Portfolio for Product Design course

[debjud]

DD has interviews coming up for Product Design degrees and has to present a portfolio, but has no idea of structure, what should be in it - and school is being no help. Anyone got any experience of this?

My daughters college advised on portfolios but also the Uni open days did too and what each want to see varies a bit. If you have missed the open days, I would suggest reading the course website and look for links about portfolio advice. My daughter also got sent details of what they want to see at interview with the interview email. So read that too.

Her application is a different discipline so I cannot help anymore but good luck! My daughter has four interviews in the new year and I think I am more nervous than she is!

If you havnt been sent specific notes about what should be in it. phone the Uni Dept and ask what they expect.

Example - www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/scd/study/howtoapply/portfolioguide/

Hi- my DD is planning to study this and has already had interviews at Brunel and Hertfordshire. She has three more in the next few weeks.

At Brunel she was shocked at the quality of other students portfolios as seemed to think hers were no where near as good but she got a place.

The Brunel day was really tough- they had to work in groups to improve a product and then present it then there was a group interview where they all seemed to be pitted against each other- she was there all day. The portfolio was important but what was more important was the ability to develop and present ideas and to show you have knowledge of materials. (She said some of the other candidates with the whizzy portfolios seemed to know very little about this which perhaps worked in her favour.)

In her portfolio she had a number of design briefs that she had worked on for GCSE, AS and her current A level coursework. She also had a mood board showing various designers she liked and annotated them saying why. She showed sketching ideas and also an ability to use CAD (she uses Google sketch up.) Evidence of model making is important too. Some of the candidates took these with them but photos with annotations are fine.

HTH!

Good luck to your DD! Where has she applied?

My DD had to produce a portfolio for a very specialist course at the Londin College of Fashion. The University had a course advisor and we had an appointment with him to run a few ideas by!

ChristmasBig is giving you great advice and my DD found they like evidence of research, concise, neat and easy to navigate presentation, demonstration of how a student has worked through different challenges to arrive at the final design, what they considered was the best materials to use and why. I would advocate going beyond GCSE and A level work as they like someone who thinks for themselves, and not just following a syllabus, which everyone will have done. What personal project can they bring along. What designers inspire them? Lastly, they like people who can talk enthusiastically about their designs and can work collaboratively. I would get going ASAP though as it can take HOURS and HOURS to put a good portfolio together!

Too true MillyMollyMama- DD has spent many hours putting hers together practically putting some of her A level studies on hold for a few weeks. I am surprised that the school has been of no good debjud your DD is presumably studying product design so there should be someone there to advise on portfolios. Poor show if not.

Thanks everyone- I'll show her all of this. She has interviews (plus the day-long task business that ChristmasBig talks about) at Sussex and Leeds - plus she has to upload a portfolio for Edinburgh. I think she's on the right lines, but is panicking a bit - and yes, she has some ideas over and above her A level coursework. I think the school is being useless because she is the first one (ever? in some years?) to go on to study PD, even though the A level group is quite big.

Thanks all

My DD is going through this too for Fashion/Textiles. I am now appreciating why most students are encouraged to do Art Foundation first rather than applying directly to the degree course. She has heard from four of her choices so far and each has a different requirement.She has uploaded and sent off one portfolio already with two more to be in by the ens of Jan and an interview at the fourth in Feb. I am very concerned that this will distract her from her A2's including textiles itself. Anyone else going down this route?

Yes, sort of. My daughter is applying for a commercial art course. She has four interviews (all half days) and three different requirements. She is currently on a level 3 diploma course at art college rather than A levels so, although she has had to put the portfolio together herself, she has seen many others which helped inspire her into her own design. We also went to five open days and they were helpful too. One of them (can't remember which now) even had a half hour talk specific to the portfolio requirements.

It's a really tough time with college work two. She has three big modules underway with a deadline of early February and four interviews in the same time frame! The do work like trojans, these art students.

It's a stressful time for parents too. As others get offers through the post, effectively, artists have so many more hoops to jump through.

Thanks Kez, that makes me feel a bit better apart from the fact that your DD is now focusing only on art. We did go to four open days which did emphasize the importance of the portfolio but I suppose perhaps hadn't realised how each course would require a different approach, all to be submitted virtually simultaneously within a very tight time frame. It does feel like so many more hoops compared to eg neighbours DS who submitted his UCAS and is now sitting on 5 offers for Business Studies and able to concentrate on his A2's.Still thinking positively and carrying on!

Yes, she has an advantage of doing just art and of being at art college so they know all of this stuff. She has the disadvantage of not having a more rounded level 3 education in that A level students will have studied something else to a high level and that makes, I feel, for an advantage when it comes to talking about other things.

