Creative Education specialist Jacqui Rudd shares how to prepare your portfolio for a postgraduate application.
This guide will provide you with an overview of what to include in a postgraduate application portfolio, look at how to self-edit and curate your work as well as key tips the best ways to present them both physically or as digital media.
Once you have applied for your postgraduate course of choice, you will likely be invited to an interview where you will present your portfolio of work (on campus or digitally for example by Skype or Zoom) or asked to submit a digital portfolio. So you need to make sure you prepare your portfolio for postgraduate applications.
As this is an application to a masters course, you will likely already have developed a body of work that conveys your interests and accomplishments as a creative practitioner. Through this portfolio you want to begin a conversation about how your work can move to the next level and take them on a visual journey through your work.
What to include:
When selecting and presenting your work you need to curate your portfolio and remember to demonstrate the quality of your work not the quantity.
I would suggest gathering together all the recent work you have produced and taking a holistic look at the collection of work to make strategic decisions as to what to include. Depending on your intended area of study, it is optimal to include between 15 to 20 examples of your best work; and/or a showreel of approximately 5 minutes duration for moving image related content.
Curating Tips:
During your Masters interview, you will be invited to talk about your portfolio. Be prepared to speak about the creative practitioners or ideas that have influenced your work and how your practice might be developed in the future.
Written by our Education industry specialist Jacqui Rudd.
This guide will provide you with an overview of what to include in a postgraduate application portfolio, look at how to self-edit and curate your work as well as key tips the best ways to present them both physically or as digital media.
Once you have applied for your postgraduate course of choice, you will likely be invited to an interview where you will present your portfolio of work (on campus or digitally for example by Skype or Zoom) or asked to submit a digital portfolio. So you need to make sure you prepare your portfolio for postgraduate applications.
What to include in a postgraduate application portfolio?
As this is an application to a masters course, you will likely already have developed a body of work that conveys your interests and accomplishments as a creative practitioner. Through this portfolio you want to begin a conversation about how your work can move to the next level and take them on a visual journey through your work.
What to include:
- - Physical examples of practice (printed matter, objects, painting, sculpture etc.) are usually acceptable at interview; for bulky or larger pieces of work that are too difficult to transport, the general preference is for these to be shown as photographs, or evidenced through digital photographic documentation.
- - Include sketchbook work; they should demonstrate your creative thinking, journey and problem solving skills.
- - If you’re showcasing film, video, animation and sound work, they should be between 2-5 minutes and available on a suitable format for presentation at interview, such as a laptop, memory stick, or as a digital file.
- - Make sure to include a range of creative work demonstrating your suitability for that specific master course and are able to discuss your work with the interviewer.
- - Showcase any achievements, images of your work in galleries, exhibitions and include any links to relevant websites or blogs that contain your work.
- - It is helpful to see documentation of work in situations where it has been exhibited and to have some indication of how your work has developed over a period of time, from design to display.
- - If relevant and appropriate to your creative discipline you can include examples of written work.
- - Your portfolio for a postgraduate application should represent any changes in direction including work that may only be in a developmental stage as well as represent your current practice.
- - If you are in your final year of undergraduate study, it is okay to include work in progress; the interviewers will be more interested to learn about your ambitions for future study.
How to best present your portfolio?
When selecting and presenting your work you need to curate your portfolio and remember to demonstrate the quality of your work not the quantity.
I would suggest gathering together all the recent work you have produced and taking a holistic look at the collection of work to make strategic decisions as to what to include. Depending on your intended area of study, it is optimal to include between 15 to 20 examples of your best work; and/or a showreel of approximately 5 minutes duration for moving image related content.
Curating Tips:
- - Spread your highest quality work throughout your portfolio, not just at the beginning, as the interviewer may not look at your portfolio sequentially.
- - Make sure to avoid repetition.
- - Don’t overload your portfolio; it should be clearly laid out and easy to look through.
- - Digital portfolios such as ARTS THREAD, weblinks or email attachments or uploaded via WeTransfer, Flickr, Vimeo, Youtube, Issuu, and visual social media platforms like Instagram and Tumblr, are usually accepted, check the admissions teams submission details or contact them. When doing a digital portfolio, such as on ARTS THREAD, ensure projects and images are individually named with clear titles and include a written statement of authentication as the originator of the artworks, such as word doc or scanned note with signature.
During your Masters interview, you will be invited to talk about your portfolio. Be prepared to speak about the creative practitioners or ideas that have influenced your work and how your practice might be developed in the future.
Written by our Education industry specialist Jacqui Rudd.