Each school will have its own portfolio requirements. Beyond that, there are about onehundred million threads about portfolios on here. Oh, I'm not to sure what you mean by emanation.

sorry it was a_typo * examination

Wasn't sure if you meant lamination or examination, but that also differs by school.

I would appreciate if you can describe the process even in one shool

1. seven projects

2. three pages

3. no, you definitely shouldn't do that

4. three paragraphs per project (intro-body-conclusion). they sometimes read it

5. check other threads, but i think each portfolio is promised to get at least 45 minutes of review. i read that somewhere.

Can the seven projects can be in diffrent scales, like one is be a public building and small flat?

Some schools say that you should include at least one project from every year of studio, but I feel you should just include your best work. Also, I found just a single (long) paragraph to work best for describing my projects.

But seven projects ?! I was a good student and all of my projects got high grads but I feel that 3 maybe 4 are really good

3 or 4 can be enough, if they are interesting, fully developed projects.

better to show 3 great projects than 3 great projects plus four mediocre ones... Don't constrain yourself too much with regards to how much text you use. Describe the project as much as it needs, and no more. Use the text as a graphic element so that even if they don't necessarily read it, they'll think it's a useful device.

you should have seven projects and drink three glasses of water each day. those are the correct numbers.

Sweet Jesus - DO NOT use the text as a graphic! There is nothing more annoying than someone trying to be graphic with text when all you want to do is read the shit. Please for the love of all people that have hgad to review portfolios just let the text be text, your project should be enough "graphic" on its own. We're architects not graphic designers - keep that in mind. Be clear, keep it simple, convey the information concisely, save the design for the architecture.

[three glasses of water a day is good advice]

urbanspec- your response definitely indicates that *you* are not a graphic designer. Good design does not hinder legibility, and just slapping it on the page will not increase it. Good placement, font choice, and hierarchy will be appreciated even by those who do not bother with reading because they will allow the text to contribute to your overall layout. If you want text that is ugly and distracting, by all means go for it, but don't go promoting it!

U forgot to put sun screen

U forgot to put sun screen

My, my rationalist, way to misread. I didn't say anyhting about "ugly and distracting". My point is that we are architects, we have good graphic sensibilities in general, but we are designers of shelter, in the most basic sense, and I much prefer putting my efforts towrards that end. Any text will and always will be subservient to the clear presentation of my work. I ahev reviewed so many portfolios of people trying to integrate their text with the images, and do something special with the textual layout. It is rarely successful, because we don't do it everyday, it's not waht we do so stop pretending like you can. Make it legible, make it clear, do not distract from the work. cAnything else I think would more accuratley fit your description of "ugly and distracting".

Case in point.. Look at a Peter Eisenman book. Text as graphic - wow you're a genius Peter. Too bad you're a bad architect.


Why can't architects just focus on what they do, make buildings. And do it well. Kahn, Mies, Aalto, etc. They made buildings they didn't make posters.

My apologies Shmuel, perhaps this is a rant for another post.

Aalto actually made many things other than buildings.

True but all in respect to habitation, physical items that people use in conjunction with occupying space.

Plenty of architects do graphic work, and much of it is interesting, I didn;t mean to get quite so into my own argument. My only point is that when you present your work, it should be about the work and not about graphic text. which may seem academic but is an important distinction when approaching the layout of one's portfolio.

shmuel, since it is a subjective portfolio review, i would as a precaution and include all of your projects. what you may consider to be mediocre, your reviewer may think is great...but do not include anything that will weaken your portfolio and don't include case studies.

also keep in mind that portfolio reviews are extremely brief. from what i have heard from people who have been on review commitees, not much more than 5 minutes is spent on each.

urbanspec- if all you want to do is spend time making spaces, why bother with a portfolio at all? Just tell the admissions counselors to visit your built works instead. If you're going to do a portfolio, you may as well put in a bit of effort and make it good.

And I'm quite clear that you didn't bring up text which is 'ugly and distracting'. I did. Because that's what I think when people just shove some text on a page without giving it thought, as you are encouraging. Have you seen how many people simply lump in a bunch of 12pt (or worse, larger!) Arial or Times New Roman, and how stupid it looks?

We'll just have to agree to disagree here- you think I'm overstepping my bounds, I think you don't care enough about making a portfolio look good.

Rationalist - Of course the text must be considered with repsect to the whole, that's common sense. I'm advocating simplicity and restraint in opposition to graphic effect. This does not mean lack of thought nor disregard to aesthetic effect, and to say it does is to completely miss the point.

I'm not talking about forming text into flower petals or something- and I happened to say 'graphic element', not 'graphic effect'. Everything within a layout IS a graphic element, whether you choose to care about it or not. I was simply advocating not forgetting that fact and letting the text be an afterthought, which has killed many an otherwise nice portfolio. It sounds like we're not far off on our views here, and if you hadn't jumped in with such a strong negative overreaction, this thread hijack would never have happened.

Ok, my bad on the perceived overreaction, I'll try and be more sonsiderate in my respose next time. Not so much a hijack though, just sort of a subset of Shmuel's question number 4. so to get back:

1. If the school doesn't have a specific directive on how many projects you can include then you should include only what you feel is most represetnative of who you are.

2. Be clear and concise, only include as much as you need to clearly represent each project so as to make the main idea(s) legible. Don't worry about including every drawing you ever did about every thought you ever had concerning a particular project.

3. Don't over analyze how many pages and how many projects. Think about what you feel best represents you and your work. Unless the school has a specific requriement about number of pages or projects in which case you should try and fulfill the requirement. Try giving your portfolio to someone who doesn't know your work so well and ask them to tell you what they think is(are) the main idea(s) of each project without reading any of the text. If they can formaulte a cogent explanation than you prpbably have a successful portfolio.

4. Keep the text brief, and clear. don't try and write a manifesto, and don;t be overly pedantic - you don't have to explain every detail of each project. Describe the main idea or purpose of the project and how the project executes that idea. see previous regarding graphic text.

5. In my school, the dean, two prof.s and a student looked at the entrance portfolios. They typically would look for a portfolio that showed some degrere of clarity of thought, individual personality, and potential for growth. also, depending on what school you apply to they will look at your work with an eye for whether or not they feel you will fit into the culture of the school. So you may want to do some research to understand where you are applying and the kind of work they produce to make sure that you are a good fit.

45 minutes per portfolio?!?! that's unheard of. especially schools get about 400-1000 applicants per year. even when presenting your porfolio to your employer, mentor, friends, they won't spend more than 5 mins on the portfolio.

as for text, it's very likely that the reviewers will read the text, but only on the projects that they are interested in.

3-4 projects should be enough. i agree, those projects should be your strongest. quality > quantity.

i believe the selected projects should be in different scale so that you can demonstrate your varying design methods and flexibilities.

I agree with axial753 in most respects except for the text. Keep the text brief and instructional. use a diagram when you can to replace a paragraph. As for # or projects more than 5 is ludicrus. 3 or 4 sounds great you don't want a down page. If you don't love a page kill it. Text as graphic...sure but as has been rehashed above don't choose cool text effect over clarity of your main idea.

As for content base it one what you are best at.
If you have a wide range of projects:
Push your versatility show as many different methods of working and types of work as possible.
If you have a paticular style of working make sure its looks damn good.
A good way of deciding this is to ask yourself what do I do better than anyone else who is applying... sexy building...bad ass plans.. great diagrams... inspiring narratives....social models.... materials...
answer that question and you know what you should leverage.

for me it was different methods of working and the inclusion of a new social model besides just a cool building... hey man it works.

above all good luck... if you want to bounce your work off of someone you can drop me a note or something