I wouldn't worry if they had to do a foundation year. Especially if it is free education (not sure if it is) but I like free and degrees in art are full of differing ages so no one will even notice them being one year older.

Have you visited Edinburgh? A lovely place to go to uni...

BUT...

We were were hugely disappointed by their product design dept. Lecturers were unimpressive, facilities were tatty and spread out (workshops were a five minute walk away from the the studios) and there was no evidence of any work on display so we had no idea if they were any good. The art department was very delapidated (think 1970s comprehensive school.)They look great on paper/ in the prospectus and online but in reality they are really not all that in our experience.

We trapsed 600 miles to visit on the open day. In a way we were really pleased as it meant she didn't waste a choice on the UCAS form- there is no way she was going to apply once we had seen it.

Don't be fooled into thinking that because they are a respected RG uni that they must be good.

Good luck to your DD in her interviews.

Thanks. I expect I am more nervous than she is.

We went to all the summer shows in 2013 as my DD was insistent that it would help her decide as she would get to see everyone's work not just Open Day chosen pieces. We did that in addition to Open Days in Autumn 2013! It's been quite a marathon doing it all but she is right - she has to spend three years there and thousands of pounds - she wants to apply to the right place. She is absolutely comfortable with having a gap year if she gets no decent offers.

We visited one place in London and it was awful! The Lecturer just deferred every question to the students and it made him come across as completely out of touch. It was good having the students there but it really needed to be a joint effort. he may well be a brilliant lecturer but you couldn't gauge anything from the talk at all. Luckily we were in London for lots of others things too!

You asked...sorry, no we haven't been to Edinburgh. It wasn't on her shortlist for some reason.

Interesting about Edinburgh as DD is currently working on her digital portfolio for submission by 28th Jan. She went to the Open Day in June and came back full of enthusiasm so a somrwhat different take!

Our experience was for product design at Edinburgh- perhaps commercial art is more impressive kez100

DD applying for fashion design but the advantage of Edinburgh ( or any Scottish art degree) is that the first year is the equivalent of the English art foundation year and there wld be no need to go through UCAS again.

Hey, Christmas, DS was at the Brunel all-day interview thing as well -- wonder if they bumped into each other! He would be the shy one in a red bodywarmer and Rupert Bear style scarf if so...

He similarly thought everyone else's portfolios outshone his, but he has an offer as well.

My DD also applying for PD at Edinburgh - went to the open day and loved it! Thought the lecturers were thinking out of the box and very open to linking with other subject areas. So is going ahead with uploading a portfolio. (But she liked Leeds better - anyone got any thoughts on that -for Product Design?)

Dd says she can't think who he was- she was the chatty one with the bright blonde curly locks!

That gives me hope that he took the ludicrous bodywarmer and scarf off at some point, then!

My DD had three separate portfolios. Her course at the London College of Fashion is unique. There is no other similar course in the UK and it required a completely different portfolio from the other courses. She had applied to do photography elsewhere and, yes, they all required different portfolios and presentation, eg Flickr. She also applied for Parsons New York and that was all on line. Leeds University gave her a place based on her UCAS application and they did not require a portfolio at all and the offer was based on A level results.

Anyone doing Art subjects finds all the portfolios are needed at the same time as the lead up to the practical exams of the A levels. My DD did Art and Photography A level and this was a massive problem in the Spring Term. The timing is all wrong for art students! You are also taking more time out to actually go to the interviews. When she had three UK offers she pulled out of the last interview. Also, by 1 May she had still not heard from Brighton University about whether she had a place there or not despite having an interview in mid February! After all that hard work, they couldn't even be bothered to say yes or no by 31 March. She rejected them without ever knowing if she would have been offered a place or not!

My DD did not want a foundation course because she had covered a lot of art in her A levels and had lots to put in a portfolio through her own research/work too. A foundation year suits people who need to discover themselves artistically and who need to become more confident about their art and putting together a portfolio. My DD saw this as a backward step but some universities appear to require it. We now believe Brighton is one but their literature said A level students would be considered. These art courses are hard to fathom at times!

They'll want to see ideas and design process more than highly polished, finished pieces.

Oh and congratulations to your DS *kBrunel have simply one of the best design schools in the country! Has your DS also applied to Loughborough? Dd is off there next weds for more of the same!

Oh dear that went wrong. Last post was aimed at lancelottie !

Yup, has an offer from Loughborough as well. He said he'd recognised several of the same people at each, but clearly the interview process is quite drawn out so maybe they weren't at the same Brunel day.

Best of luck to her -- it must give her confidence to know that she's already met Brunel's standards (well, barring getting the A-levels, but you know what I mean)!