I've been asking myself the similar question about appropriate length of portfolio for an undergrad entry level (as well as graduate school applications). I find it difficult to chop 50-60 pages of work which took countless hours to produce and shows a range of skills only because some number less than that has been deemed 'appropriate.'

Who sets these standards? Unless, of course the firm or institution you are applying explicitely states this.

I think there is merit to brevity and conciseness in portfolios. First, I think you need to be your own judge of length and honest with yourself about what is actually contributing to your case and what is just filler or makes YOU feel good because it's another piece of work you completed whether or not it is actually good work. The other consideration is format and whether you're looking at the ptf in print or digital. From my own experience a single page pdf is going to seem to go on and on, whereas spreads will seem shorter and be more compelling and print will seem the most brief. My 106 page original bound protfolio reads like 10 pages to me and flips pretty quick, but my best work may be lost in the overall length.

My goal is to have my own digital ptf down to 40-50 pages at around 5 megs emailable and that is going to take alot of chopping, compression, and consolidation.

about 50 pages is enough, showing all skills etc. after that anybody reviewing it gets really bored and forgets about it....

Melany, what? How could you put 10-12 projects on 5-6 pages? That would be more like 20-25 pages, 30 after you add a ToC, statement, etc.

No need to backdoor brag, either! ^_^

I think it fully depends on what is on each page.

A page with one single full bleed image is far different than a page with 4 different images, a sketch and two paragraphs of text.

You wouldn't want 50 pages of the latter.

10-15 pages, double sided is more than enough. 3-4 of your best projects is what you want to show, not 10!

You can gauge someone's skills, potential and talent easily with that.


As they say, 'it is more difficult to write a great short story than writing a book'. Same goes for a portfolio. Show the best, not 20 images of each project and 20 projects, you'll bore people and that won't go over well.

Anyone should be able to know someone else's skills and talents in a 2-3 projects, 4th being icing on the cake. I highly doubt many undergrads have more than that.

Don't forget, someone will spend a few minutes looking at your portfolio, not an hour.

"Melany, what? How could you put 10-12 projects on 5-6 pages?"

That's not what I said. I said 5-6 PAPERS, assuming one project per page and bullshit pages like the table of contents.

PAPER 1:
cover
inner cover

PAPER 2:
contents
blank page

PAPER 3:
page 1: project 1
page 2: project 2

PAPER 4:
page 3: project 3
page 4: project 4

PAPER 5:
page 5: project 5
page 6: project 6

PAPER 6:
page 7: project 7
page 8: project 8

PAPER 7:
page 9: project 9
page 10: project 10

PAPER 8:
page 11: project 11
page 12: project 12

PAPER 9:
blank page
back cover

I don't understand how you could span 10-12 projects over 30 pages. How do you guys do it?

Also, why are you calling me "melany"? I'm not sure where you got that from. O___o

"Anyone should be able to know someone else's skills and talents in a 2-3 projects, 4th being icing on the cake."

2-3 projects? Fuck, I'm a king of at least a dozen medium. Maybe I'm just too multi-talented for this architecture crap.




"I highly doubt many undergrads have more than that."

International Baccalaureate Art and any art school would easily dispute that. My brother went to a run-of-the-mill highschool art school and even had to have a long interview that required him to bring some works in to show them, before getting accepted. Grad admission officers are just lazy old hags I suppose.

everything about this thread has got to be a joke.

melany,

it sounds like you're on the right track; I wouldn't let a page count stop you from presenting your work.

You asked for suggestions on a MArch I, not art school. I gave you what I would recommend.


I guess you just must be "too multi-talented for this architecture crap". Thank God for all of us.

12 pages...1 side.....

no need to make it longer..... if you can't convey that you can be a cad monkey/copy/paste spec person in that many pages, then i'm not sure what to tell you.

my portfolio's are always about 50-60 pages. i haven't heard any complaints. work samples are usually 3-4 pages at most.

i swear i just spent two hours making a good example of roughly how a portfolio should be structured.

depth=(1/2length')"

i know someone who got into harvard with a 125 pg port showing only one project. i am also a firm believer in showing the most amount of information in the least amount of drawing (or images). i would say stop counting pages or number of works and foucus on showing only your best work. THINK AND EDIT ....

you have to consider that the committees that look at these folios will initially spend only 5-10 seconds per page at most. At that rate, if all of the pages have paragraphs of text describing the project and only smallish images, it will blur together in the mind of the reviewer.

With this in mind, pick one or two of the strongest images for each project, and make them be the place that the eye is drawn to in an initial review. The rest of the information can be a smaller size and back up the first image after you have drawn the reviewer in.

You are the one cuing the reviewer as to how to read your own work, where they should look first, what is relatively important, and structuring the raw information that is your work into a coherent, readable format is far more crucial then page count. Fifty well-organized pages is much more readable and quicker to get a feel for then twenty extremely disorganized ones. As pigeon said--think and edit.

Wow, lol - can you elaborate on that? Was it just a big essay or something?

