presentation given to year 3 students at NUA

1. fantasy portfolio
27 02 17
28 02 17

2. Putting together a portfolio
• There is no right or wrong way to organise
your portfolio but your portfolio is very
important and says a lot about you and the
way you work so it is vital to get it looking just
right.
Is this true?

3. What should a portfolio contain?
Are there any rules?

4. ‘broad brush’ requiems
• a mature train of thought.
• the ability to be creative, yet precise.
• the ability to design to the company’s target
market.

5. A mature train of thought
What
• Different approaches different challenges in work.
• Ability to problem solve and to think through projects in a
logical manner.
How
• Consider showing the process of thinking, highlight how
different designs can be used together within a collection.
• Show the challenges that you encountered, and overcame,
during projects.

6. Be creative, yet precise
What
• Entry-level position often consists of many
monotonous duties, such as repeats, data entry, etc.
but are important and need to be done perfectly.
• Ability to be precise and professional, while still
allowing your creativity to shine.
How
• Show you can handle day to day tasks and help to
assistant or support the rest of the team’s creative
efforts through a creative, yet polished portfolio which
shows that these abilities have been used previously.

7. Design to the company’s target market
What
• The focus is on the customer and managers want to
see that you can handle this challenge.
• The ability to design to the company’s target market.
How
• Consider showing market research, collections aimed
at a variety of customers and discuss the challenges of
each.

9. specifics
some rules

10. Putting together a portfolio
• Present your most recent work first and the
oldest work towards the back.
• Use your judgment as to whether it is still
relevant to include your graduate work.

11. Putting together a portfolio
• a simple A4 or A3 portfolio.
• The portfolio needs to be constructed in a way
that allows you to change pages around or
remove some projects completely so you can
tailor your portfolio to a specific client.

12. Putting together a portfolio
• Ornate presentation can look wonderful but think
practically about the easiest way to show the
work and the easiest way to pack up as you leave.
• A client may have to flip through a large number
of portfolios in any one day and anything too
fiddly may have a negative impact rather than the
positive impact you were hoping for.

13. Putting together a portfolio
• Include work not just from your professional
career but continue to work on personal
projects to keep your portfolio fresh.
• Obviously for you this means include set
projects/competitions and personal project.

14. Putting together a portfolio
• Make sure the work in your portfolio is 100%
yours, and if it is not label it accordingly.

15. physical portfolio v digital format
both
• easy to email

16. physical portfolio v digital format
both
• technical glitch
• tablet functionality
• let go of the equipment
• hand drawn work
• mood boards, fabric swatches, trim samples in
reality as well as imagery.
• touch / texture – physicality / materiality
• background work and “finished product”

17. advice
some thoughts

18. Putting together a portfolio
• Constantly re-evaluate your portfolio:
• How do you feel about it?
• Are you confident enough to talk someone
through it?
• Does it show variety and speak clearly about
your strengths?
• Does it relate specifically to the interview you
are taking it to?

19. Putting together a portfolio
• Think about which area you would ideally like
to work in i.e. womenswear, menswear,
interiors etc.
• Aim your portfolio towards the particular
market you are interested in.

20. Putting together a portfolio
• Think creatively.
• Most people tend to stick to womenswear but
show other areas.

21. Putting together a portfolio
• Think ‘commercially’ as well as ‘creatively’ due
to the variety of potential
opportunities/clients.
commercially creatively
• What do these words mean?

22. Putting together a portfolio
• Keep working on your portfolio!!
• You need to constantly reflect on and edit
your portfolio – consider the organisation you
are showing work to.

23. Putting together a portfolio
• If you would like to work for a ‘Designer
Brand’, do projects at that level
but
• Keep you options open by doing other
projects aimed at High Street level or another
context that is appropriate.

24. Putting together a portfolio
• Make your printouts clear as bad quality
images look unprofessional.

25. Putting together a portfolio
• Most companies send hand drawn work to
Clients – not catwalk shots or look-books.

26. outline
session 1
• content
• What does your portfolio need to contain?
• What are the industry standards of the sector you wish
to be part of?
• size (physical / digital)
• amount of work
• order of pieces
• purpose of session
• to have a plan for the rough draft of the content of
your portfolio(s)

27. outline
session 2
• How to live your life
• Setting goals
• Post NUA
• Planning for success

28. outline
Between now and your session tomorrow
• Research what your portfolio should contain.
• Develop a 2 minute presentation.
• You can use work you have already made.
• You can project use text or image as a stand in.
• any format of presentation is possible.

29. outline
day 2
• presentation session
• we would like you to present your goals for the future within the
context of your fantasy portfolio.
• where do you want to go next?
• what will your portfolio contain?
• each person has 2 minutes to present their findings with 2 mins of
questions/comments followed by a short discussion within the
group after all presentations.
• purpose of session
• to set goals that are attainable
• to create a map of what you have to do
• to get feedback from the group
• to practise presentation skills
• to build confidence