After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I've finally gotten a draft version of my portfolio uploaded to the web. This will eventually become the portfolio I submit to graduate admissions departments in a couple months. I'll be applying for an M.Arch. (Option I) degree program.
Here it is. (Note: This is a 13.8MB PDF file. Don't click on this link if you're on dial-up.)
My name and the name of my current employer have been changed on this version to protect the not-so-innocent.
The PDF file above is set up as 11x17 pages, but for the printed verison, each 11x17 "page" is actually a spread of two 8.5x11 pages. The front and back covers will be arranged slightly differently than what you see here.
A couple questions:
How do the layout, fonts, background images, etc. look? Does the order of projects make sense?
Are there too many projects, not enough, or just the right number? Are there any particularly weak projects that should be eliminated, or particularly strong projects that should appear earlier? (There's a possibility I'll have one or two nice projects to add to this before I send it off, but I doubt they'll be ready in time.)
I'm a little concerned that my projects don't show enough of the "process"... This is partly because much of my design process is CAD-driven, leaving no paper trail of napkin sketches. Also, for most of the projects, many of the early sketches no longer exist. (Hard drive crash in 2004, and many of my old hand drawings were thrown away before a cross-country move later that year.) Is this something I should be worried about, and if so, how would I go about rectifying it?
Some people have commented that my designs are too "rigid" and technical-oriented (I prefer to think of them as "disciplined", with a strong focus on the craft of building :) )... Is this a valid criticism, or just sour grapes by people of lesser talent?
Finally, now that you've seen what I can do, do you think I have what it takes to get into a top-rated program such as GSD or Cornell, or should I set my sights a bit lower down the food chain, such as DeVry or ITT Tech? Are there any schools that might be a particularly good fit for me, based on what you've seen here?
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcome... I especially welcome any reports of typographical errors or other mistakes.
LIG, thanks for sharing your portfolio! I found it interesting and inventive. On the other hand, (please do not take this the wrong way) I found it a bit contrived. It was difficult for me to decipher between your work and project photos; secondly, I was yearning to see more clarity in process driven work – designs from drawings and sketches; to models and traditional plans/sections; to 3-D models, etc. Overall, I could not convey your thought process.
No need to run to ITT Tech – my suggestion is focusing on conveying the clarity of your thought process. How you do this is up to you. First steps - eliminating the background; I tend to agree with Klaymen that it is somewhat distracting; and I would have to say that I did not care for the font color either (but this is completely a personal preference and certainly not as important as the clarity aspect!). Then focus on the clarity. I have been accused of being to direct and ruthless, so please disregard my comments if you wish; on the contrary I hope that my criticism helps you build a better portfolio; and keep in mind that I am only a student, and everyone has personal preferences and my opinion is one voice of many.
Get rid of the backgrounds, the work dosen't read well. Plus I really don't see what they have to do with your designs. Not crazy about the blue font either. And it's redundant to repeat your index everytime you start a new section. I like the grid you've set up but it would be cool if you where a little more loose with it.
Appart from that you have some cool projects, just need to change the grafic design IMHO. And damn man you worked on the Grand Avenue mall? That cool facade is the only good thing about that mall lol.
some comments in my half-drunk state:
- the images on the pages do not show any hierarchy by means of sizing, grouping or even positioning. I understand you might want people to see all the images, but i get a feeling they wont...some way of drawing ones attention to those might be useful
- agree on the backgrounds to be a bit distracting...
i disagree, the background images work for me, something i have not seen, but i am curious to know how it prints, if it prints as elegantly as it looks. if it does not then get rid of the images. i second the bllue font, not sure if i like it. the photo's page, i am thinking you need some sheets of larger sizes and then include the smaller contact sheet you have there. i would include more sketches, more hand drawings, more of you and less cad and work related...
i don't mind the backgrounds or the colors, but i find the whole thing a bit too careful.
to me, the gradient strip along the top is not very attractive, feeling a bit like a power-point presentation...the repeated table of contents is similar. makes sense in power point, maybe, as a reminder of the narrative drift, but not necessary for a few projects in a printed portfolio...it wouldn't be amiss to simply label each project rather than have a cover page for each section. they feel too blank in such a short series of projects...
i agree about the lack of focus with the images. they are placed too democratically, and in some cases are repetitive. it may be useful to be more selective with the pics and more creative with their placement and size...in order to show a particular idea.
the text is ok (though overly descriptive/report-like for my taste), but i find categorising it with those labels is too much, one of those things that leads me to feel the whole is too careful. i think it would be better if it were both shorter and less organised by a formula. am sure many would disagree on that point, because it is also quite clear the way you have done it...
anyway...those are my thoughts...for what they are worth.
Good start. You will no doubt benefit from posting your portfolio here. I am delighted to have the opportunity to comment on your book.
It's always tough to balance color and b/w images on one sheet. Thus, the Abbey Church page is your strongest for not only color but also sheet organization. The full bleed is a strong technique, but if you are going to use it, it should appear more often. Elsewhere on the Abbey Church page, I'm not sure about the titles hanging out in the middle of the page, but it's good they are on the grid.
The projects tend to lack urban context. The cover image of Chicago is great, but there is a missing link between the macro image of the city and the mirco image of your buildings. Perhaps the background image on each page could be at the urban scale and your site within that image could comprise one of the spaces (at 100% opaque) in the grid.
You've established a good grid, but now you gotta work it. Create equal spacing around your photographs (top/bottom = left/right). Make the primary image grouping on the page read as a single object. Make your whitespace count. Perhpas you could reduce each image in the grid by 5% - 10%.
