CREATING

ARCHITECTURAL
PORTFOLIO
By: 13623
 Portfolio
noun/

A set of pieces of creative work

intended to demonstrate a
person's ability to a potential
employer.
A portfolio is a creative
expression of the student , his
skills, his ability to
communicate and a general
self-promoting tool!
Purpose and content

Why?
Architectural portfolios are requested by firms and educational institutions
to predict applicant success within their company or program.
Who?
Before considering what to include in your portfolio, the first question to
answer is who is my audience? If you want to work for a firm that
specializes in a particular building type or architectural methodology,
make sure to show work that demonstrates your familiarity with or interest
in that area.
What?
Every student will graduate with dozens of studio projects, drawings, and
design pieces that demonstrate their creativity. . Try your best to filter
through your work and display your best 5 projects. Make sure they fit
together as a whole to demonstrate flexibility in programs and problem
solving.
WHY?
Types of a portfolio according to the need

Professional
Academic
Record
PROFESSIONAL
Whether looking for a new job or establishing a body of work for new
opportunities in career, a portfolio can establish skill set,
professional interests, and extracurricular endeavors. The portfolio
can quickly identify for an employer if you have the necessary skills
they require to have for the position in question.
Examples:
First Job
Changing Jobs
Job in Academia
Annual Review
LinkedIn Integration
ACADEMIC
Especially in the architectural profession, a portfolio is almost always a
requirement when starting a new program at a college or university.
Depending upon the level youre applying for (undergraduate,
graduate, PhD), the specific requirements may vary. However, a portfolio
of work is a key document that will establish for an academic institution
whether or not you present a good fit for that program.
Examples:
Undergraduate Applications
Graduate School Applications
PhD Program Applications
Proposals
Scholarships
Grants
Awards
RECORDS

Even though youre fairly confident that all of your work is as clear in your
head as the day you created it, a portfolio can be a fantastic way to
catalogue your projects from time to time. This can work in your benefit for
two key reasons: 1. the portfolio creation process pushes you to organize
your work in a coherent way and 2. the very fact that you have a portfolio
will allow you to adapt to unforeseen situations (job loss, award submission,
or recommendation) as they present themselves.
Examples:
Archive of Past Work
Format Current School Work
Experiment with Presentation
Learn How to Make a Portfolio
Present a Single, Important Project
WHO?
The audience

Are you applying for a job, or trying to get into

further education?
Do they need to see your development, or do
you just need to wow them with your best
stuff?
WHAT?
The Content strategy
STEP 1
GATHER ALL OF YOUR WORK
STEP 2
DECIDE THE PORTFOLIO THEME
What types of projects should I show?
STEP 3
DETERMINE YOUR PORTFOLIO LENGTH
How many projects do I need to show?

STEP 4
DEVELOP AN OVERALL HIERARCHY
What order do i use for my projects?
METHODS
ways of presenting

PRINT
DIGITAL
ONLINE
PRINT
In the past, students have compiled double
sided, bound booklets to present their work.
This is generally requested by institutions in an
81/2x 11 or 11 x 17 format. However,
page size and binding can vary depending on
how you want to express your work.
DIGITAL
In recent years, architecture firms and students
alike have been switching from paper portfolios
to digital presentations. After assembling a
pdf portfolio in Adobe Acrobat, you can easily e
mail that to firms and institutions.
ONLINE
Nearly every firm today has a website to display
their past projects.
BIG: http://www.big.dk/
SOM:
http://www.som.com/content.cfm/www_projects?
sort_by=FW
Students have also begun to create websites
with online portfolios
http://www.alexhogrefe.com/architecture/underg
raduateportfolio/
PAPER Vs PDF
There seems to be an even split between preference for a hard copy portfolio and a digital one. I
actually dislike when a candidate tries to present their work on an iPador worse yet, an iPad Mini,
said Robert L. Holzbach, AIA, LEED AP, Associate Principal, Director of Staff Operations at Hickok Cole
Architects.

Tablets are too small and they make the interview awkward as we try to crowd around a tiny screen,
agreed Brian Earle, AIA, Senior Associate at KGD Architecture. Were seeing more iPads used [in
interviews], but we still prefer hard copies.

On the other side of the debate, Cristina Tudor, AIA, Project Manager at DLR Group and NCARB
committee member, prefers the flexibility of a website-based portfolio. A website showcases different
facets of my personality and portfolio, such as projects Ive designed or managed, along with creative
interests such as photography and product design.

Jeremy Welu, AIA, Partner at DELV Design and also an NCARB committee member, sees more
students setting up websites that include studio projects, bios, sketchbooks, and narratives explaining
each sample. This format can be very effective in choreographing the story the [applicant] is trying to
tell.
 TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE
PORTFOLIOS

Softwares
Using Text
Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is the best program by Adobe

for compiling a multi page document like an
architectural portfolio. You can set up twopage
spreads to view your work as if it were printed,
automate page numbers, implement font and
character styles so it is easier to change fonts
later in the process, and link your images,
which keeps your file size manageable for the
average desktop.
Adobe InDesign
Prezi

A new type of digital presentation has emerged

that disregards convention and creates a more
interactive experience for the audience. This
online tool could be a great way to compile and
express your architectural work.
Prezi
Illustrator and Photoshop

Many students also like to use Illustrator and

Photoshop to compile their portfolio. Though
these programs have their advantages, it is best
to use them to edit drawings, diagrams, and
images which can then be placed into an
InDesign document.
iBooks Author

Creates a book with images, animation, slides,

presentations, and more that can be displayed
on a Mac or iPad
http://blog.ncarb.org/2015/January/Portfolio-
Tips.aspx#sthash.a5TJTVEm.dpuf
 GoodReader

App similar to Dropbox for file

management and sharing - See more at:
http://blog.ncarb.org/2015/January/Portfoli
o-Tips.aspx#sthash.a5TJTVEm.dpuf
USING TEXT

Less is More
Because architecture is a visual and spacial art,
your pictures, renderings, and diagrams will
always be more important than your text. Do
compliment your images with a few sentences
about each project though, so you can give the
viewer clues about the design problem, your
process, and the final solution. Remember, no
one will appreciate your work if they cannot
understand it.
USING TEXT

How many fonts?

To give your various projects a sense of
cohesion, stick with two or three font styles.
Adobe programs offer flexibility on letter
stretching, underlining, italicizing, shadowing
and more so you can jazz up those few styles.
Be creative but keep it clean. You want a
potential employer to analyze your work not
your fonts.
Points to consider
THE RULE OF THIRDS

A portfolio is the summary of your lifes design accomplishments,

it should show the best examples from three primary aspects
of your architectural endeavours:
1/3rd ACADEMIC WORK
1/3rd PROFESSIONAL WORK
1/3rd PERSONAL WORK
 Effective presentation

Visual composition can make or break your portfolio. This shows your
grasp of an essential skill: graphic design.
Even portfolios with amazing projects tend to be overlooked or
become invisible when compared to ones with more attractive
presentation. Very cluttered pages can hide content.
The images need to breathe. Do not overload your portfolio with a lot
of information to make it look more full: the more concise and
attractive the layout, the better.
Usually the people looking over these documents can tell what
information is relevant and what is just filler.
The font, margins, structure and proportion of a page say a lot about
your ability as an architect as well.
THANK YOU
NIKHILESHWARY
13623