Hi all! I have an unrelated undergraduate degree but I design a lot on the side and am well-versed on programs such as Rhino, V-Ray, Adobe Suite... etc. Should I make fake conceptual projects to build up work for a portfolio? Or, should my portfolio just be artwork in various mediums? I look at accepted portfolios and they have such beautiful spreads showing diagrams and illustrations of landscape architecture, but many -or all- of these students majored in very related fields and the work is from those studios.
If anyone is currently in an M.LA program or practicing, I will pay for some guidance sessions. Thank you!
bowling_ball
Feb 20, 24 11:50 pm
Should I make fake conceptual projects to build up work for a portfolio? Or, should my portfolio just be artwork in various mediums?
There's literally no difference between those two things. Knock yourself out. After all, the large majority of us provide design services only, not construction.
Chad Miller
Feb 21, 24 5:00 pm
What? The large majority of architects provide documents to get designs built and assist the GC in CA.
KingsMake
Feb 21, 24 6:18 pm
Do you suggest choosing a random site and creating a project based on how I figure the site be shaped and used? (looking to issuu portfolios as guidance) OR sculpting and painting random things that inspire me? These seem to be different. The former will show more specific interest and ability in LA but admissions might find it a bit strange that this project came out of nowhere. They won't question why I decided to paint or sculpt something -people make art out of general passion all the time.
bowling_ball
Feb 21, 24 7:57 pm
@chad I get what you're saying and that's probably very true, but not the point I was trying to make. I come from product design where conceptual projects are expected - with the understanding that the emphasis is on the concept, not necessarily the execution. And yeah, I've had plenty of very real architecture projects not get built - probably once a year (I work with developers a lot)
archanonymous
Feb 21, 24 5:33 am
Hate to break it to you buy anywhere from 30-90% of the stuff you work on as a professional will never be built. So yeah, just make some shit up.
Chad Miller
Feb 21, 24 4:58 pm
Really? In my 20 year career only a dozen project were never built and that's including the conceptual design only stuff done for funding.
archanonymous
Feb 22, 24 6:18 am
I've been extremely fortunate (or good? probably both) in that most of what I've spent my time working on has been built, but I've had some jobs where perhaps only one or two things got built out of dozens of projects and proposals.
Sometimes yeah it's just a competition (albeit a competition in an office usually achieves the resolution of only the very best term-long student projects) but sometimes things go deep into DD or even beyond before being cancelled.
Again, I've been lucky, but have seen people dump 2 years of full-time project leadership into something only to have it scuttled.
b3tadine[sutures]
Feb 21, 24 5:42 am
it’ll be harder than you think to do fake.
KingsMake
Feb 21, 24 6:18 pm
So if I was applying to M.Arch programs, there is no shortage of competitions to give restraints and deadlines -but I am not seeing anything for landscape architecture.
Professional Student
Feb 22, 24 11:37 pm
All of my projects in my portfolio were design exercises I gave myself
1 - a chair
2 - a pavilion from 3 solids
3 - a 1 story 1000sf house in the woods
4 - Mobius strip Cartesian plane box
I made sketches, diagrams, drawings, renderings, and physical models.
I think the wording gives it a negative connotation.
You are presenting your own designs and ideas, those are not fake.
Whether you actually worked on a design exercise at school, or a professional setting, or you gave yourself a design exercise to work on, it's still not fake.
Whether it's built or not, still doesn't make your design idea fake.
The only time it's fake is if it's not your work and you presented the work as your own, aka plagiarism and intellectual property theft.
reallynotmyname
Feb 23, 24 10:14 am
Self-generated and theoretical projects are not 'fake" when honestly and clearly presented as such. "Fake" work would be something that has an element of dishonesty in it. An example of this would be claiming that your designs were done for paying clients and they really were not.
*your name
Feb 23, 24 2:19 pm
KingsMake, almost all the projects in a school you are trying to get in are "Fake Projects". Just so you know...
ill_will
Feb 23, 24 3:15 pm
Do competitions, but not entering them. Hold yourself to the same schedule and same constraints, that way results will show process and intentionality.
I do that for fun in my spare time.
lh11
Mar 27, 24 8:57 am
hey! ive had my eye on a few competitions that really interest me and been debating wether to actually enroll in them (as in pay the registration fees and all) or just take the prompts and design the project on my own lol. have you participated in competitions? is it worth it?
ill_will
Mar 27, 24 10:48 am
Just give yourself enough time, but yeah I have. I like the deadline of it all and I can usually get some neat work out of it.
KingsMake
Feb 23, 24 4:42 pm
Thank you all for the advice. I think using the word "fake" in the title wasn't a great choice. I meant like making up my own prompt and criteria at home. I thought admissions would be like "Why did he do this?"
reallynotmyname
Feb 23, 24 5:34 pm
A starting point might observation and critical thinking about designed landscapes you use locally or have visited in other places. Document it with photography, graphics, and some short text.
nabrU
Feb 23, 24 6:22 pm
Never do fake projects, you might work somewhere where this is the norm but it is a poor place to work, they might make candlesticks and plastic furniture.
whistler
Feb 23, 24 7:27 pm
I came across an ad for a design firm in magazine that had been dropped off at the office. Saw the ad, liked the design for a "proposed house" which a presumed was in a community I know, so I checked out his website to to see if I could find the exact location of the build.
The said "design group" was a picture of one guy who looked like a posing porn star, who had all these proposed homes all over north america, but not one built project.
