show process for projects that are important to you and
important to showing your potential worth..portfolio
for school or work?...

then the projects that aren't quite as important just place
the final product...for the most part it seems as though a
portfolio of about five or six projects with a total of about
25-30 pages...i find that for me...in bad interviews a large
portfolio fills in conversational lapses...and in a good interview
helps to extend the conversation by showing projects that
in some interviews you'd consider skipping...

again it really does matter what this portfolio is for...
most work places..especially your first job are going to be
more worried about how much experience you have and/or
your ability with 'the cad'...but sketches can help at least show
some talent..

google how to take photos of artwork, you can get plenty good images with a camera, better many times, scanners haven't always been around

Sorry, this is for an M.Arch II. forgot to mention..

ONLY HAVE THE BEST OF THE BEST.
I MADE UP THIS QUOTE A WHILE BACK "LESS IS MORE."

ANYTHING YOU QUESTION......THROW IT OUT.

I GOT THIS TIP FROM AN AD AGENT FRIEND OF MINE.
THIS WAS THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT.
NEXT TO THE GUY WHO TOLD ME TO GO INTO "PRE-LAW"
AND MARRY RICH.

Thanks Stark, I knew I could count on you

in one of my best interview experiences i had my portfolio with all the work it included, but also brought my sketchbook since that is where the bulk of my work falls before i try to make the leap to anything 3d or model wise. since it had prints of the finish work in it as well, the guy actually looked over it more than the finished portfolio. i don't think i will ever go to another interview without it again. now that i think about it though, this doesn't help much if you have to send it off. good luck pimp.

Thanks for the input momentum, I wish this process was like a job interview in many respects. I have decided to scan everything I can and use it were I see it being a benefit. This is like pasting a story together. You have to make it flow without loosing the reader. And as Stark said, anything that is questionable I will leave out.

Yes PMPN Bring your Sketchbook if its for a Designer's Postition.

PMPN - what I think sketches and process are particularly useful is filler imagery. Things like back grounds, or to fill the space between photos. This has been done a million times, but it adds some depth to the pages, and if you put some thought into it, can help give meaning to the process and the final images, creating a graphic relationship on the pages and gives someone a more thorough view of the project.
Morphosis is the best at this, imo. Hadid's process sketches are amazing, too, but you have to look at some of the old El Croquis to see a lot of them.
I still love the mylar/vellum pages and used them in my portfolio. It's been done a thousand times by now, but was a little less known 8 years ago when I was applying.

I also agree that a sketch book (assuming it's good) can be a huge asset and anyone will like looking at it. These days, it's all too common that everything is done in the computer and the process essentially lost (print out piles and piles, it'll be very handy later one - don't rely on being able to open the old model, you won't).

Trace, I understand what you say that the load of sketches that I scanned can be used as a abstract filler or background images. But I can't help but think that it should be also used as an origin or an idea seperate from anything else - recorded with pencil and paper that should be seen by the reviewers. This is most difficult because I have a lot of digital images to go along with these and model pics/schematic models, etc. It is obvious to me that all these projects in the portfolio should start off with some sketches as an origin of process. After reading this, sketches seem to be a minority when conveying your project to someone. And now that I think about it, in general, I rarely see sketches in architectural books.

What I did was put tiny thumnails of process along a thick line (that carried throughout the port) that began each project. They were large enough to see and obvious that it was process. I also put the intro paragraphs on this page and printed it on vellum. This way they could see the explanation, the thick line (like 2"), and the process with some vague idea of the photos of the final project. It was minimal, but it worked.
I used random sketches scaled to various sizes inbetween as filler, but I did have process (including sketch models) in an obvious place.

You could also do what the Morphosis book does, which shows the final projects completely separate from the vellum sketch pages. Maybe not the greatest idea when you are trying to sell your design skills, but I like it.