I am currently working on my portfolio. I have included works from school and from professional experience. One of the projects I worked on at my current job is a remodeling of a house on an island. I only did plans, sections and elevations (it also has a landscape design aspect) but no renderings or anything artistic. Do technical drawings go into the portfolio? If so, what is the best way to represent those? Do I try to make them look visually appealing? Or just leave them as technical drawings? I also have some photos of the exisitng structure. It is currently under construction but I don't have any photos of its current state. I read somewhere that you would take your construction drawings with you to an interview, so maybe I just need to write about this project and show them the drawings if I do get an interview?
I appreciate any advice.
Thank you!
archinet
Jul 16, 12 10:37 am
I wish I had more technical drawings in my portfolio, I graduated a year ago . Do put some of them in....maybe an overview and a special detail. I guess you can't put in the whole CD set. But technical drawings can never hurt. also include the photos that you have. Probably the technical drawings are the most important or one of the most important things employers look at? I am not sure though. I would not bother trying to make them look visually appealing, just make them appear clear.
Bring all of those drawings for the interview though.
w. architect
Jul 16, 12 11:36 am
Mostly just your technical drawings! The school work is good, but will be looked at for about thirty seconds, unless the Principal Architect graduated from the school you have; then it is memory lane for the Principal.
Most Architecture offices keep the lights on, by actually building things!
If you have built things, then you have money making potential for the office, otherwise; well kid go out and get some building experience, school days are over!
Include everything you have, portfolios are like spaghetti, toss a load of it on the wall and see which stick.
archinet
Jul 16, 12 12:46 pm
w.architect
...even bathroom details? I did loads of bathroom drawings a couple of years ago for a homeless shelter- that is built. Should I also include those? I save that for the interview usually- however whenever I go for an interview they seem less interested in that- and more interested in my school projects?
also I worked on a house during an internship and have all the elevations for the plaster details. The house had (12'x12') plaster sheet sizes that needed to be applied to the exterior which I drew. I have the overall elevations of this in my portfolio. But I did not put in the specific size and number of each sheet of plaster. Should I also include this? it would be about 5 pages?
sandhilldesign
Jul 16, 12 6:34 pm
Yale, GSD, and MIT professors have all said that boring CAD is not worth anything. But if your CAD depicts something interesting, innovative, or unique to the field of Architecture then YES!
Tasneemz
Jul 16, 12 7:10 pm
Thank you all for taking the time to give me advice, very helpful!
@ archinect & w. architect, my technical drawings, just like all construction documents, have some tags (such as window tags, or notes, referring to a schedule), do I need to keep those in the drawing? They don't look attractive, but maybe I can leave them out yet keep them in the set I bring to the interview? Or do they want to see what my construction drawings look like, tags and all? Even though they are technical and not attractive, I agree with w. architect that it would not hurt to add it.
@ sandhilldesign, I definitely think that my school work and a couple of professional projects are my strongest points because i actually have renderings and nice drawings for those. As for this particular project, in Tobago, I thought it would be interesting because it is a remodeling project and would hopefully reflect variety in my professional experience. But I agree, I don't want to show something that is really boring.
RH-Arch
Jul 16, 12 7:12 pm
Boring or not, firms want someone who knows how to put together CDs and have a technical foundation.
Michael Bykovski
Mar 28, 16 8:15 pm
Depends, do you want to be a CAD monkey or actually design things? Believe it or not, some firms actually let you do do schematic and conceptual design, not just CDs. The field is changing very quickly. You can always show technical sets at interviews - they don't look good in portfolios for good reason.
Hi,
I am currently working on my portfolio. I have included works from school and from professional experience. One of the projects I worked on at my current job is a remodeling of a house on an island. I only did plans, sections and elevations (it also has a landscape design aspect) but no renderings or anything artistic. Do technical drawings go into the portfolio? If so, what is the best way to represent those? Do I try to make them look visually appealing? Or just leave them as technical drawings? I also have some photos of the exisitng structure. It is currently under construction but I don't have any photos of its current state. I read somewhere that you would take your construction drawings with you to an interview, so maybe I just need to write about this project and show them the drawings if I do get an interview?
I appreciate any advice.
Thank you!
I wish I had more technical drawings in my portfolio, I graduated a year ago . Do put some of them in....maybe an overview and a special detail. I guess you can't put in the whole CD set. But technical drawings can never hurt. also include the photos that you have. Probably the technical drawings are the most important or one of the most important things employers look at? I am not sure though. I would not bother trying to make them look visually appealing, just make them appear clear.
Bring all of those drawings for the interview though.
Mostly just your technical drawings! The school work is good, but will be looked at for about thirty seconds, unless the Principal Architect graduated from the school you have; then it is memory lane for the Principal.
Most Architecture offices keep the lights on, by actually building things!
If you have built things, then you have money making potential for the office, otherwise; well kid go out and get some building experience, school days are over!
Include everything you have, portfolios are like spaghetti, toss a load of it on the wall and see which stick.
w.architect
...even bathroom details? I did loads of bathroom drawings a couple of years ago for a homeless shelter- that is built. Should I also include those? I save that for the interview usually- however whenever I go for an interview they seem less interested in that- and more interested in my school projects?
also I worked on a house during an internship and have all the elevations for the plaster details. The house had (12'x12') plaster sheet sizes that needed to be applied to the exterior which I drew. I have the overall elevations of this in my portfolio. But I did not put in the specific size and number of each sheet of plaster. Should I also include this? it would be about 5 pages?
Yale, GSD, and MIT professors have all said that boring CAD is not worth anything. But if your CAD depicts something interesting, innovative, or unique to the field of Architecture then YES!
Thank you all for taking the time to give me advice, very helpful!
@ archinect & w. architect, my technical drawings, just like all construction documents, have some tags (such as window tags, or notes, referring to a schedule), do I need to keep those in the drawing? They don't look attractive, but maybe I can leave them out yet keep them in the set I bring to the interview? Or do they want to see what my construction drawings look like, tags and all? Even though they are technical and not attractive, I agree with w. architect that it would not hurt to add it.
@ sandhilldesign, I definitely think that my school work and a couple of professional projects are my strongest points because i actually have renderings and nice drawings for those. As for this particular project, in Tobago, I thought it would be interesting because it is a remodeling project and would hopefully reflect variety in my professional experience. But I agree, I don't want to show something that is really boring.
Boring or not, firms want someone who knows how to put together CDs and have a technical foundation.
Depends, do you want to be a CAD monkey or actually design things? Believe it or not, some firms actually let you do do schematic and conceptual design, not just CDs. The field is changing very quickly. You can always show technical sets at interviews - they don't look good in portfolios for good reason.