If I can be of any help I'd suggest allowing more of your images and diagrams do the talking.    You've already done that to some extent but rather than focusing on the end product images, show the reader how you made decisions or how some aspect of your project evolved (you did this well in the armadillo project).  The main purpose is to let the reviewer see your thought process, and this simply works best through visuals.  I would suggest condensing your design ideas down to a a few steps and reduce some of the typographics clutter. 

Something about the different fonts sizes is also odd, I am not yet sure but it looks like they don't complement each other well 

I had a professors who was once part of the review process and he guarantees no one will take the time to read through more than a few captions and sentences of text.  A quick scan and it will land on the Pass pile or the No Pass pile.  Good luck. 

Grazie. I was trying to emphasize process, and explain the thought behind the images through any text. However, I think I will emphasize the process with a more story-line type of approach to explanation. In a sense this is what I was trying to do with the little yellow text bubbles, so maybe I play upon that theme, and make any text a few sentences within more of these text bubbles.. any project background could be black and white, where additional text I would want goes into the yellow boxes...

Also, if anyone else wants a place portfolio review, I did intend this thread to be for everyone and as a place for portfolio discussion, so feel free to add.

We tend t see a lot of portfolios around here come fall. Just before school applications are due.

Your folio is nice enough, but the yellow comic bubbles are super distracting. It's as if someone opened your portfolio in PDF and used comment tool and then inserted random gibberish. Your mission statement reads off as a drunken facebook post. I get what you're trying to do, but it's just not working right now. 

I really like your screen wall project, although not sure what parametrics have to do with it.

Towards the end you use a bunch of hand notes as the background. It looks messy and unintentional. 

The Co-Op guy,

I think your work is solid but the portfolio could use a lot of work. It is probably good enough to get into grad-schools but it has potential to become a lot more than that.

The first thing I would do is delete all of the excessive graphics (i.e. all of the lines in the table of context). You should create a distinct graphical hierarchy with some sort of organizational principal. For example, the title of each project should be in the largest, and in the same place and orientation. All other text should be smaller. The secondary text, should also follow similar rules. I would also use the same font unless the change pertains to some sort of logic, for example there is a certain font for titles and another text for descriptions. I would not vary this from project to project.

I noticed immediately that you have crammed to many images into a small amount of space. I would allow more space for each project and make some or you image larger.

White space is OK too! You should be very careful with alternating the background color, its hard to pull off and disrupting most of the time. Its OK to have a dark image on a light background.

Finally and most importantly you should begin each project with a "money-shot" that gives a quick and immediate and the rest should be dominated by plan and section. The strongest portfolios are those with emphasis on plan and section, these are not only the primary tools of the architect but the quickest way to communicate the formal integrity of a project. Site analysis and process should be minimized unless they are so integral to the project that they cannot be diminished. (In this cause your plan would be a site plan).

You have a painting of a person lying down in the light. I think this on is great. The others could use a little more space. You can delete all of the photography. It is a legitimate art form, and your work is nice but it waters down portfolios in general. I would keep some of the transfers though they have a nice quality and imply some sort of manual labor.

I hope this helps, and keep in mind I only referred to the representation of your work and not the work itself. I would criticize most portfolios i see in the same way.  It seems that architects are more likely to seduce with images rather than create ineligible and beautiful representations of true works. Good Luck.

Gtechture

M.Arch GSAPP

Looks like we have some contradicting opinions! I am definitely in the camp of showing process over plans/sections. A few should show that yes, in fact arch students can draw in plan and sections, although I am a sucker for beautifully done ink on mylar drawings...

Also I wanted to play up the 'thought' bubbles (admittedly, some of them we sort of strange, I think I must have been in a strange mood) but I do think they are an interesting way to portray pertinent info as well as the character of the project.. I made some space and image edits and changed the text to try to clean it up more.

As for the 'excessive graphics' thats what I was attempting in creating a repeating, graphical heierarchy.. for the most part it is in the same place, but sometimes different sized images forced that placement to be slightly above/below where it might have been. Is it your opinion that I should not let this happen and conform all images/texts within a 'master' layout for titles? I have made the titles one text (myriad pro) and all of the descriptive text is in helvetica... some italics are floating around, but are a minimum, and I might get rid of those as well. Thanks again for the comments, I'll put up a revised version after a while..

The Co-op Guy

Updated..

http://issuu.com/the_coop_guy/docs/gs_portfolio_v3