Oh i also plan on including my CV at the beginning which will add even more length!! And i just finished some more projects at work that I think would be good to put in as well. This is already leaving out some of my other projects that I like as well.

pretty freakin' cool

some comments:
-it would be nice to see a plan and section of the tower, not sure what is going on inside (add complexity)
-the chair is awesome I am not sure you need page 18 to show the cad file, but I may be wrong
-I want to know more about your Dry in house.
-page 10 is my favorite

Great portfolio, best of luck.

great work "clemsonDnB". i would have to say that the ICFF project is pretty incredible. i didnt know that such great work came out of Clemson University. you must have really had some great minds working on that thing. I would have to say that my favorite spread is 22-23. keep up the good work.

The work is strong, but you're right it is way too long. The schools get lots of portfolios. I'd design with the thought in mind that you will get maybe 15 seconds to make your first impression. Once applicants are whittled down to a short list of applicants they will look at it more closely, but initially they are trying to decide very quickly who goes in the maybe box and who goes in the definitely not box. You have too many full page images. This makes every image seem as important as every other image. Create hierarchies of information to help you tell the story of each project. Also put your strongest (academic) work first. Projects don't have to be presented in the order they were created (I don't knonw if you did this or not). Just some first impressions.

Nice looking stuff... I especially like the ICFF and Dry-In House projects. I agree with others about the length... Keep your viewers wanting more. UPenn specifies that applicants should have portfolios of no more than 20 single-sided or 10 double-sided pages (not including covers), so I've been more or less following that standard for mine.

Where are you applying to?

Im applying to Columbia, Harvard (if i can meet the dec 15th deadline, not taking the gre until the 5th cause thats the only available date since about a month ago), and the Bartlett.

I agree re: the script. Maybe pick a nice serifed italic instead?

On the furniture piece, do you have any photos that focus less on the people? One of them in particular looks more like a picture of some girl you like, with the project in the background, than like a picture of the project.

re: rationalist

sex sells, my friend. sex sells.

I agree on the strengths that everyone else have identified; I don't mind the typeface as much as some, though I'm not inclined to read what you've got to write when such nice (sexy) pictures are staring back at me. some of the CAD drawings for icff are reduntant and useless, though the page of drawings with poeple and use is very nice.

It's hard to figure out how much input you had on the ICFF project, which is clearly the center piece. If you played less than a primary role, it might be wise to bring solo-authorship work to more prominance. Especially if it was a large group of people, I'd imagine some of them are putting similar images in their portfolios for the same prestigious schools. I can imagine a faculty member getting tired of portfolios with the same project featured.

wonderful work though, I don't think you have much to worry about. I'm curious about what harvard, columbia and the Bartlett are looking for; For example, the bartlett seems to produce a lot of gorgeous hand/digital mixed drawings right now and might look more for potential mixed media skills.

I like the girl on Page 22. Definitely keep her.

thanks for the comments so far guys! it really is helping me a lot.

rationalist: yeah i can probably find better pictures of the project, but i think the project is so much better when people are engaging it. which i guess some of the pictures dont show so well as the girl on page 22. haha.

mistertt: thanks for the comments, ill try to think of a way to make what i contributed to the project more clear.

i like the script, very feminine nice contrast to the edge-y and masculine work and works with the icff project.

very sexy-with a folio like this, you almost don't need grad school.

i'm struggling with is it too long or not. first thought is that it should be shorter and some of the images seem redundant. Check the print resolution- some of the images on my screen were very pixelated.

I don't have anything against script, but find a more legible font. pay attention to text size to.

re cv, not needed since a cv/resume is included with the rest of your application.

shorter is better.

i'll put the strongest project at the beginning, in your case, which is the ICFF project..

You have some great projects man~
I agree, ICFF is the strongest, I'd love to see more of its development.

I think the script is gonna be an either love or hate thing, on some pages I think it works beautifully, ex. the spread on page 16.

Stiff competition!!

where are you applying?

thanks for all the great comments so far. i choose the script for the reason beta points out... i like the stark contrast between the two fonts but i agree at times its less legible. ill try to find something in between.

robust - columbia, harvard, bartlett, thinking about adding MIT

let the text breathe brother.

increase the size of some of your margins.

clemson
off the bat i think you could get rid of pages 13,14,15,20,24,25

i would make more pages like 26 and 31...for instance do pages
32 and 33 need to be a two page spread? i don't think so. the image
isn't all that strong and i think it'd actually look better printed as
part of a compiled page.

when i see this portfolio i'm thinking that it'd be good as the size
of a 'young architects' type book. i think if it is indeed 8-1/2x11 that
there are too many full bleed pages. i personally feel as though a
full bleed should be used as a highlight and when you use it almost
every page it becomes redundant. the first project ironically seems
to be the weakest...i'd either scrap it for something else or put it
at the end.

