Two days ago, I shared with you my answer to a question that puzzled many students: "Will the layout of art overseas works affect your application results?" In general, although the layout of works will not have a complete and absolute impact on the application, good composition of works will indeed become a bonus item in the application.

The best works should be placed on the page of the collection of overseas works of art?

After this push, my colleague received two messages in the background:

"What kind of composition is good?"

"Which page is the most suitable for my best work?"

Want to "Work layout" With a high score on this additional question, how can colleges and universities decide to be "me" from thousands of works? This problem should perplex many students, not only DIY students, but also many students with natural light, who will also get tangled in the process of composition of the collection of works. How should several items in the collection be arranged in the end, so as to better show the ability and level to get offers to the art school admissions officers?

        Typesetting of overseas students' works refuses to display all "thumbnails"

On this issue, I also helped you ask our good friends from RISD/Rhode Island School of Design Jennifer, an admissions consultant, I think she should have more voice and experience than me.

Before discussing this issue specifically with Jennifer, she once shared with me a set of works that impressed her very much. The reason why this set of works impressed her was not because it was extremely excellent, but because it was "too much".

This collection of works is from a student who applied for a major in fashion design. The student showed his own clothing design and creation in great detail, from inspiration to material testing, pattern making, to the final ready to wear and shooting; Moreover, the creativity is really great, but why does such a collection of works that seems to have no problems end up with rejection? Yes, because of typesetting.

You should all know that when you apply to an American art school, you need to submit your portfolio through the slideroom. When you upload all the materials, your portfolio will eventually be submitted to the admissions officer. However, your collection of works is not displayed in a complete PDF format that can occupy the entire screen, but all the work pages are tiled out, like "thumbnails", and displayed on the review page, which is roughly similar to the following figure:

Screenshot of composition part of overseas students' works

When this set of works impressed Jennifer, when it was tiled on the review page, each page was densely lined with small checkered pictures, which looked like small stamps one by one. Such layout made Jennifer exclaim on the spot, and even before she saw the works, she felt a bit collapsed, Because I can't see what's on the collection 。

When she opened these collections one by one, magnified them and read them again, she found that the student had recorded all his creation processes in a perfect way, and even many process maps looked almost identical. During the interview, the student also said frankly: This is to show all the contents to the admissions officer as much as possible.

Although the content is detailed, and the inspiration and theme of the work are good, Jennifer still sent a rejection letter to the student in the end.

        The composition of works should pay attention to the quality and the combination of image and text

After reading the above case, you may be confused. They all said that the collection of works should not only show the applicant's abilities in all aspects, but also show the creation process, as well as the process of continuous learning, growth and improvement through the collection of works. Look at this case, the student can do it, so why did he get the rejection letter?

In addition to paying attention to the combination of text and picture content,

In the overall arrangement of works

How to choose and choose

Can we create a collection of works that the admissions officer will never forget?

The order of the collection

Should we follow the chronological order of creation

Put the best work in the last "final"?

Jennifer also explained these two issues. Applicants to art schools Most collections have page limits , especially American art colleges , the page number of the collection is very strict, and the collection exceeding the page limit cannot even be uploaded to the slideroom; Although some art schools in the UK have relatively flexible requirements, they have too many pages, which will also be a deduction for your application.

In general, an excellent collection of works should be like a novel, which can make readers interested in opening it, but also can arouse the impulse of the admissions officer to continue reading, which actually means that, The best works should be put forward as far as possible But then again, a good novel must not start well, but end badly, so your collection of works should Keep the balance of content "quality" at all times.

If the collection has 20 pages in total

That means you have 20 chances

Show the admissions officer your 20 abilities

Make good use of these 20 opportunities to balance the contents of each page, like reading a book, each page has continuity Even if 20 pages are divided equally on each individual project, one project may only have 5 or 6 pages to show, but it also needs to constitute the same content quality as "small chapters", which can guide the admissions officer to continue reading.

