A Welcome Message from Your Portfolio

Dear Class of 2017:

You may not know me yet, so allow me to introduce myself: I am your portfolio. Nice to meet you.

Winter Break is the perfect time to start thinking about me, nay, to start working on me. In fact, when you get back from break, and for the first month of VCOM 578, you're required to show examples of what you'll include in me. So get started now and find your work, better yet only find your best work, and have it available.

All students must present at least 24 works in January during our preliminary portfolio content review. These 24 works will be reviewed, critiqued, and either accepted into your portfolio, discarded as "not worthy," or edited during the semester in order to (maybe) make it into your portfolio. By the end of the semester, you will narrow those 24 works down to 16 works for use in your portfolio.

What exactly is a work? As in one work that counts towards the 24, towards the final 16? If you have a comic book, which consists of many pages and panels and many characters, as well as a cover and other designed/illustrated components, then any pages or multiple pages, as well as the cover and other elements would count as 1 work. If you have a branding project, with a logo, brochure, poster, website, and other media, all of that is also 1 work. 

Most importantly: your 24 best works should be items that are your Best Visual Communication Design or Illustration, and notice this does not say your Favorite Visual Communication Design or Illustration. If it's your favorite work, but it is not well done, then it's not worthy for your portfolio, and it should not go in. 

For the 24-count preliminary portfolio content review in January: 

1. we need to see 24 works
2. showing less than 24 will require you to revisit your past work, and work to be made this term, so you can build up more work for inclusion in your portfolio
3. the work you show in January should ideally be printed out and ready to hang on the wall for a review
4. Illustrators: you can bring in painted works, or print outs of those painted works
5. Everyone: you can bring in the physical designs you have, whether it's a package design or a book or a magazine
6. work that is "in progress" or sketch-y or not yet completed might be okay, and shall be considered on a case by case basis
7. life drawings or other pencil or charcoal renderings done for an observational study are okay to include, but for Illustration majors, they should not make up a majority of your work
8. you can show your thesis work in progress if you'd like to include it in your portfolio; your thesis is not mandatory for your portfolio, but you should consider including it, since it's a unique project, that you've defined and designed all on your own
9. for VCOM majors, presentation of digital files or PDFs on the projector is acceptable, but you should have a majority of them printed out in color for review in class
10. if you are at all doubtful about what will count towards your 24, make sure that you have more than 30 works to show come your presentation day

During this January review, it helps to see all of your work at once, and having print outs is the best way to do so. 

Be sure to read this handout that has more information.


I look forward to working with you soon.

Sincerely,  
Your Portfolio

Portfolio and Exhibition Terms

This post is intended to help you distinguish between the work you do on your portfolio and the final exhibition. The terms below are also used in the class calendar, which will soon be updated to include nearly (emphasis on nearly) the entire semester's events.

Design: (or visual communication design) refers to any of the graphic design, illustration, web design, logo work, or other visuals you will put in your Portfolio

Portfolio: this is a collection of all of your Design work, packaged to represent who you are and what you can do; see this PDF for the requirements of your printed folio and also your personal website

Student ID: (or Personal ID) refers to the look & feel you apply to your Portfolio, resume, website, business card, stationery, and other Collateral; all of those items should be visually unified

Collateral: (also called stationery) cover letter, resume, business card, envelope, Web Site, brochure or leave behind that you will use for your employment pursuits and have available at the Exhibition

Exhibition: (Senior Show, Graduating Show) an event where you will invite guests such as Winthrop University faculty / staff / students, working professionals, the general public, and family to see your design work for a meet and greet

Exhibition Materials: includes, but is not limited to direct mail (post cards), posters, flyers, bookmarks, e-mail campaigns, labels / tags or name identifiers at the venue itself, on-site way finding at the venue, presence of any Sponsorship materials

Sponsors, Partners: institutions, individuals, corporations who donate time, money, services, goods, products to the Exhibition; last year's included O'Darby's, CSL, Gallery UP, Hampton Inn, Diversified Printing; year's past included the AIGA as well as other paper/printing companies

Venue: the place where the exhibition will be held, such as the Mint Museum or another venue where we host it

Web Site Domain and Social Media: In 2013 we made the decision to have one domain for all Winthrop Visual Communication Design and Illustration Senior Shows, and we have it registered as winthropseniorshow.com. The 2013 and 2014 sites are still up, but year's prior have been moved, such that we have winthropseniorshow.com/2013 and winthropseniorshow.com/2014, and we will eventually have winthropseniorshow.com/2015, then yours will become the home page. We also have social media accounts at Flickr and Twitter. Students on the social media committee should make a new Facebook Page or Group to promote the event.