What kind of works has the admissions officer ever sent rejection letters to? What kind of portfolio do college admissions officers most want to see? What mistakes are easy to make in the portfolio? What are the contents to be displayed in the collection? Many students are puzzled about these problems. Natural Light interviewed Jennifer Chung, who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and served as the enrollment consultant of the Rhode Island School of Design of RISD, to introduce what problems should be paid attention to when creating the collection of works for studying abroad?

Jennifer Chung graduated from RISD/ Rhode Island School of Design , once served as an enrollment consultant of RISD, and cooperated with brands such as SKII, Dior, Vanke Yabao, Versace, YSL, Cartier, La Prairie, Jurlique, La Perla, etc., to give advice to these brands and companies behind their backs, guide the design and market planning of brand direction, and help these brands convey values and ideas with her keen artistic sense of smell. At the same time, she is also an artist, who has influenced Asia and even the world with the common artistic power with celebrities such as Kardashian, Chen Kun, Takashi Murakami, Kaws, Jean Michel Othoniel, Gianni Motti, etc.

What does the admissions officer want to see in the works:

　　 1. Show your skills

The first is to show your skills, that is, those basic things. Why is this important? Just like you are going to apply for a job, you need to tell the other party what I can do and what I will do. The same is true for art. The admissions officer must know how much you have learned, whether you have the basic ability of an artist or designer, and what room to improve on the basic level. Basic drawing ability is a skill required by every major. It is not important for you to learn industrial design or interaction design. Because if you study industrial design, the page needs sketch foundation, you can quickly draw your own ideas when inspiration suddenly comes, and you can use painting to express your ideas, otherwise your inspiration may quickly slip away.

For artists and designers, the ability to draw is just like the ability to write. They use painting to express what they want to write. Others write down what they want to say. People who study art should use painting to tell others, teachers and customers. At that time, the painting was not fine art, but the writing of the designer and the designer's language.

　　 2. Show your innovation ability

Foreign colleges and universities attach great importance to whether you can tell a story in a creative way, that is, you must have the ability to innovate and create something independently, rather than copying it. On this basis, it is also required that your story is drawn and told with art.

　　 3. Have personal characteristics and diversified styles

In the collection of works, you should let the admissions officer see your personal characteristics, which means that you have your own interests, ideas, special places, research things, and can tell others what you like and don't like. But personal characteristics often mean taking risks and breaking through your comfort zone.

For example, you are good at watercolors and can make beautiful works with watercolors. But when you grow up and enter the university, there will be more disciplines and courses. At this time, you can't just learn one thing. There may be homework that requires you to do a project about cars like a man; Maybe you need to do some fashion clothes like a little princess; Maybe today's homework needs you to do something very scary, and tomorrow needs you to do something very simple and cool.

There are many different directions in art. After you work, you need to do different things to give to different guests. The admissions officer and the school should know whether you have more possibilities through the collection of works. Because a good designer can do well in the things he likes and the designs he doesn't like. When you can do well in the things you don't like, you will be closer to professional designers. Some students may think: "I am a designer and an artist. I just want to do my own style. If I do other things, I will no longer be myself." I will also hear such an answer when giving advice to students.

It is too early to look at this matter from the perspective of the future and only do the design that you like. When I was a student, everything was just beginning. If I refuse other experiences, I will stop growing like a child. So, let the admissions officer see that you can use 40 hours to create a great project that you like very much, or you can use some unused materials that you don't like to do some fresh experience, which has a strong adaptability.

　　 4. Interested in their own specialty

In the collection of works, we hope to see that students are interested and enthusiastic about their majors. Of course, you don't need to use too much space to express how much you love, just part of it. We know that interest will make a person more motivated to learn, and the more he learns, the better. On the contrary, if he does not learn well, it is difficult to have enthusiasm for learning.

What are the mistakes that are easy to make and the problems that should be paid attention to in the collection:

　　 1. Diversification

Many students show the same thing on each page of the collection Illustration Design Study Abroad For example, I have seen a collection of works that have their own style, but each work is similar, especially when the student is applying for undergraduate education. If the student shows too single and strong style, the admissions officer will think that you are not likely to be enough. If you like landscape painting, watercolor painting and so on, you can use design, photography, sculpture and other ways to express it, and even add fashionable things, architectural things and so on.

In short, you need to tell the admissions officer what you can do through these, rather than show that you are good at one aspect. Because when you were studying, the admissions officer knew that you were just a student and had not experienced much education and training, as long as you could see your learning ability and unlimited potential. At the stage of graduate application and job search, you need to show your professionalism, because you have already experienced very complete and systematic learning at this time, and you need to improve at the graduate stage. The company also needs your skills to provide services for customers. So many students failed to distinguish the focus of undergraduate, graduate and job search portfolios. I see that many of the collections of works applied for by undergraduate students are like professional designers. This is the wrong direction. Companies and schools should be completely opposite.

　　 2. Innovation ability

The most important thing for foreign schools is to see your creativity. You need to show your innovative ability through the collection of works. You can create something independently instead of copying something from others, because copying anyone can do it, and machines can do it. The reason why people are different from machines is that we have our own ideas, which is why the society needs designers, why the school sets up a design major, and why it must see creativity when recruiting students of design major. Designers can provide many solutions and use design to change people's lives.

For example, we have powerful computers, mobile phones and video cameras, but only designers can combine these three things together to design a better new product with creativity, which is why creative thinking is so important in design.

　　 3. Sufficient content

I once saw a very interesting collection of professional photography works, because the photography major wants to discuss some social issues. His collection of works is about those 1000 yuan apartments in small cities for a month. When I read his collection, my friends thought I was looking for a house advertisement. But I think this work will really attract admissions officers. For Chinese people, they may wonder where this house is, how to live in it, but if you are a foreigner, you must not have seen this 1000 yuan apartment. After understanding it, you will be curious about this kind of things that you have not seen. You can continue to look at it from an artistic perspective.

But the student's works only looked like about six pieces, and he began to apply. There was no project that could explain his other abilities. Even if such works were interesting, they would not be offered because they were not rich enough.

　　 4. Project sequence and visual balance

A good collection of works will want to read a book or see an exhibition. It's very attractive to see its cover. After opening it, there is a feeling of "wow". If you have power, you can see what's on the back. In addition, it must be visually balanced. It will not have a rich page, many blank pages, beautiful pages, ugly pages, perfect pages, many errors, or suddenly jump out of a piece of content. Just like reading and watching exhibitions, the collection of works should be coherent from beginning to end and look very comfortable. Don't let the admissions officer ride a roller coaster. The visual fluctuation is huge.

The arrangement order of portfolio projects is also very important. Some students will arrange their works according to the order of completion, which will not attract admissions officers, because your oldest works must be the weakest, and the final works are those with improved ability, which are usually more attractive. Just like when we apply for college, we don't show our first grade words to teachers. These studies may be very important to you, but when the admissions officer sees something at level 10, he will know that you have something at level 1. You don't need to release everything from level 1 to level 10. Just like you spent 1000 hours doing a thing, I don't need all the details of the first 990 hours, just the last 10 hours.

Then, the best work collection should be ranked with the best project at the top, the second best project at the bottom, and the other projects in the middle, which will make people feel stable and average.

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