I second CuervoMuerto's surprise that you worked on Grand Avenue Mall. I can vaguely recall the grand opening in 1984 (?) when the bear with the beer rode his tightwire bicycle in all his brilliance. Perhpas your text should reiterate that it is an urban mall that sits within the grid of the city. A figure-ground may be helpful or perhaps a site map that shows a) the anchor that moved out and b) the location of the renovated entry at the terminus of Old World 3rd Street. Otherwise, your photos and project could be dismissed as suburban mall work in the middle of a cornfield - which it's not.
You definitely don't need to call ITT Tech. Please post a link to your revisions so that we can take another look.
Good foundation, you have just the right number of projects, all you have to do is add an extra page for each project just explaining in sketches how you arrived at the final solution.
Also, if you are using Adobe Illustrator to make those PDFs, save PDF with a different preset (NOT FOR PRINT) that will cut down the size by 80%.
That's the problem... For most of these projects, "process" sketches don't exist. I suppose I could go back and fake a few sketches for some of these projects, but freehand sketching isn't a strong suit of mine, and I'd worry that the end result would seem a little too forced. Any ideas on how to overcome this?
By the way, I'm using AutoCAD to create the portfolio (no Illustrator available to me, and I don't know how to use it anyway), and PDF-Xchange to print, with some final assembly done in Acrobat. I've looked at the compression settings to try to shrink these files, but so far no luck.
The final print version will most likely be printed directly from AutoCAD, assuming my printer can give me the quality I need.
Secondly, I generally agree with everyone has said so far. It's a good foundation. Quite clear. The only thing is that maybe you should put your contact information on your resume and not at the back page. I don't know if you have a reason for putting it there but it's just a suggestion. Overall though everything shows your strengths and I don't think you'll have a tough time getting in a program that you want.
I've made some minor changes to the layout in response to the comments above... Background images are still in for now. I personally like them, but I'm curious to see what others have to say. I've also darkened the blue font to more of a navy blue (which will probably print even darker), and eliminated the PowerPoint-style gradient. The updated version has been uploaded to the web.
hyperbody: I'm noticing that some graduate programs require that the contact information be directly on the front cover, so that's something that will get changed for the print version.
gut reaction, I liked it. I like the backgrounds, gives personality. We are (you are) visually driven. But not on every page, it seems forced, like you decided to do it on every page whether it sang or not. Same with the lines, title block, etc. I did something similar but it was very flexible, I had the same elements over and over again, but added and morphed, page specific. Still the comfort of repetition, but not redundant.
It seems the center of many of your pages are bare in the center, and the work is left or right justified very close to the edge, which I find troubling. Perhaps that's why some have commented that they don't like the backgrounds? In a way, they take center stage and conflict with the images you really want to convey. I know you are working with a binding down the middle. Work with it more.
I would add more for each project, and think about how most of the images on a page are the same size and what that does for you. Perhaps give some heirarchy. The BAM! image, the supporting images necessary for understanding, the fun/extra images you just like really tiny... Then, if you want to keep the backgrounds, they can be the last level of image, the other images need to float in the fluid that is that background.
Can anyone tell me why people use table of contents and numbers in portfolios? I see this all the time but have never done it. Is it necessary? It feels like a technical manual this way, not an expression of work. A graphic designer wouldn't do this for their portfolio, I think its distracting.
There were pages where I didn't mind the backgrounds (Daniel Burnam building), and pages where they really, really bothered me (photography!!! too many competing images already).
I also do not like the blue, and furthermore I'll actually tell you why. It is getting pretty close to tract-home-architect-blueprint blue. It is a color associated with a conservative approach, older architects, and is commonly used by builders and developers in their logos. I think that the viewer will be left with a 'conservative' feel from this, without necessarily realizing the reason why, and since that's not what graduate work it about, I'd really recommend that you reconsider this. Maybe browse through a color theory book in a bookstore or library- I am utterly dependent on 'The Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color'.
I also agree with those who have said they would appreciate more heirarchy in the images. I can see your grid pretty strongly here, so that's a good start- try breaking out of it, just once in a while, to add emphasis to a particular image.
I know I sound very critical, but that's just me. It's still a pretty good first draft.
my quick crit::
>take the blue stripe down to an outlined blue shape with no fill
>remove page titles like contents/contact info --things that are not necessary
>use background images when there's only text on the page
looks good! maybe i'll post my book on here .. not quite ready for the ass kicking tho
yup, process would help. I have no problem with you 'faking' the process. It's about adding a layer of thought and it's more personal than the final building or design.
I want to see more money shots. Most of the photos have a gray sky, unfinished lanscaping, etc., that just doesn't flatter the architecture. There aren't better photos available?
Heirarchy. I want to see that money shot nice and large. Some kind of stylized, mood oriented pic. Something low, looking up with nice glows, or an evening shot with nice sky colors.
If there aren't any possiblities of getting one or two better pictures, I'd still find that one that captivates and enlarge it. Don't be afraid to crop photos to emphasize something, too. Or even draw ontop of them.
This goes for the unbuilt projects, too. Just something that speaks to the ideas and the design. They don't have to show the entire project, just something that generates interest. You want someone to look at the main image and want to see more.
I want to know how it feels to look up, or look out, of your Church, for example (I do like the plan/elevation on top of that pic).
Diagrams. This goes back to the process and can be one and the same. Something that shows how you thought about the design or solving a problem, even if you don't really have all the info in the diagram or sketch.
It's all about layers. You've got it started, you just need an additional layer or two. Get that interest, supply the information and give an order to the presentation, from concept through completion.
Thanks for the helpful feedback... I'll certainly take all these comments into consideration as I continue to develop this thing. I'll also be showing it to a couple people at the office tomorrow in order to get their feedback as well.
I'm glad people seem to like the Abbey Church project... I feel it's the strongest project of the bunch (or at least of the unbuilt projects), and it's also my newest project... Good to know I'm headed in the right direction.
