How to present a portfolio?

davidbridges

davidbridges

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David Bridges
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Hi all,

I'm needing a portfolio sorted asap for uni interviews etc. I've been looking at photobooks from blurb and jessops but i'm not sold yet. Any other suggestions are more than welcome and images must be presents around A4 or bigger

Thankyou
 
i am having the same trouble but really i would get a presentation book from partners and get some 9x6 inch prints mounting on some black a4 cards. i cant find an a company that prints A4 so thats the route im going to have to take, dont know about you though.
 
One vision print above A4.

I've just received my first prints from them, largest 36x24 and several 10x8 can' fault them and the metalised paper for B&W is amazing.

Rob.
 
I use these when I supply a full model portfolio - http://www.londongraphics.co.uk/acatalog/Mapac_Professional_Presenters.html

They are reasonable quality, look good, and give a professional appearance. Then get your prints done at Loxley Colour, again for a professional finish - ring them up and tell them you are working on your uni interview portfolio and I'm sure they'll help you get the results you want/need.

If you want to stand out from the crowd at the Uni interviews, take some care over your portfolio. It makes a huge difference.
 
Hi David,

This is just my opinion, but I found Blurb to have poor quality control. I used Blurb to produce a book for my cousin's 30th birthday celebration. The book creation and ordering process is painless but when it comes to quality control of printing, I found them lacking. Some prints that looked properly exposed on my calibrated screen were printed too dark. My cousin loved it and probably wouldn't have noticed, but to me it was less than ideal.

You only get one chance to make that good first impression. If you are set on going down the photobook route, then as Zoe suggested, pay more and get a quality book from Loxley, RGB or any pro print lab.

But personally, I'd get a leather folio. It looks and feels like you mean business and you have the option to continually update your folio as your work improves.

Good luck with the interviews.
 
For my uni interviews I had an a3 leather portfolio with a3 boardmount in grey & off White depending on what was mounted on them, my largest prints were 6x9, some mounted on their own, some in groups. You can view a digital representation of what it looked like here
http://louise-knight.deviantart.com/art/Uni-Portfolio-81516318
it's so outdated though, but it did the trick :)
 
I have just posted this on a similar thread so thought I'd add it here too...

The way we have been taught at Uni for this kind of thing is to use an A4 porfolio box like this one with a drop spine so the images can be slid across from one side to the other for easy viewing.

You would use A4 photo paper and re-size the images on it without trimming the paper, always use the same distance from the top to keep the flow nice & neat. The A4 acrylic wallets on the same site in the link above would be used with this kind of box.

You can get these in A3 but they can be cumbersome for people to open it out to view. It really depends on what you are showing tbh.

The only downside I can see with this sort of box is that if you have a series in a set order & the box gets handed around to different people, they can become un-ordered and spoil the flow.

There are many other ways of doing this, i think there may be some portfolio books also on that site...

I took my images to my Uni interview on mounted on black card... I did get in based on my portfolio alone but the tutors kinda joke about people who use black card (like I did!) and say "you are not looking to do an A level!" This came from the course leader who wrote the content so I generally listen ;)

No disrespect to A Level students but they are looking for something to show you can make this level of study.

I hope this helps.
 
can I just add, from my experience in all the college and uni interviews I've been to for both art & design, and photography (and that's a lot!) they don't like plastic wallets/sleeves as reflections can destroy an image when viewing, and they won't want to waste time taking all your work out of the sleeves.

Unless you can find matte finish sleeves.. :shrug:
 
Both my major projects from this year HAD to be handed in using the method stated in my previous post, it was specified in 2/3 briefs we had. I think different courses use different rules by the sound of it, no wonder we get confused :lol:
 
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