Botzilla!!

I'm also an MArch applicant and this crossed my mind a few times recently. You want to stand out but a lot of the big schools have pretty strict specifications on how they want to see their portfolios, so "breaking the convention" is going to be really school dependent.

I personally wouldn't bother with a video because I feel like the video doesn't give the admission committee enough control over their observations. Zooming in and out is tough (if at all possible), and the quality might not be as good as if it is in a PDF format. Also, the few video options that I have seen (Harvard lets people submit 60-second videos, I think, last time I checked) doesn't really give you enough time, in my opinion. Your work is waay to beautiful to be condensed to a 1-minute session. Other schools might allow longer videos hopefully.

You can, however, structure your portfolio in a unique way. I had an idea of doing a "comic" version of a portfolio where the entire work is shown in comic format through the eyes of a character. This character shows up in all the renderings and sections, etc. Essentially the viewer connects with the character and this can help guide them through your work.

Even if its not a comic, try to give your portfolio some theme, something that deviates away from the standard "ok, here are the contents and here are my  5 random projects that have nothing to do with each other." I'm trying to do this with my own portfolio.

I think your work is phenomenal and if the rest of your application material is up to par, a standard portfolio format should be enough for you to be admitted to any school you want.

Hi Roshi,
Thanks so much for your feedback
Really appreciate it! Yeah that sounds actually very interesting: I was planning to hand in some parts of my project in animated form but with the print version too as a book 
I was thinking doing a pop up /pop art book but It might look a bit too childlike and unprofessional 
But thanks very much!:)
Still having a look around haha
Kind regards,

Natasha

I feel the comic book has become a tired idea.  It was something different when BIG did it but now I've seen quite a few of them from portfolios to theses. 

A pop up book wouldn't work for a lot of schools since they require it to be submitted in digital form. 

I think your work would stand out in the conventional portfolio form not that I'm trying to stymie your creativity.      

Yeah, it's a real shame that most schools are moving to digital applications. Then again I won't miss seeing all of the portfolio's bound with nuts and bolts. -_-

I am also going to somewhat disagree about the tiredness of comics.

I don't think there are enough comic style arch books/portfolio's out there to make it tired, i just don't think it necessarily stands out. The real question is how well does it work for what i am trying to do. For a portfolio, probably fair at best... unless your work is of a very particular nature, which i don't think it is.

In my Portfolio class, my instructor showed us the BIG website - that as back in 2006 - still, a lot can be be learned from it if you don't copy it directly. The clean Danish approach always works.

When I applied for graduate studies, I took all my printed portfolio pages to the garage, set them in a vice, and drilled a hole clear through the stack. I then fastened everything with a large nut and bolt I found on the ground and mailed the stack as is complete with paper shavings. All 3 universities I sent it too commented upon receiving it how unique they found the bounding technique.

What about a video game? Pilot an avatar around a game world that is populated with your work?

Video game would be neat... maybe 8 bit? 

At my office we have crates full of portfolios and so many use nuts and bolts that I could reassemble a bike with them.  If done with the right proportion, a bolt can look nice but so many of them are over-sized and heavy - Also, metal hinges.  My first portfolio I ever made was with a piece of fabric laminated between two thin thin thin pieces of basswood.  The basswood had the title cut into so you could see the color of the fabric behind.   

I much prefer seeing digital portfolios - so many awkward things are done to creating physical portfolios. K.I.S.S. is the best method in showing off your work.  

Spatial, I've not seen any other bolt-portfolios (and way to many spiral edges) but then again, my application was quite a few years ago and fit my mostly hand-drawn project examples.

thumbs up to the video game suggestion.

Like anything, creating the physical book is a design challenge. I think you can be very creative and still make something that is not awkward.

Sounds very interesting! Would there be any photos of what you guys are talking about?