What do you all think about the order of the projects? I remember somebody once telling me that you should put your best projects at the front in order to make a good first impression, but I'm not sure how much merit that idea has. I prefer to keep the Professional, Academic, and Personal projects grouped together, but other than that, I'm not married to any particular order. What are your thoughts?
Also: What about the resume? Right now tt's geared more for a job search than for grad school admissions (as was my entire portfolio in the recent past), and I'm wondering if I should re-format it into more of a curriculum vitae... Except that I have no clue how a C.V. should differ from a regular resume. Help!
Software can have a large influence in your design. I have found this to be true when designing a project in Maya vs in Rhino. Each software has its own capabilities and restrictions. To be honest, when you said that you had done the formatting in Autocad, I was not surprised. Your portfolio is a bit stiff, but so is autocad! I would find a means to 'procure' a copy of Adobe CS2. Though you do not know these programs yet, you will most likely have to use them in grad school, if not in future jobs. If you know Photoshop, then you will be able to pick up illustrator, If you know Illustrator, then you will be able to pick up Indesign. In terms of putting a portfolio together, Indesign will be the most effective. Good luck
or if you wanted to be legal, you could download the trial version and use it for a month ;-)
Illustrator is pretty easy. Much easier than PS, imho, at least for simple layouts. It's also very fast for this kind of stuff, which will make testing things much less painful.
But now that I've spent the past several months carefully putting this thing together in AutoCAD, would I have to start all over from scratch if I decided to do it in Illustrator?
I would use InDesign as opposed to Illustrator...Illustrator can do books, but is not nearly as good at it as InDesign...both have vector capacity though so you can bring in all the same vector line art into each program.
To reiterate my post and to second Jasoncross' post: InDesign is the most suitable program for your needs. It is meant for laying out books. Autocad is not. You can save your cad files as autocad2000, just to be safe, and import those into Indesign. You may have to reimport images, but that isn't hard.Now is the best time to make the switch since portfolios are not due for a few months. That will give you plenty of time to figure out the program
Rationalist's thoughts closely echo my own, as do jump's. I would reiterate that above all, your images need graphic hierarchy. They float oddly and jumbly on the page. When you flip through, you note even more strongly the inconsistency of image layout. As a practical way to solve this, I would suggest taking one picture from each project that you deem worthy of a larger size; set that one maybe in the upper right, to balance out the wording to the left; and let the other images be the same size and fill out the image block underneath the large picture.
I don't like how you have both words and pictures on both sides of the page, and they both float oddly. Also, on one page (section 3.1) you break across that vertical line on the left, but then you don't do that on any other page.
It's a good start, but needs some cleanup and tightening. Like editting out the useless words in your sentences in an essay.
Also, your photos don't read strongly. I would lose the lesser of them and concentrate on a smaller number of REALLY GOOD photos, if you want to include that as a hobby worthy of being in your portfolio. Right now it's kind of like a lesser addendum rather than a strong, integral piece of who you are.
Also, lastly, MAKE THE TEXT LARGER! It looks TINY on my screen (could be just my screen) and portfolio reviewers HATE that. They are usually older people... I got that remark time and again on my portfolio before I changed it.
(I would also use InDesign, hands down. In fact I've used it for every paper I've written since high school. It is VERY easy to use. Go thru the help tutorial in an afternoon and you'll be set.)
And yes, you need, need, NEED sketches/process for school apps!!! They want to see how you think, not what you can do. (generally.) This is different from landing a job, obviously. The projects are fine, don't suffer from a crisis of confidence. :) Go back and fake it. Fake fake fake it. It's not really faking anyway, as you're still making sketches/diagrams that explain your thought/design process--regardless of whether that's after you worked further in the project or not. Every published architect folio includes faked/reworked sketches. ;)
Also, do you have any sketchbook sketching you could scan? Like travel sketches? stuff from around town in Chicago? If not, could you do a sketching weekend this weekend and spend the whole time looking at buildings and drawing them? This will be very telling for your portfolio and will spice it up.
great portfolio for a job application, but if i were an admissions reviewer, your portfolio tells me that you have been in an office too long. color outside the lines a little bit. make it more personal.
dot said exactly what i was thinking when i looked at your portfolio.
very office. good with it being professional...
but when you look at school projects VERY different...
if you like a project...(monestary) then feature it. it does not need to be only one page. let the viewer really understand the project on an experiential level. understand you as the designer and why it has been an incredible learning experience for you. (and yes i assume that will take new images and sketches that are post-building)
you are telling a story with a school portfolio...in an office you are just showing work.
as for the acad thing...
do what you can however you need to...just understand that there are huge limitations when you do them that way. either way you have to have an idea first then nail it however you do it.
overall i like what you are putting in there! it is really just its organization that is key... it really would suck if it was content too :)
good work and thanks for posting it!! i hope we are a help.
-shows some variation in work
-background images dominate the drawings / images / photos in the foreground, ( I would loose most of the background in the project sheets)
- only take photos on sunny days, the greyed background and grey sky photos make it appear too dull
- I personally like the church although I've seen it before but seems the most complete ( add some more details to flush out the design ( or to show you can flush out the design)
- loose the school work as soon as you can and highlight real projects unless its something like the church.
- city block planning images don't catch my eye particularly
- I don't care to see process in a portfolio that's best left for an interview.
- I am interested in ideas... Inspiration for a project then a resolved design
- ability to communicate... hand graphics are always helpful. ( I always draw details on site with framers in perspective, you'd be surprised by how helpful that skill is)
- vary the image sizes hierarchy of images ( they all seemed too balanced in size, make the sheets a little more dynamic within the controled nature of your format.)
