those last along with pics of the model. My biggest most recent project was only 6 pages front and back. The cost was only for paper, ink, and binding. I am not applying to Penn if I was I would taylor it to that format.

well I'd like to see it...to tell you the truth I've been working so hard on my own portfolio I really want to know what everyone else has been up to....what schools are you considering?...if you don't mind.

Hey threads --

Don't know if you already saw this thread, but I posted a link to my portfolio, which is 14 pages (7 double-sided) plus a cover. Some people had difficulty downloading it, but you just need to right-click and Save As... and be patient, Yahoo is being slow lately. Anyway, I don't have the work to fill 35 DS pages, so it was a no-brainer on the format. :-)

Marc

I don' have anything formatted online besides my posted work on
archinect...the work is missing alot of extra information which is
included in my hard copy....feel free to rip on it.


http://www.archinect.com/gallery/albums/userpics/calumet2.psd.jpg
http://www.archinect.com/gallery/albums/userpics/title.jpg
http://www.archinect.com/gallery/albums/userpics/land1.jpg
http://www.archinect.com/gallery/albums/userpics/passage.jpg

marc I sent you an email regarding my thoughts about your portfolio.

email me and i'll send you a web link of mine too if you want. threads which schools are you applying to?

also threads, i'm curious what percentage of your portfolio these images make? if this was your whole portfolio (i know it's not), i would say:

the first two are nice, but i would say they would need more to be interesting (i have a few such glossy renderings myself). i'm guessing they must be getting alot of such images. the third looks interesting and well crafted, what is it? the fourth looks impressive and just the right kind of thing to add when you have alot of computer renderings. i wish i had more nice hand-rendered stuff...

Threads, no images of that model from the year end show? That was nicely crafted and, one would think, would be easy to photograph because of its size.

Also, what was the "land.jpg" image of? Didn't recognize it as a recent studio project.

.mm

I have been working pretty hard on mine also, I took a month off so I could work on it and I was working on it for months leading up to that. I have 4 Illustrator files each around 150 mb that has each page within (thank god for SCSI 160). Threads the renderings look pretty sexy.

MMat, the digital pictures of the model were pretty bad and the school has the model locked away somewhere in the deep confines of the AA building. I’m kind of upset but in the end I didn’t have enough time to retake it with a professional camera. The land project was a small geometry installation back at IIT.

Overall the portfolio is composed of a bunch of small projects and one really large comprehensive project (calumet). It sort of worked out like that because I skipped a year transferring from a 5 to a 4 year program. I only had a first and second year studio…..missed third year and moved to straight to fourth. The research was over two semesters so I consider it a mini thesis. I made sure to just make a couple “sexy images” but overall the rest of the project tries to get into the nitty gritty concepts/axons/sections and then zooms into material research and zooms back out to overall organization relationships with the Ford industry. I’m so busy right now I don’t have time to make a web site but soon come.

threads,
here is my portfolio for graduate school. I'm also applying for MArch I but I have BFA in Interior Design. I made this pdf file very low res. (50 dpi) it took me a minute and half to upload.

http://webspace.ringling.edu/~wbang/portfolio-revised-.pdf

it'll be better to right click and "save target as..."

I spent about a week for this because of GRE. Printed with epson 2200 on epson double sided matte and a couple of premium glossy papers. Perfect bound at an antique bindery. I designed the cover seperately on illustrator.(not shown on that pdf file) I actually like how it came out as a book. any comments are welcome.

threads, I really like your renderings.

and took me 7 sec to download

Nice stuff, Wenseo... I like your title and contents pages, very clean and good use of color for organization.

Marc

sorry the images are too blurry.
use this link instead

http://webspace.ringling.edu/~wbang/portfolio-revised.pdf

im in the process of begining to compile my end of degree portfolio in england. It was useful to have a good look at yours onLi, thanks.

Does anyone else have an online portolio that they wouldnt mind everyone seeing?