Analysis of common problems in typesetting of overseas art works collection:

Next, we will discuss the layout of creative works collection in detail:

　　 Q1: In terms of the overall arrangement of works, how can we choose and select to make a set of works that will be remembered by the admissions officer?

First of all, let's take a case study of a collection of works. In the following collection of works of students studying abroad with natural light, the student conceived a utopian world. In the history class, the teacher talked about "utopianism", which became the inspiration for the student's creation. This set of works expresses a kind of people's perfect communist thought.

In this project, the creative subject is a skull. Students make a hole in the skull and fill it with styrofoam to express "the burst of unrealistic ideas". These ideas, good or bad, future buildings, future cars and goods, constitute an impossible form of future socialization.

In this set of overseas students' works, the first page of the student's cover shows the inspiration of the whole project, that is, the final product. Under the work that occupies half of the space, the student simply describes the project in words:

Natural Light Student Art Collection for Studying Abroad

In the creative inspiration and research part, the student only used two pages, a large number of text descriptions, combined with hand drawn illustrations:

Natural light composition of students' overseas works

After that, the two pages show the material test, model building and the final part of the work creation process:

Natural Light Student Typesetting Works Collection

The last two pages are multi-dimensional photography of the whole work:

Natural Light Student Creative Works Collection Layout Focus on Display

It seems that the layout of this set of overseas works is not outstanding, but every key point of the work creation is reflected, and each creative link is closely connected. For example, the cover of the first page shows the whole project and creative inspiration; The second and third pages show the ability of thinking and creativity; On pages 3 and 4, by sharing the pictures taken during the creation process, we show the admissions officer what we have tried in the material test stage and what we have thought in the process of building the finished product. On the whole, each page has its own indispensable focus, while the whole collection has a high degree of coherence, and the cohesion is very close.

The above is the layout of a single series of works. The layout of the whole set of works also needs to have such consistency and show your ability in various fields and levels.

        The composition of the collection should be selectively displayed

In Jennifer's opinion, the content of the portfolio needs to be Selective display Even if you spend a lot of time and energy in the process of creating this work, you also need to concentrate these efforts into the collection.

For admissions officers, of course, they know how much effort it takes for a work to grow from scratch. In this regard, every applicant is the same. What you need to do is to show the parts that others do not have or are difficult to reach through the collection of works.

For example, for any student who applies for art and design majors, it is inevitable to learn basic painting, spatial relations, light and shadow, and art history. Although these contents are the basis for the creation of works collection, you do not need to show them in the exhibition part of works collection. Because of these contents, even if they do not appear in the portfolio, the experience and level of the admissions officer will tell them that you must have had a series of previous efforts and preparations.

For example, in the inspiration part of the above work project, the student did not show how he learned research methods; It also doesn't show how to choose the research direction, but his works are also completely full, showing his divergent thinking and ideas.

As for the specific expression and content, Jennifer also gave her own suggestions. In her opinion, a collection of works needs to show at least the following four dimensions. If you still don't understand how to filter the exhibition content of your portfolio, the following four dimensions may be your first choice:

Technical skills

Demonstrate the ability of basic skills. No matter what major you apply for, whether it's pure art, fashion design or graphic design, you should have the basic professional ability to be a basic artist.

For artists/designers, painting is just like a writer's writing ability. You need to use paintings to express your ideas. For writers, words are the basis of language. For artists/designers, painting is the basis of expression and their language.

Concept Creativity

If you want to show your multi-dimensional ability and one aspect that is most unique and different from others, then your personal interest and content innovation are indispensable.

As a designer, you need to use your own design language to write/create a new story, that is, to create a project. This project should not be copied by you, nor should it be obtained by you misappropriating other people's ideas.

Personality

This part includes two aspects. First, your personal characteristics, that is to say, you need to show "I have a lot of ideas", "I have a possible interest in understanding different types of creation", "I have something special in a certain area", etc.

