i just spent a lot of time writing you a response, then lost it.

Here we go again:

For portfolio layout. Simplicity is most important since you are just starting off. Keep it basic. LET THE WORK SPEAK FOR ITSELF. And, let the portfolio speak alittle about you as well. Have some fun with it.

A nice clean portfolio will be MORE appreciated than a crazy culry q's, burned edges, turning the pastel option on in photoshop, or other craziness.

I say stick to what you know, but if you need additional help look at portfolio layout books/art books/cd jackets/museum exhibition flyers/and of course other architects books (see how the pro's do it).

For content, select your best work. Remember quality over quantity. DO NOT PUT IN ALL YOUR COMPUTER DRAFTING WORK YOU DID IN HIGHSCHOOL. The professors want to see that you're a creative/artistic/and interesting individual, not a CAD MONKEY. However, if you must, put only one example. You will learn AutoCAD/powercad/_____CAD as you progress in school. Put in anything visually creative (paintings/drawings/sculpture/photography/architecture models/the t-shirts you designed for your senior class/the cd jacket you made for your high school band/still clips of some animation you were working on/etc.)

Show process sketches/models of your work. The professors will enjoy seeing how you think. Even if you think that drawing's too ugly, put it in. they'll like that you show the steps you took to understand and for them to understand your work.

For digital programs try photoshop,illustrator,and pagemaker (all made by adobe). Get in touch with your digital arts teacher or arts teacher in high school and maybe he/she can hook you up with some free software and tutorials.

For binding your portfolio, i used one of those black itoya portfolios for my undergrad submission. That's the easiest, but if you're a go-getter, stick away from them. They are anonymous, sometimes bulky, and the pages that you spend hours diligently laying out your work may fall out of the plastic sleeves. You can call around your hometown for small privately owned print shops, some of which do their own binding. Last resort, go to kinkos, but i dont trust them with shit. Don't french bind, unless you're a pro, and even then it's risky. Portfolio's can be handed out to many professors and TA's, and the pages might eventually fall out.

And finally, if you think that it'll take you a week to do this. I'd say plan at least 2 weeks. Printing gets screwed up all the time, you're comp could crash, you might bind a page upside down, etc.

Good luck

oh what i propose you do for the binding, simple ring binding will work. Plastic or steel is fine, whatever material/color you think bests suits your portfolio

thank you very much tman. it really helped. i really appreciate it =)

btw, pagemaker is now called in-design in case you decide to look for it. you can get it stand alone or bundled with the adobe CS creative suite. But be warned the package is a fair bit of coin to buy.

man jump, i must be getting behind the times :(

another note on binding: keep in mind that it will be easier if the final product lays flat (when flipping through the pages).

for binding - do a silver coil - it looks great and it also doesn't distract the viewer from your actual work, whereas as black can draw too much attention away from the eye

for a cover - use chip board or some thing plain

http://www.asu.edu/caed/sala/program/undergrad/index.htm
http://www.caed.asu.edu/soa_portfolio/portfolio/port_good_ex_web/index.html

these are good links and nice guidelines for putting together any portfolio for a university architecture program

the links are actually quite good for applying to undergrad from highschool...

but please please promise you forget all of that rubbish by the time you get to graduate school. the main thing is to express an idea or a skill, and for that there are no rules except to be brilliant. if you haven't had to do such things before the above links are a safe place to start.

good luck to ya.

i recommend twin loop binding .. loose steel rings. you'd need to find a bindery that does it, which can be a pain. It's like those art sketchbooks... individual loose rings, and you can control the spacing as well. They come in black or white painted steel and some places have regular unpainted steel wire.

wire binding and plastic binding is lame. Makes anything look like a business report or a product description document...lame.

Pira Zangara and others make great portfolio covers...screwpost binding is much more clean and professional.

I prefer tape/glue binding done at kinko's to any wire binding. I have done a few that way and they have survived years of use without loosing pages.

I'm with jasoncross on the binding - if you're gonna go cheap (Staples, Kinkos, etc.) get the tape binding. If you have the time, I recommend coming up with your own method of binding. Its one way to really make a portfolio stand out.

Keep in mind that he has never made a portfolio before. Sometimes being ambitious can also bring you down. Yes, binding can make you stand out, but if it looks bad, you should just do something simple. As long as it is presented clean and clear, the work will speak for itself. The more crap you try to put in, it means there is more stuff competing for attention. You want it to have a unified vision and not be chopped up. Regardless of what you choose, do some tests to see what you like better and how other people respond to it. Just don't make it look like a book report by using plastic sleeves plastic binding. Keep in mind that the type of binding you choose will affect the layout so give yourself about a 1/2" margin on the inside and figure out whether you want it to lay flat or to be more like a book. One reason why I always choose a silver coil is because I am always binding at the last minute and need something quick so think about how much time you will have before you turn it in. It is easy to see that there are many ideas as to what the right binding is, and we haven't even gotten to format, but just remember that you should take one idea and present it as clear as possible and not let it get corrupted by putting anything in there that doesn't belong. Its up to you to figure out what doesn't belong and you will discover it by just doing it over and over again.

thanks everyone. it helped a lot! im excited about building my portfolio