- I like the small descriptions they help
- don't be afraid to have blank space.... its not always abouts what's there...its also about what's not there ( ask a sculptor to explain it if you don't understand that comment)
- Quality not Quanity, if you only have a couple built works show more of them and lighten up on the school projects ( no rules about 1 sheet / project or vice versa )
Some good news: While flipping through an old sketch book from my days at UIC, I came across some nice hand sketches that will be relevant to a couple projects in the portfolio. I had no idea they even existed.... I'll scan them and incorporate them into the portfolio, and fake a few sketches for a couple of the professional projects.
good news gin i just finished a house dezine for your folks. yeah they emailed me and well i guess they heard about the 4000 posts and figured that i had game, so to save them money i used this fine crib as a model for their new crib.
the work is there, lose the background images. makes me feel funny seeing a greay version of the same picture already there.
fuck process. employers know we fake it a lot of the time. skool hasnt caught on yet. dont color outside of the lines. i dont know what thats all about. white may seem like a scary thing to use, but its better than blurry mullions [reference to earlier comment about background image].
o shit, this thing is for skool. missed that. more process, less projects, fake some crazy stuff...like spray paint something and hold it upside down. then it drips and u can be like 'look, its upside down, but its supposed to be rightside up'. the artsy fartsies love that. they dont like background images, unless they are all pomo'ed out.
please delete every single background image and restart the thread. we can call it an experiment. it will get rave reviews.
On a note somewhat related to this thread, I think I've narrowed my grad school choices down to a Final Five short list, roughly in order of preference:
Cornell
UPenn
Harvard
Cincinnati
Oregon
Now to revise the portfolio, pull together letters of reference, write a personal statement, and umm.... oh yeah, finish my BA degree.
I'll stick with a small slice of your portfolio to critique, as there is lots of good advice already here.
Your photography section needs help. I feel like I'm looking at some vacation photos (albeit with slightly above average photography). What are you trying to show with the photos? Try to pick out the ones that show you have an eye for composition, texture and light. Right now, the only one that really jumps out at me is the one of the Milwaukee Art Museum. And that's half cheating, because Calatrava did all of the work for you.
Lose most of the captions. I read grad school applications last year, and all they did was clutter up the page. Why would I care where you took the photo? They want to see that you can communicate visually, so try to keep the text to an absolute minimum.
An a more general level, I say drop the background images, drop the table of contents, drop the page numbers, all of that. Think about how the admissions committee is reading this portfolio: they're flipping through it, not trying to read a technical manual.
lose the background images, they're lame and have nothing to do with your work, have more process work even if you fake it as architecture is a way of thinking and if you just have final stuff then no one will ever know how you think. you can really tell that you used cad for your layout, because honestly it needs a lot of work. i feel like i am looking at an engineers website, not an architects portfolio. make it sexy! and lose the photography page, no one cares about name dropping, we all know what the empire state building looks like, and anyone nowadays anyone can take a decent photograph of a building. unless your photography is spectacular, don't put it in because everyone goes through their 'i wanna be a photographer' stage [especially high shcool girls] and no one wants to be a high school girl. and lose the blue, it's too institutional. you want to seduce your interviewer, not bore them. right now it looks quite laborious, you should make it look like you enjoy architecture. and more drawings, says i.
i won't bother to point out the good things, because that won't help you if you want to improve it. i mean come on, has anyone ever heard a critic offer a positive comment?
I don't know... IMO, the version without the background image seems a bit flat and two-dimensional compared to the first version... Could be just me. I may keep the black text w/ red lines, though.
I also did a test print the other day, and the background images are much more faint on the print verison than on the digital version... They're more like a subtle watermark than a real background image.
Based on popular demand, I think I'll ditch the Photography page altogether, and I may ditch the Grand Avenue Mall (bye, bye Beer Bear) and Bloomingdale Viaduct projects... I'm not sure they really add much to the portfolio that isn't already shown by other projects. In their place, I'll add a page to more fully develop some of the other projects.
As for InDesign, I'll have to see about getting a copy and learning it. My fall classes just started, so I probably won't have much time to learn a new software package between now and the time I need to send these out, but I'll look into it.
gin, the sketch's i would like to see would be for you to do an analysis of the plan and elevation. make the plan larger, and if the site is real and the photo is related to the site, keep it...
I'll try to re-work it and post a revised version this weekend. I certainly have a lot of helpful feedback to chew on... There's also a chance I'll have a copy of InDesign this evening and be able to start playing around with it.
With fewer projects but more space devoted to each project, I'm thinking I'll take more of an understated approach rather than trying to force lots of zoomy graphic effects. On architectural projects, I've always been drawn more towards well-crafted minimalism than showy "look at me!" design anyway, and I'd like my portfolio to reflect that sensibility as much as possible.
Maybe I have been working in an office for too long (although I'll admit to always having a difficult time "going outside the lines")... I wonder if 10+ years as a CAD monkey have killed off whatever creative brain cells I used to have.
looks better without the background images and with the black text...I would also kill the red lines all together and just use alignment as structure...no need for those lines to run horizontally and vertically, they help to make the page a bit busy, which is what the background images did as well. constraint is a good thing.
Have you considered switching the images on the left to the right? Just seems like things are a little too bunched up on the left-hand side with the images and text.
LiG- please nudge your title text up a couple of pixels. The way the title text and the keyline actually overlap is bothersome, and the smaller text (location identifier) becomes particularly not-so-legible.
My portfolio! Look at it!
Greetings, all...
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I've finally gotten a draft version of my portfolio uploaded to the web. This will eventually become the portfolio I submit to graduate admissions departments in a couple months. I'll be applying for an M.Arch. (Option I) degree program.
Here it is.
(Note: This is a 13.8MB PDF file. Don't click on this link if you're on dial-up.)
My name and the name of my current employer have been changed on this version to protect the not-so-innocent.
The PDF file above is set up as 11x17 pages, but for the printed verison, each 11x17 "page" is actually a spread of two 8.5x11 pages. The front and back covers will be arranged slightly differently than what you see here.
A couple questions:
How do the layout, fonts, background images, etc. look? Does the order of projects make sense?
