College Portfolio

kennedy

kennedy

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
2,820
Reaction score
7
Hey everyone,

Don't know if you missed my usually mundane comments on this board as I haven't contributed in a few months...but now I'm reaching out to all of you for help. I'm beginning the college application process and am working on developing my portfolio to apply to architecture schools, most notably, Parsons the New School for Design.

My underlying question is this-should my portfolio consist of more technical drawings, scaled renderings, and floorplans-or conceptual sketches, freehand drawings, and my most inspired, but sorely impractical, designs?

Any help would be appreciated. As I have more work to show for, and begin to finalize it, I'll post it here for anyone to critique.

Many thanks,

Cole Kennedy
 
kennedy said:
My underlying question is this-should my portfolio consist of more technical drawings, scaled renderings, and floorplans-or conceptual sketches, freehand drawings, and my most inspired, but sorely impractical, designs?
Click to expand...
They're all useful if good. Technical drawings had better be correct and complete.

Show what you're best at, and don't aim for encyclopedic completeness.

No one expects perfection, but everyone would like to see a glimmer of inspiration.
 
Creativity is the key. The purpose of the portfolio is to show off your design talents and demonstrate your creative ability, not necessarily to show them you can "do architecture." That will come later.

I would leave any technical drawings (CAD?) to an absolute minimum, if any. However, it probably depends on the philosophy of the school you are applying to. If they are beautifully rendered - include some.

kennedy said:
conceptual sketches, freehand drawings, and my most inspired, but sorely impractical, designs
Click to expand...

These things are the most important in my opinion. Also, not every piece in your portfolio needs to be directly related to architecture. Creativity is the key, again. Photography, sculpture, sketches, models, paintings are all fair game. On of my friends built a sculpture out of firewood, photographed it, and included that in his portfolio for architecture school. Be thinking about what will make your portfolio stand out from the hundreds of others they will recieve.
 
Creativity is king for college applications. Schools love creativity, but dreamers whom only have a passing acquaintance with reality usually don't make for the best students, and later in life successful alumni. That said, do make sure to include at least one idea or project that is technically well thought out.

Have a clear format that is consistent and speaks for itself. The quality of how your present your portfolio is equally important to the content therein.
 
I too am applying for architecture and am trying to do portfolios too. From what college reps and my guidance counselors have told me, although you may include architectural designs and such, one key component is that you include actual art you've done, which includes free hand and the likes. So i would worry about those more if I were you.
 
BostonBoy, where are you applying?

When you say actual art, you mean like the art I would've done in studio art classes and such? I was planning on a few architectural sketches, a single technical drawing, and a few photographs of sculpture I've done and architecture I appreciate.
 
This is the first piece of work I was considering in my portfolio. Note, it hasn't been completed, and this is more of a puke-on-the-page trying to get the idea out of my head and onto paper.

Its supposed to the the "San Francisco Gallery of Contemporary Art." Whether or not they have one, doesn't matter. I like the play on words, SF(go)CA, like San Francisco, California. It is basically a cube in recycled aluminum cladding, with glass panels in some places. I guess I was inspired by a Rubik's Cube. The roof is a grassy patch accessed by an exterior stair from the second level of the Gallery. There would be a projector on the roof, displaying images and movies onto the wall of the adjacent building, as well as the SFCA logo painted on. The public would be able to gather here for exhibitions, or just regular family movie nights, whatever the owners felt like. Anyhow, it's just an idea. If it sucks, let me know so I don't put something awful in my portfolio

 
Damn, it's still tiny. Click on it to see more detail.
 
These are all shots taken in the last week in Chicago, on a Sony Cybershot DSC-W70, and edited with Picasa3. Many more to follow, these were just the ones I took that had more to do with fine art rather than architecture.

2ns7rpx.jpg



2afixzc.jpg



aadnaq.jpg



33110xs.jpg



2irm155.jpg
 
So none of those contained the edits...and one is on its side. I'll try to fix that, the edited versions were much nicer.
 
The edited versions don't exist on my computer, only the originals-I guess the edits are saved to Picasa. My favorites are on my public album on Picasa Web Albums (it's like Flickr but for Google rather than Yahoo).

http://picasaweb.google.com/cole.kennedy.22
 
I like them Kennedy, very nice job. So what colleges are you applying too?
Definitely Northeastern at least if you are going for architecture.
 
Northeastern (but no portfolio needed for them), Parsons, Pratt, Cooper, RISD, McGill, Maryland (maybe), Kansas (safety), Illinois-Champaign (maybe)

ive thought about some others...but this is basically what i like. i looked at sci-arc and this lame school called NSAD, and New Mexico but i didnt really like any of them. bolds are my faves.
 
Nice my friend. You have a long list haha
I am applying to just Northeastern, Temple, UNH, Roger Williams, and Wenworth
the last 3 r safeties
I am going to either Northeastern or Temple
 
When you go to Northeatern, be sure to stay at Stevens Hall. Well...at least I *THINK* they're naming a hall after me after I payed them $200,000 for an edumacation
 
I've come a little farther on the hand-drawn side of my portfolio. I spent most of today drawing furniture, light fixtures, and the like that all complement each other. Also, I drew a very rough sketch of my idea for a Berklee Studio/Concert venue. Completely hypothetical, but if they were ever to get a lot of money, and were able to tell the neighbors to F-off, this is what I'd like to see...somewhere. My scanner quit on me, so I had to just take a picture. They were all whitewashed so I ramped up the shadow and highlights so you could actually see the lines.

First the furniture:
n856r.jpg

It's a drafting table/computer desk hybrid. Mechanically, it's nothing special, just an adjustable drawing surface, with a platform for a computer monitor (I had the iMac in mind) behind. The platform would also be slightly adjustable, allowing it to move up and down with the drawing surface. The entire set of furniture was inspired by sails. Sweeping curves. Materials would be brushed stainless legs, ebony boxing for the desk, a glass drawing surface, and black leather trim with white stitching.


Next is the Berklee building:
2i8yvqa.jpg

I couldn't really decide on some things, so it'll probably look pretty awkward. Basically, it's a traditional row building that got a big, glassy ramp/stairwell structure attached to the front. The roof is an outdoor music venue/green roof. The two buildings to the side would also be part of the structure, but the facades would only be minimally altered to accommodate the ramp-thing.

Thanks for checking these out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top