Secondly, you also need to demonstrate your high adaptability, that is, you have a strong ability to accept and acquire diverse skills and ideas. For designers, it is easy to do what they like, and it is not difficult to release themselves completely through works. But do you also have the ability to "try and complete different fields"?

Because as an artist/designer, you will encounter many designs with different "personalities" in the future. For example, you will need to make a cute design with the style of a little princess, or you may encounter a design with the industrial hard core and sense of technology like Iron Man. As a creator, you will need to have multi-dimensional capabilities.

Therefore, your collection of works should not only let the admissions officer see that you can "use a period of time to do projects that you like very much", but also "use some unused materials that you don't like to do some fresh experience". In fact, this is the embodiment of your strong adaptability.

From a near perspective, the admissions officer does not like to see the same content repeatedly in a set of works. In the long run, your future customers will not like the design that remains unchanged every time.

Interest of Major

It is not necessary to give 100% to the professional interest display, but only 25%. Let the admissions officer know that you are full of interest in this major and want to continue exploring. Because the admissions officer knows that interest will give a person the motivation to continue to study in depth.

　　 Q2: Should the overall order of the collection of works be arranged according to the creation time order?

Let's answer this question first. Of course not.

The arrangement order of portfolio projects is very important. If you arrange them according to the order of work creation, then you must first start the project, that is, the oldest one. Compared with other projects, this project is also likely to be the weakest one and the one that cannot show the application ability.

If you put this work first in the collection, it will make it impossible to attract admissions officers at once. However, if you put the best and most interesting works in the first place, most admissions officers will be interested in reading them.

As Jennifer said, your entire collection of works is like a novel. Every project is a chapter, and every page needs to be displayed with a special message to attract people to continue reading. The cover is very attractive, which will make people have the desire to open and read. When seeing the first project, people will have the idea of "Wow! Very good!", and will be motivated to continue reading.

Therefore, A good beginning can stimulate the reading interest of the admissions officer The work you put first must be the most attractive one while ensuring perfection and fun. Maybe its theme is very interesting and its creative form is very unique. Only in this way can we attract people to continue reading.

　　 The second most perfect and mature project The theme, creative form, and final product output are the best and most mature of several projects. Then put other works in turn.

Although there is a slight content gap between different works Overall, the quality and ability should be equal , and on The visual and presentation quality must also be balanced The content of one page cannot be very rich, showing the ability of multiple dimensions at the same time, while the other page has only one picture, which is very blank; One page cannot be perfect, and the next page has many mistakes; Not to mention that a page suddenly appears a lot of messy content.

Because you need to always remember that if your collection can only hold 20 pages of works, then you will only have 20 limited opportunities to show yourself. Jennifer especially emphasized the "balance", Even if you draw any page separately, you should be able to prove to the admissions officer how excellent you are 。

For how to demonstrate your ability, you can, make a list 20 pages of content, on which page do I want to show my ability and what content do I want to express.

        Summary of layout of creative works collection:

That's all for today. I discussed and analyzed the selection of the content of the portfolio and the project sequencing of the portfolio with Jennifer, an enrollment consultant from RISD. In content screening, although we should try our best to show our ability in all aspects and the creation process of the works, we should not screen the creation of works in a key node way "as much as possible", which does not mean "all show".

In terms of project ranking of the collection, it is not recommended that you sort it according to the creation time. In this part of interpretation, Jennifer constantly emphasizes the word "sense of balance", and each page of the collection should have a special message; Each page should also show your ability at different levels and achieve the balance between "page" and "page"

Finally, we are most concerned about the topic: which page should the best works be placed on? Our suggestion is to move forward as far as possible; However, Jennifer's analogy should still be quoted here: a good collection of works should be like an excellent novel, with an attractive beginning and story content, but at the end, it should also be "not rotten"!

More topics of art study abroad collection:

Central Saint Martin Product Design Program Director's personal account: CSM product design application/portfolio/courses/employment prospects

Guide to the work collection of the admissions officer: what kind of overseas work collection left a bad impression on the admissions officer

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