Are there too many projects, not enough, or just the right number? Are there any particularly weak projects that should be eliminated, or particularly strong projects that should appear earlier? (There's a possibility I'll have one or two nice projects to add to this before I send it off, but I doubt they'll be ready in time.)
I'm a little concerned that my projects don't show enough of the "process"... This is partly because much of my design process is CAD-driven, leaving no paper trail of napkin sketches. Also, for most of the projects, many of the early sketches no longer exist. (Hard drive crash in 2004, and many of my old hand drawings were thrown away before a cross-country move later that year.) Is this something I should be worried about, and if so, how would I go about rectifying it?
Some people have commented that my designs are too "rigid" and technical-oriented (I prefer to think of them as "disciplined", with a strong focus on the craft of building :) )... Is this a valid criticism, or just sour grapes by people of lesser talent?
Finally, now that you've seen what I can do, do you think I have what it takes to get into a top-rated program such as GSD or Cornell, or should I set my sights a bit lower down the food chain, such as DeVry or ITT Tech? Are there any schools that might be a particularly good fit for me, based on what you've seen here?
Comments, critiques, and questions are welcome... I especially welcome any reports of typographical errors or other mistakes.
Thanks in advance...
i'm on dial-up. can you post it on flickr or something, so i can see and comment on it?
"Error: the file is damaged and could not be repaired"
The link failed.
Arrgh... Technical issues at my end. Standby.
hmm the backround is a bit distracting. im not sure if that is the printed version aswell but i woul use plain white for the printed version.
Okay, the link above should be working now. Let me know if troubles persist; I can provide an alternate link if needed.
LIG, thanks for sharing your portfolio! I found it interesting and inventive. On the other hand, (please do not take this the wrong way) I found it a bit contrived. It was difficult for me to decipher between your work and project photos; secondly, I was yearning to see more clarity in process driven work – designs from drawings and sketches; to models and traditional plans/sections; to 3-D models, etc. Overall, I could not convey your thought process.
No need to run to ITT Tech – my suggestion is focusing on conveying the clarity of your thought process. How you do this is up to you. First steps - eliminating the background; I tend to agree with Klaymen that it is somewhat distracting; and I would have to say that I did not care for the font color either (but this is completely a personal preference and certainly not as important as the clarity aspect!). Then focus on the clarity. I have been accused of being to direct and ruthless, so please disregard my comments if you wish; on the contrary I hope that my criticism helps you build a better portfolio; and keep in mind that I am only a student, and everyone has personal preferences and my opinion is one voice of many.
Get rid of the backgrounds, the work dosen't read well. Plus I really don't see what they have to do with your designs. Not crazy about the blue font either. And it's redundant to repeat your index everytime you start a new section. I like the grid you've set up but it would be cool if you where a little more loose with it.
Appart from that you have some cool projects, just need to change the grafic design IMHO. And damn man you worked on the Grand Avenue mall? That cool facade is the only good thing about that mall lol.
some comments in my half-drunk state:
- the images on the pages do not show any hierarchy by means of sizing, grouping or even positioning. I understand you might want people to see all the images, but i get a feeling they wont...some way of drawing ones attention to those might be useful
- agree on the backgrounds to be a bit distracting...
i disagree, the background images work for me, something i have not seen, but i am curious to know how it prints, if it prints as elegantly as it looks. if it does not then get rid of the images. i second the bllue font, not sure if i like it. the photo's page, i am thinking you need some sheets of larger sizes and then include the smaller contact sheet you have there. i would include more sketches, more hand drawings, more of you and less cad and work related...
just to be confusing...
i don't mind the backgrounds or the colors, but i find the whole thing a bit too careful.
to me, the gradient strip along the top is not very attractive, feeling a bit like a power-point presentation...the repeated table of contents is similar. makes sense in power point, maybe, as a reminder of the narrative drift, but not necessary for a few projects in a printed portfolio...it wouldn't be amiss to simply label each project rather than have a cover page for each section. they feel too blank in such a short series of projects...
i agree about the lack of focus with the images. they are placed too democratically, and in some cases are repetitive. it may be useful to be more selective with the pics and more creative with their placement and size...in order to show a particular idea.
the text is ok (though overly descriptive/report-like for my taste), but i find categorising it with those labels is too much, one of those things that leads me to feel the whole is too careful. i think it would be better if it were both shorter and less organised by a formula. am sure many would disagree on that point, because it is also quite clear the way you have done it...
anyway...those are my thoughts...for what they are worth.
good luck!
Good start. You will no doubt benefit from posting your portfolio here. I am delighted to have the opportunity to comment on your book.
It's always tough to balance color and b/w images on one sheet. Thus, the Abbey Church page is your strongest for not only color but also sheet organization. The full bleed is a strong technique, but if you are going to use it, it should appear more often. Elsewhere on the Abbey Church page, I'm not sure about the titles hanging out in the middle of the page, but it's good they are on the grid.
The projects tend to lack urban context. The cover image of Chicago is great, but there is a missing link between the macro image of the city and the mirco image of your buildings. Perhaps the background image on each page could be at the urban scale and your site within that image could comprise one of the spaces (at 100% opaque) in the grid.
You've established a good grid, but now you gotta work it. Create equal spacing around your photographs (top/bottom = left/right). Make the primary image grouping on the page read as a single object. Make your whitespace count. Perhpas you could reduce each image in the grid by 5% - 10%.
I second CuervoMuerto's surprise that you worked on Grand Avenue Mall. I can vaguely recall the grand opening in 1984 (?) when the bear with the beer rode his tightwire bicycle in all his brilliance. Perhpas your text should reiterate that it is an urban mall that sits within the grid of the city. A figure-ground may be helpful or perhaps a site map that shows a) the anchor that moved out and b) the location of the renovated entry at the terminus of Old World 3rd Street. Otherwise, your photos and project could be dismissed as suburban mall work in the middle of a cornfield - which it's not.
