If possible, include pieces that display your creativity, not your techinical skills. Also include some digital, photography and 3D work (sculptures, furniture designs etc) if you can.

what is your background in?

accesskb- thanks for the input, i appreciate that.

somer- i have a b.s. in electrical engineering, 1st 3/4 of my career has been electronic design and the last 1/4 has been software development.

i would be generally weary of putting portraiture in, especially more than one piece. like accesskb said, creativity is important: think more design, less fine art.

thanks, you've both helped me solidify an approach. i've seen and heard of even purely fine art portfolios being successful, but I recall/believe those cases used more abstract examples, and therefore more of a design approach as you mention as opposed to an exhibit of really only technical skill.

intern for a while... guess what , architecture sucks!

i'm one of those with a fine arts portfolio. it was organized the same way you mentioned -- one page pic, the other text.

the most important part is to emphasize why each piece you decided to include is relevant to architecture i.e. some drawing might have helped you understand color, some sculpture space/ volume etc, you know what i mean. try to alternate between media. and create your portfolio as a journey/ story...not just a slideshow.

my personal advice -- start early(i didn't...and had to put it all together in less than a month... painful). don't worry too much about the text, no one will read it more than once (and if they do, you're in). do the best you can with photoshop, create sleek designs. presentation matters more than you'd think. do spend lots of $$ for that prat portfolio (at least for your top choice school) -- it will make a difference. for printers -- epsons are the best, i highly recommend the new r1800. expensive, but you can always return/ sell it when you're done printing.

that's my 2cents. good luck!

pomoinmono-- i've heard. i can deal with that though, as my understanding is architects get paid the big bucks :) seriously though, i do have some reservations, but it's gotta be better than the crap i'm doing now.

dmc-- that makes sense. I will still be including some of my fine art stuff, so your suggestions there are very helpful. I don't think I'll be doing the entire thing on just this though as the work is all fairly similar regarding media, subject matter, approach, etc. The way things are shaping up, I'll probably have a section on dwg/painting, and add photography, a product design I did for work, and abstract sculpture/design stuff that I'm gonna have to create over the next several months. thanks for the input!