125 pages for one project?

yeh thanks c..r.y..z..k.o. , that's what i thought, but i was just wondering how the hell so many ppl say they span 12 projects over 30 pages or something. do u guys have like 10 blank pages? or do u have a lot of "close-ups" in addition to the outer zoom? u shouldn't need close-ups since the outer zoom should be able to show everything with sufficient detail, unless it's a really big or 3-dimensional project, but from my understanding most projects in march i portfolios are 2d. also what was that 125 page project about, pigeon? what the fucking hell was that?

sorry for sounding like an ass, but it comes naturally to me and i like it because i don't care and it is my world and i will rule when the time of reckoning comes. - cheers

Now I just have to see this portfolio. I want to see how it's done.

^ what larch said. all of the advice i've heard is to keep it short and sweet, like with my mom, no more pages than necessary, becuz adcoms don't like reading bullshit and all they get is a free lunch for doing their shit job. but here comes mr. pigeon plopping in with news that a 125 page ptf earned the gold medal at harvard. what was in the ptf mr. pigeon? a bunch of nude shemales?

my guess it was full of photos of the admission officers having orgies with each other. the deal was to accept him or he would release the photos publicly. what else could they do? tis the world we live in

melany-

Please post yours up when done.

Melany,
most projects in March are 2D??? Maybe that's only what you have, but most people nowadays include most of the work that is in 3D. You'd be surprised the difference of portfolios today compared to portfolios 7 years ago! I really want to see that portfolio of your when done and see if you can put the money where your mouth is!

i said march I, not march II or III. most of the work i have seen from march I portfolios were 2D work, with a few 3D works. i thought this was expected and recommended, since the skills evident in the typical technical 2d work tends to be more applicable and helpful to the field than that in the typical technical 3d work. i have also heard that a lot of 3d work, such as models or CAD, are not recommended for march I portfolios, because they do not demonstrate the relevant skills, and the school will be teaching anew the 3d modeling skills they want you to learn anyway. of course, sculptures etc. may still demonstrate the relevant skills they desire to see, but are typically less represented than 2d work for whatever reason. find me a bunch of march i portfolios that are primarily comprised of 3d work and i might change my analysis, which is currently all based on information i have heard on archinect and elsewhere

also, what's with all the interest in my finished portfolio, which doesn't even exist yet?

Melany,
so you heard not to put 3D work because they are irrelevant? That's very strange. I've never heard any Institution saying do not put Max renderings because they are not as good at FormZ or such. I could be wrong, but most March programs do not have requirements which software you use, or requirements taking a software class that could teach you some 3D design. If anything they have a optional studio that uses particular software. I mean, can you imaging working in Maya for 4-5 years in undergraduate studios, increasing your rendering/design ability in that software and then suddenly a March Institution saying, yeah you should not use that because its irrelevant. It DOES show your ability and nobody (if they did) should tell you otherwise. I know people that use Maya, max, FormZ, which they used previously and just because they don't know a particular software, not suggested by the new school, they should not be showing their knowledge and abilities.

I'm assuming we are all asking for a portfolio because it's always nice and interesting seeing other people's work.

melany,

it always helps to show process in your portfolio. you may want to consider showing iterations and diagrams that bring you to the final solution for each piece. these do not need to be entire sheets, they can be little thumbnail diagrams--depending on the project of course.

a more applicable ques would be how many pages are appropriate for a medium-sized project

Most of this is a moot point. Design your portfolio so that it conveys your design thinking or anything else you want the committee to get from it. I got into great grad schools w/ an 80 page portfolio (a lot of single image pages). Design it well and the rest will follow.

my opinion with putting in 3D stuff with programs like maya, form z, max, etc is that you shouldn't be including it because you're demonstrating your abilities to use a software program. i doubt any true design school would care whether or not you can use those programs. because if they really care about you using those programs at their school, then they will offer courses in which you can learn to use them. they're looking at what you've designed in the programs first and foremost.


... oh shit, wait. i must have been daydreaming when i wrote that.

Dear Members, I am curious to know few things since I will be applying for M.arch soon in Canada. I understand that the portfolio should be concise and yet informative. Can I include in portfolio 3d of my project rendered by someone else, to better illustrate my project with acknowledgement? My second question is may I modify my academicbachelor degree  projects because after 7 years of work experience my architectural sense has changed. Because this portfolio is all about illustrating ones architectural sense and style.  Please help me with feedback. 

University of Waterloo has allowed to use renderings by others even the students provide the acknowledgement of the person who did it...some of my projects are dynamic and organic in nature. Even though I always do the 3d modelling by myself sometimes I cannot render to the mark. My professional projects and interior projects I render myself. But some projects are very difficult to illustrate without a good render. Please provide me more feedback. Because some of my mentors suggests that architecture is the process from concept to design and then implementation. Some of the steps we need to take help just like we need people to build the house we design....I am more keen on illustrating my design process...is it really big deal if someone renders some images for me?