You definitely don't need to call ITT Tech. Please post a link to your revisions so that we can take another look.
Thanks for all the comments... I'll do some revisions over the next day or so and upload the updated version. In the meantime, keep 'em coming.
Good foundation, you have just the right number of projects, all you have to do is add an extra page for each project just explaining in sketches how you arrived at the final solution.
Also, if you are using Adobe Illustrator to make those PDFs, save PDF with a different preset (NOT FOR PRINT) that will cut down the size by 80%.
That's the problem... For most of these projects, "process" sketches don't exist. I suppose I could go back and fake a few sketches for some of these projects, but freehand sketching isn't a strong suit of mine, and I'd worry that the end result would seem a little too forced. Any ideas on how to overcome this?
By the way, I'm using AutoCAD to create the portfolio (no Illustrator available to me, and I don't know how to use it anyway), and PDF-Xchange to print, with some final assembly done in Acrobat. I've looked at the compression settings to try to shrink these files, but so far no luck.
The final print version will most likely be printed directly from AutoCAD, assuming my printer can give me the quality I need.
First off, what's dial-up? lol
Secondly, I generally agree with everyone has said so far. It's a good foundation. Quite clear. The only thing is that maybe you should put your contact information on your resume and not at the back page. I don't know if you have a reason for putting it there but it's just a suggestion. Overall though everything shows your strengths and I don't think you'll have a tough time getting in a program that you want.
I've made some minor changes to the layout in response to the comments above... Background images are still in for now. I personally like them, but I'm curious to see what others have to say. I've also darkened the blue font to more of a navy blue (which will probably print even darker), and eliminated the PowerPoint-style gradient. The updated version has been uploaded to the web.
hyperbody: I'm noticing that some graduate programs require that the contact information be directly on the front cover, so that's something that will get changed for the print version.
gut reaction, I liked it. I like the backgrounds, gives personality. We are (you are) visually driven. But not on every page, it seems forced, like you decided to do it on every page whether it sang or not. Same with the lines, title block, etc. I did something similar but it was very flexible, I had the same elements over and over again, but added and morphed, page specific. Still the comfort of repetition, but not redundant.
It seems the center of many of your pages are bare in the center, and the work is left or right justified very close to the edge, which I find troubling. Perhaps that's why some have commented that they don't like the backgrounds? In a way, they take center stage and conflict with the images you really want to convey. I know you are working with a binding down the middle. Work with it more.
I would add more for each project, and think about how most of the images on a page are the same size and what that does for you. Perhaps give some heirarchy. The BAM! image, the supporting images necessary for understanding, the fun/extra images you just like really tiny... Then, if you want to keep the backgrounds, they can be the last level of image, the other images need to float in the fluid that is that background.
Can anyone tell me why people use table of contents and numbers in portfolios? I see this all the time but have never done it. Is it necessary? It feels like a technical manual this way, not an expression of work. A graphic designer wouldn't do this for their portfolio, I think its distracting.
There were pages where I didn't mind the backgrounds (Daniel Burnam building), and pages where they really, really bothered me (photography!!! too many competing images already).
I also do not like the blue, and furthermore I'll actually tell you why. It is getting pretty close to tract-home-architect-blueprint blue. It is a color associated with a conservative approach, older architects, and is commonly used by builders and developers in their logos. I think that the viewer will be left with a 'conservative' feel from this, without necessarily realizing the reason why, and since that's not what graduate work it about, I'd really recommend that you reconsider this. Maybe browse through a color theory book in a bookstore or library- I am utterly dependent on 'The Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color'.
I also agree with those who have said they would appreciate more heirarchy in the images. I can see your grid pretty strongly here, so that's a good start- try breaking out of it, just once in a while, to add emphasis to a particular image.
I know I sound very critical, but that's just me. It's still a pretty good first draft.
my quick crit::
>take the blue stripe down to an outlined blue shape with no fill
>remove page titles like contents/contact info --things that are not necessary
>use background images when there's only text on the page
looks good! maybe i'll post my book on here .. not quite ready for the ass kicking tho
yup, process would help. I have no problem with you 'faking' the process. It's about adding a layer of thought and it's more personal than the final building or design.
I want to see more money shots. Most of the photos have a gray sky, unfinished lanscaping, etc., that just doesn't flatter the architecture. There aren't better photos available?
Heirarchy. I want to see that money shot nice and large. Some kind of stylized, mood oriented pic. Something low, looking up with nice glows, or an evening shot with nice sky colors.
If there aren't any possiblities of getting one or two better pictures, I'd still find that one that captivates and enlarge it. Don't be afraid to crop photos to emphasize something, too. Or even draw ontop of them.
This goes for the unbuilt projects, too. Just something that speaks to the ideas and the design. They don't have to show the entire project, just something that generates interest. You want someone to look at the main image and want to see more.
I want to know how it feels to look up, or look out, of your Church, for example (I do like the plan/elevation on top of that pic).
Diagrams. This goes back to the process and can be one and the same. Something that shows how you thought about the design or solving a problem, even if you don't really have all the info in the diagram or sketch.
It's all about layers. You've got it started, you just need an additional layer or two. Get that interest, supply the information and give an order to the presentation, from concept through completion.
It looks really good, but a little too safe.
Thanks for the helpful feedback... I'll certainly take all these comments into consideration as I continue to develop this thing. I'll also be showing it to a couple people at the office tomorrow in order to get their feedback as well.
I'm glad people seem to like the Abbey Church project... I feel it's the strongest project of the bunch (or at least of the unbuilt projects), and it's also my newest project... Good to know I'm headed in the right direction.