as far as pro work goes..i'd include it only if it's interesting...i'd also
include completed photos/nice images and then explain in the text
what your contribution was. i think your portfolio could be improved
by adding a couple more projects...limiting them to two pages each
perhaps a full bleed with the text (used as a standard/continuing
theme throughout the portfolio) and then have a second page that
is a compilation of images.

i think the work looks good..as others have mentioned the icff piece
is nice. i also like the string idea..although i think you could benefit
by compiling all the colored images into a single page..

try running this by an anal graphic designer. S/he will be able to help you with typography and tightening up the look of the overall package. It definitely needs a little help, even with such great projects.
Try putting one larger image on a page with 1-2 medium sized images and a couple of even smaller images. The contrast in scale will help hold together a composition with several images and then you can drastically cut down the size of your book.

lars- thanks for the comments, great suggestions ill def work with.

bridge- i agree, thanks for the suggestion about the scales of the images

i agree with bridgetown...you don't need full spread images everywhere. How are you planning on packaging this?

As a recent Clemson Alumna, it's good to see that great work continues to come out of the school...good luck with the applications!

thanks for all the comments guys, ill have draft two up soon :D

my boyfriend's an anal graphic designer and he took a brief look at the portfolio. he echoed bridgetown's sentiment. your identity in the portfolio is not very consistent. full color backgrounds on some spreads and not others, the script is no good..... think of the full package a little more because your work is great and will speak for itself, if you don't distract by changing the layout consistency.

simple. :-)

good stuff. a few stray pages that could be cut....Front cover with horizontal text is confusing and poor use of your graphic talent. You already include that project deep within your book, I think a simple cover is always better. 14, 15, unclear with what these are. You might be able to cut your descriptions down a few paragraphs. It also seems that your stronger projects are in the back. I would flip that.

type and images in the backgroud is also difficult to read.

Here is my first draft. I know it is missing some descriptions, etc...but any comments would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

http://www.thepeculiarform.com/unm/GradSchool_11262006.pdf

Jason,

Looks pretty effing good man! Where are you applying to?

From what everyone has told me, yours is also too long. I think you could ditch the Nubian Vault workshop and maybe also the furniture pieces at the end of your academic work.

Great work and good luck!

Thanks, yours too. MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, UT Austin, Rice, UCLA, SCIArc

Options.

I am thinking there are 4 -6 pages that should be dropped...thanks for your input maeng!

Clemson,

You didn't do all of this work on your own, we all can see that quite clearly (from the scale of the work to the photos of others working on it to the references to "we" in the descriptions), yet you're not making any distinctions as to what role(s) you played in the design/fabrication/etc of the individual projects, nor the names of other contributors. At best, that slipped by you, at worst, it's shady. Grad schools will be looking for what you can produce, not what a team can produce. I'd recommend getting more specific as to your contribution.

Jason,

Some of the layouts are quite nice, but I would either question the stock 8.5x11 layout or embrace it more fully with some full 11x17 spreads. The spread on 18/19 is nice use of the page in that sense, but it seems to ignore the fact that the binding is going to rip through text and image and make it useless.

Just some thoughts.

Best,
.mm

I stand corrected, Clemson, there's one spot on the string project that you listed your role. But that's it.... Particularly on the professional work you're going to want to specify where you fit into the sequence of these ongoing projects that your're showing. Consider using some of your text to sell yourself and your abilities relative to the project instead of just selling the projects?

.mm

mmatt.. on each group project i listed roles played in group. i agree with you though that i should outline more in the paragraphs what exactly i did. on some of the group projects its hard to do that, we all shared in the design and construction and did a little of everything. above all, on both projects, however, i was the one that did the representation (drawings, renderings, etc.). how specific can i get without a page long text detailing everything i did on the project?

Be creative. Assume the admissions teams will only look at your portfolio for a few seconds. Don't hide key information inside of page-long paragraphs, for starters. They don't read them. Period.

On my portfolios, for example, I've tended to include a very brief "vital facts" kind of deal, listing the studio/firm name, the phase of the project (DD, CD, presentation drawings, etc) I was directly involved in, the duration of the project, and the names of other team members. By listing the names of other members on team projects it will also serve to clarify which projects are solo endeavors and add more weight to those works. Even if you don't name all of the team members (I'm assuming there were probably about a dozen on the furniture thing), atleast call out the number of team members. It'll help clarify the whole portfolio.

Then again, that's just one opinion.

.mm

well for example, the icff project. i list that i was on the design team.. there were 5 of us on the design team out of 12 total in the studio. just mention details like that? i completely agree i dont want it to look like im taking more credit than i actually should and i want to credit those that worked on it with me.