I am now convinced all the design are AI generated and the who website is false. Crazy, but is that where the profession is going. Haha time to retire.....or update my website ( oh yeah, I don't have one )
x-jla
Mar 27, 24 4:31 pm
“Fake” projects are the most important way to develop your skills. If you rely on paid work only to develop your skills, then your progress is reliant on others. It’s important to have a space to learn and play in that is separate and independent. The key to doing these projects is to either come up with a basic generic condition - and then to find a multiplicity of ways to organize space, or to find specific local spaces that you feel can be improved and then devise solutions, like a neglected park or vacant lot. Keep it as diagrammatic as possible. Start to identify language and strategies in these explorations. It’s better not to pass this off as some kind of “real” thing. Instead, embrace the diagrammatic nature of it. Think of it as if the intention is to create a study of spatial language and order. It’s a study, not a “fake” project.
Hi all! I have an unrelated undergraduate degree but I design a lot on the side and am well-versed on programs such as Rhino, V-Ray, Adobe Suite... etc. Should I make fake conceptual projects to build up work for a portfolio? Or, should my portfolio just be artwork in various mediums? I look at accepted portfolios and they have such beautiful spreads showing diagrams and illustrations of landscape architecture, but many -or all- of these students majored in very related fields and the work is from those studios.
If anyone is currently in an M.LA program or practicing, I will pay for some guidance sessions. Thank you!
Should I make fake conceptual projects to build up work for a portfolio? Or, should my portfolio just be artwork in various mediums?
There's literally no difference between those two things. Knock yourself out. After all, the large majority of us provide design services only, not construction.
What? The large majority of architects provide documents to get designs built and assist the GC in CA.
Do you suggest choosing a random site and creating a project based on how I figure the site be shaped and used? (looking to issuu portfolios as guidance) OR sculpting and painting random things that inspire me? These seem to be different. The former will show more specific interest and ability in LA but admissions might find it a bit strange that this project came out of nowhere. They won't question why I decided to paint or sculpt something -people make art out of general passion all the time.
@chad I get what you're saying and that's probably very true, but not the point I was trying to make. I come from product design where conceptual projects are expected - with the understanding that the emphasis is on the concept, not necessarily the execution. And yeah, I've had plenty of very real architecture projects not get built - probably once a year (I work with developers a lot)
Hate to break it to you buy anywhere from 30-90% of the stuff you work on as a professional will never be built. So yeah, just make some shit up.
Really? In my 20 year career only a dozen project were never built and that's including the conceptual design only stuff done for funding.
I've been extremely fortunate (or good? probably both) in that most of what I've spent my time working on has been built, but I've had some jobs where perhaps only one or two things got built out of dozens of projects and proposals.
Sometimes yeah it's just a competition (albeit a competition in an office usually achieves the resolution of only the very best term-long student projects) but sometimes things go deep into DD or even beyond before being cancelled.
Again, I've been lucky, but have seen people dump 2 years of full-time project leadership into something only to have it scuttled.
it’ll be harder than you think to do fake.
So if I was applying to M.Arch programs, there is no shortage of competitions to give restraints and deadlines -but I am not seeing anything for landscape architecture.
All of my projects in my portfolio were design exercises I gave myself
1 - a chair
2 - a pavilion from 3 solids
3 - a 1 story 1000sf house in the woods
4 - Mobius strip Cartesian plane box
I made sketches, diagrams, drawings, renderings, and physical models.
I think the wording gives it a negative connotation.
You are presenting your own designs and ideas, those are not fake.
Whether you actually worked on a design exercise at school, or a professional setting, or you gave yourself a design exercise to work on, it's still not fake.
Whether it's built or not, still doesn't make your design idea fake.
The only time it's fake is if it's not your work and you presented the work as your own, aka plagiarism and intellectual property theft.
Self-generated and theoretical projects are not 'fake" when honestly and clearly presented as such. "Fake" work would be something that has an element of dishonesty in it. An example of this would be claiming that your designs were done for paying clients and they really were not.
KingsMake, almost all the projects in a school you are trying to get in are "Fake Projects". Just so you know...
Do competitions, but not entering them. Hold yourself to the same schedule and same constraints, that way results will show process and intentionality.
I do that for fun in my spare time.
hey! ive had my eye on a few competitions that really interest me and been debating wether to actually enroll in them (as in pay the registration fees and all) or just take the prompts and design the project on my own lol. have you participated in competitions? is it worth it?
Just give yourself enough time, but yeah I have. I like the deadline of it all and I can usually get some neat work out of it.
Thank you all for the advice. I think using the word "fake" in the title wasn't a great choice. I meant like making up my own prompt and criteria at home. I thought admissions would be like "Why did he do this?"
A starting point might observation and critical thinking about designed landscapes you use locally or have visited in other places. Document it with photography, graphics, and some short text.
Never do fake projects, you might work somewhere where this is the norm but it is a poor place to work, they might make candlesticks and plastic furniture.
I came across an ad for a design firm in magazine that had been dropped off at the office. Saw the ad, liked the design for a "proposed house" which a presumed was in a community I know, so I checked out his website to to see if I could find the exact location of the build.
The said "design group" was a picture of one guy who looked like a posing porn star, who had all these proposed homes all over north america, but not one built project.
I am now convinced all the design are AI generated and the who website is false. Crazy, but is that where the profession is going. Haha time to retire.....or update my website ( oh yeah, I don't have one )
“Fake” projects are the most important way to develop your skills. If you rely on paid work only to develop your skills, then your progress is reliant on others. It’s important to have a space to learn and play in that is separate and independent. The key to doing these projects is to either come up with a basic generic condition - and then to find a multiplicity of ways to organize space, or to find specific local spaces that you feel can be improved and then devise solutions, like a neglected park or vacant lot. Keep it as diagrammatic as possible. Start to identify language and strategies in these explorations. It’s better not to pass this off as some kind of “real” thing. Instead, embrace the diagrammatic nature of it. Think of it as if the intention is to create a study of spatial language and order. It’s a study, not a “fake” project.