What do you all think about the order of the projects? I remember somebody once telling me that you should put your best projects at the front in order to make a good first impression, but I'm not sure how much merit that idea has. I prefer to keep the Professional, Academic, and Personal projects grouped together, but other than that, I'm not married to any particular order. What are your thoughts?
Also: What about the resume? Right now tt's geared more for a job search than for grad school admissions (as was my entire portfolio in the recent past), and I'm wondering if I should re-format it into more of a curriculum vitae... Except that I have no clue how a C.V. should differ from a regular resume. Help!
Software can have a large influence in your design. I have found this to be true when designing a project in Maya vs in Rhino. Each software has its own capabilities and restrictions. To be honest, when you said that you had done the formatting in Autocad, I was not surprised. Your portfolio is a bit stiff, but so is autocad! I would find a means to 'procure' a copy of Adobe CS2. Though you do not know these programs yet, you will most likely have to use them in grad school, if not in future jobs. If you know Photoshop, then you will be able to pick up illustrator, If you know Illustrator, then you will be able to pick up Indesign. In terms of putting a portfolio together, Indesign will be the most effective. Good luck
or if you wanted to be legal, you could download the trial version and use it for a month ;-)
Illustrator is pretty easy. Much easier than PS, imho, at least for simple layouts. It's also very fast for this kind of stuff, which will make testing things much less painful.
But now that I've spent the past several months carefully putting this thing together in AutoCAD, would I have to start all over from scratch if I decided to do it in Illustrator?
I would use InDesign as opposed to Illustrator...Illustrator can do books, but is not nearly as good at it as InDesign...both have vector capacity though so you can bring in all the same vector line art into each program.
AutoCAD for layout? I had never heard of that.
To reiterate my post and to second Jasoncross' post: InDesign is the most suitable program for your needs. It is meant for laying out books. Autocad is not. You can save your cad files as autocad2000, just to be safe, and import those into Indesign. You may have to reimport images, but that isn't hard.Now is the best time to make the switch since portfolios are not due for a few months. That will give you plenty of time to figure out the program
Rationalist's thoughts closely echo my own, as do jump's. I would reiterate that above all, your images need graphic hierarchy. They float oddly and jumbly on the page. When you flip through, you note even more strongly the inconsistency of image layout. As a practical way to solve this, I would suggest taking one picture from each project that you deem worthy of a larger size; set that one maybe in the upper right, to balance out the wording to the left; and let the other images be the same size and fill out the image block underneath the large picture.
I don't like how you have both words and pictures on both sides of the page, and they both float oddly. Also, on one page (section 3.1) you break across that vertical line on the left, but then you don't do that on any other page.
It's a good start, but needs some cleanup and tightening. Like editting out the useless words in your sentences in an essay.
Also, your photos don't read strongly. I would lose the lesser of them and concentrate on a smaller number of REALLY GOOD photos, if you want to include that as a hobby worthy of being in your portfolio. Right now it's kind of like a lesser addendum rather than a strong, integral piece of who you are.
Also, lastly, MAKE THE TEXT LARGER! It looks TINY on my screen (could be just my screen) and portfolio reviewers HATE that. They are usually older people... I got that remark time and again on my portfolio before I changed it.
(I would also use InDesign, hands down. In fact I've used it for every paper I've written since high school. It is VERY easy to use. Go thru the help tutorial in an afternoon and you'll be set.)
And yes, you need, need, NEED sketches/process for school apps!!! They want to see how you think, not what you can do. (generally.) This is different from landing a job, obviously. The projects are fine, don't suffer from a crisis of confidence. :) Go back and fake it. Fake fake fake it. It's not really faking anyway, as you're still making sketches/diagrams that explain your thought/design process--regardless of whether that's after you worked further in the project or not. Every published architect folio includes faked/reworked sketches. ;)
Also, do you have any sketchbook sketching you could scan? Like travel sketches? stuff from around town in Chicago? If not, could you do a sketching weekend this weekend and spend the whole time looking at buildings and drawing them? This will be very telling for your portfolio and will spice it up.
great portfolio for a job application, but if i were an admissions reviewer, your portfolio tells me that you have been in an office too long. color outside the lines a little bit. make it more personal.
dot said exactly what i was thinking when i looked at your portfolio.
very office. good with it being professional...
but when you look at school projects VERY different...
if you like a project...(monestary) then feature it. it does not need to be only one page. let the viewer really understand the project on an experiential level. understand you as the designer and why it has been an incredible learning experience for you. (and yes i assume that will take new images and sketches that are post-building)
you are telling a story with a school portfolio...in an office you are just showing work.
as for the acad thing...
do what you can however you need to...just understand that there are huge limitations when you do them that way. either way you have to have an idea first then nail it however you do it.
overall i like what you are putting in there! it is really just its organization that is key... it really would suck if it was content too :)
good work and thanks for posting it!! i hope we are a help.
Just bullets;
-shows some variation in work
-background images dominate the drawings / images / photos in the foreground, ( I would loose most of the background in the project sheets)
- only take photos on sunny days, the greyed background and grey sky photos make it appear too dull
- I personally like the church although I've seen it before but seems the most complete ( add some more details to flush out the design ( or to show you can flush out the design)
- loose the school work as soon as you can and highlight real projects unless its something like the church.
- city block planning images don't catch my eye particularly
- I don't care to see process in a portfolio that's best left for an interview.
- I am interested in ideas... Inspiration for a project then a resolved design
- ability to communicate... hand graphics are always helpful. ( I always draw details on site with framers in perspective, you'd be surprised by how helpful that skill is)
- vary the image sizes hierarchy of images ( they all seemed too balanced in size, make the sheets a little more dynamic within the controled nature of your format.)
- I like the small descriptions they help
- don't be afraid to have blank space.... its not always abouts what's there...its also about what's not there ( ask a sculptor to explain it if you don't understand that comment)
- Quality not Quanity, if you only have a couple built works show more of them and lighten up on the school projects ( no rules about 1 sheet / project or vice versa )
Some good news: While flipping through an old sketch book from my days at UIC, I came across some nice hand sketches that will be relevant to a couple projects in the portfolio. I had no idea they even existed.... I'll scan them and incorporate them into the portfolio, and fake a few sketches for a couple of the professional projects.
good news gin i just finished a house dezine for your folks. yeah they emailed me and well i guess they heard about the 4000 posts and figured that i had game, so to save them money i used this fine crib as a model for their new crib.
the work is there, lose the background images. makes me feel funny seeing a greay version of the same picture already there.
fuck process. employers know we fake it a lot of the time. skool hasnt caught on yet. dont color outside of the lines. i dont know what thats all about. white may seem like a scary thing to use, but its better than blurry mullions [reference to earlier comment about background image].
o shit, this thing is for skool. missed that. more process, less projects, fake some crazy stuff...like spray paint something and hold it upside down. then it drips and u can be like 'look, its upside down, but its supposed to be rightside up'. the artsy fartsies love that. they dont like background images, unless they are all pomo'ed out.
please delete every single background image and restart the thread. we can call it an experiment. it will get rave reviews.
love,
your spray painting friend
also i if presenting it as a web page i would probaby make it one page per page...currently they are split in two right? is that for printing/binding?
if they are single pages my appologies.
??
acad for presentin is very painful...in-design is easy to learn and easy to use...you could re-do your entire portfolio before lunch, it's that easy.
I can't legally buy spray paint in Chicago, but I have some fascinating 3D honeycomb designs I've been anxious to add to my portfolio.
On a note somewhat related to this thread, I think I've narrowed my grad school choices down to a Final Five short list, roughly in order of preference:
Cornell
UPenn
Harvard
Cincinnati
Oregon
Now to revise the portfolio, pull together letters of reference, write a personal statement, and umm.... oh yeah, finish my BA degree.
I'll stick with a small slice of your portfolio to critique, as there is lots of good advice already here.
Your photography section needs help. I feel like I'm looking at some vacation photos (albeit with slightly above average photography). What are you trying to show with the photos? Try to pick out the ones that show you have an eye for composition, texture and light. Right now, the only one that really jumps out at me is the one of the Milwaukee Art Museum. And that's half cheating, because Calatrava did all of the work for you.
Lose most of the captions. I read grad school applications last year, and all they did was clutter up the page. Why would I care where you took the photo? They want to see that you can communicate visually, so try to keep the text to an absolute minimum.
An a more general level, I say drop the background images, drop the table of contents, drop the page numbers, all of that. Think about how the admissions committee is reading this portfolio: they're flipping through it, not trying to read a technical manual.
you spelled taliesin wrong...
oops... Nice catch.
lose the background images, they're lame and have nothing to do with your work, have more process work even if you fake it as architecture is a way of thinking and if you just have final stuff then no one will ever know how you think. you can really tell that you used cad for your layout, because honestly it needs a lot of work. i feel like i am looking at an engineers website, not an architects portfolio. make it sexy! and lose the photography page, no one cares about name dropping, we all know what the empire state building looks like, and anyone nowadays anyone can take a decent photograph of a building. unless your photography is spectacular, don't put it in because everyone goes through their 'i wanna be a photographer' stage [especially high shcool girls] and no one wants to be a high school girl. and lose the blue, it's too institutional. you want to seduce your interviewer, not bore them. right now it looks quite laborious, you should make it look like you enjoy architecture. and more drawings, says i.
i won't bother to point out the good things, because that won't help you if you want to improve it. i mean come on, has anyone ever heard a critic offer a positive comment?
Abbey Church page sans background and with more emphasis on the hand sketches.
I don't know... IMO, the version without the background image seems a bit flat and two-dimensional compared to the first version... Could be just me. I may keep the black text w/ red lines, though.
I also did a test print the other day, and the background images are much more faint on the print verison than on the digital version... They're more like a subtle watermark than a real background image.
Based on popular demand, I think I'll ditch the Photography page altogether, and I may ditch the Grand Avenue Mall (bye, bye Beer Bear) and Bloomingdale Viaduct projects... I'm not sure they really add much to the portfolio that isn't already shown by other projects. In their place, I'll add a page to more fully develop some of the other projects.
As for InDesign, I'll have to see about getting a copy and learning it. My fall classes just started, so I probably won't have much time to learn a new software package between now and the time I need to send these out, but I'll look into it.
Discuss...
gin, the sketch's i would like to see would be for you to do an analysis of the plan and elevation. make the plan larger, and if the site is real and the photo is related to the site, keep it...
I'll try to re-work it and post a revised version this weekend. I certainly have a lot of helpful feedback to chew on... There's also a chance I'll have a copy of InDesign this evening and be able to start playing around with it.
With fewer projects but more space devoted to each project, I'm thinking I'll take more of an understated approach rather than trying to force lots of zoomy graphic effects. On architectural projects, I've always been drawn more towards well-crafted minimalism than showy "look at me!" design anyway, and I'd like my portfolio to reflect that sensibility as much as possible.
Maybe I have been working in an office for too long (although I'll admit to always having a difficult time "going outside the lines")... I wonder if 10+ years as a CAD monkey have killed off whatever creative brain cells I used to have.
looks better without the background images and with the black text...I would also kill the red lines all together and just use alignment as structure...no need for those lines to run horizontally and vertically, they help to make the page a bit busy, which is what the background images did as well. constraint is a good thing.
Have you considered switching the images on the left to the right? Just seems like things are a little too bunched up on the left-hand side with the images and text.
LiG- please nudge your title text up a couple of pixels. The way the title text and the keyline actually overlap is bothersome, and the smaller text (location identifier) becomes particularly not-so-legible.
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