In the Fall 2004 issue of the U/RTA Update,
U/RTA executive director Scott Steele noted that portfolios are partly
about concealing weaknesses. But a designer's strengths should not be
buried for the sake of presentation. A portfolio that is all “bells and
whistles” keeps university design recruiters from seeing what really
exists in the student's mind, what gifts the students truly have, or
even where the real talent deficits may hide.
For
example, if you cannot adequately represent your designs by taking
pencil to paper, you already have an uphill battle. “I'm looking for
art skills traditionally called ‘visual arts,’ which is problematic in
the American educational system in terms of training designers,” says
Richard Isackes, chair at the University of Texas, Austin, and a set
designer. “Most candidates have been theatre majors in their
institutions, which seems completely appropriate but the skills of a
theatre designer really start with skills of a visual artist.” He added
that some of the best designers he has seen have come out of
architectural programs.
“Far and away the most important skill to
me is drawing,” Isackes continues. “Drawing is a learned skill. It is
not a skill that I can teach at the beginning of a graduate training
program along with all the other things that need to be taught in terms
of learning how to design for performance.”
Isackes is
particularly interested in students who have adequate experience in
figure drawing because he believes that is where one really learns to
draw. “A basic understanding of perspective, drafting, and two- and
three-dimensional work is also essential,” he says. “There are
fundamental classes that are taught in most college art departments
where they can get these skills. If they know how to draw, I can teach
them how to make a model; I can't teach them if they don't have basic
skills.”
Drawing is also imperative from a lighting design point
of view, especially examples of hand drafting, which should not be
ignored just because computer drafting is available. “You can't be a
lighting designer without the ability to hand-draft,” says Bill Teague,
a professor of theatre at the University of Alabama who teaches both
lighting and technical theatre design. “It's a skill you just have to
have. You can hire someone to do the computer renderings.”
Scenic,
costume, and lighting designers need to show an impressive command of
the visual media, according to Dave Tosti-Lane, chair of the
Performance Production Department at Cornish College in Seattle. “They
should be able to draw — freehand, not just in Photo-shop — draft, deal
with color, and understand color both in light and pigment,” he says.
“Lighting designers should be able to represent their ideas graphically
and be able to communicate a lighting idea to someone who does not
speak the language of the designer, which is really the key for all
designers: find a way to translate your ideas so that people who think
differently than you can understand them.”
A student's portfolio
should not only present their capabilities, but also the direction they
hope to pursue. “I don't respond well to a student's portfolio that is
so broad that they set themselves out as a jack of all trades, which is
not realistic in terms of what the industry is,” says Peter Beudert, a
set designer and the head of design and technical production at the
University of Arizona. “I encourage students to have as much
specificity as possible in terms of where they think their strengths
are or what they want to work on in grad school. That tends to be one
thing that some students don't achieve too well.”
It
is also important to not only show your final work but how you got to
that point. “Show process, show process, show process,” is Tosti-Lane's
mantra. “Don't just show pretty pictures, but try to show the
progression from research through sketching, through rough model or
fabric swatches, through final design and photographs of finished
work,” he says.
Beudert echoes this sentiment and adds that it's
just like having to show your work in an algebra class. “The resulting
beautiful image that demonstrates their work can be achieved in a lot
of different ways. The artistic impulse that got them there is
critical,” he says. “You should include casual sketches and a finished
product, as well as notes taken during the process that reflect how you
got where you're going, particularly as we see more and more digital
portfolios. The steps you took which reflect your thinking as well as
your way of working are as revealing as anything else.”
Teague
also likes to see how potential lighting design majors achieve their
finished rig. “It doesn't matter to me if you tear up a Rosco swatch
book and tape it so it becomes a backlit slide, but I do like to see
the colors represented graphically,” he says. “I also like to see cheat
sheets and hookups. A lot of that gets lost today. I really like to see
realized work, obviously. Good photographs of the finished product are
pretty important.”
Teague feels it is advisable to keep the
narrative to a minimum. “I don't know that a long, windy statement of
purpose is necessarily important, but a paragraph or two about their
approach to the show would be okay,” Teague says. “It's important to
know what impact your colleagues' work had on your lighting. What other
designers did and how you responded to them is not a bad thing to
include, but not for every piece in the portfolio.”
Beudert says
that it helps him understand how the student's de-sign process works if
there is an accompanying statement of purpose with certain projects.
“If they put into words what they thought about the design or work
process, that indicates a process of synthesis that is important for
someone going to graduate school,” he explains. “Graduate school is,
after all, an academic environment and success in graduate school
requires that kind of [writing] ability. If you choose to go to grad
school, you can't forget about the academic aspect.”
It
probably goes without saying that the contents of your portfolio matter
a lot more than the context, but your presentation should be somewhat
aesthetically pleasing without being “slick.” “It's nice to be neat and
well organized,” Isackes says. “Some of the most exciting students I've
seen are not particularly neat or well organized, but I do look at
neatness and tidiness because that's not an unimportant value.”
Although
Cornish does not offer an MFA, Tosti-Lane and his colleagues are
heavily involved in coaching their students in proper portfolio
preparation for graduate school. “We generally suggest that they
arrange their portfolio with realized productions first and paper
projects after, though exceptions are made when classroom work is
particularly stunning,” he says.
The first step that Tosti-Lane
and his colleagues take in portfolio prep is having students buy the
pages first rather than purchasing an expensive carrying case. The
students use the pages to experiment with the best way to present their
work. The next step is all about layout and deciding what goes first,
second, etc., and labeling everything properly. Finally, during their
last semester, students have their last public portfolio review where
they present their portfolios to the entire department (faculty and
students). “We also invite guests including production managers and
artistic directors from local companies, other designers, and various
other potential employers,” Tosti-Lane says. “Students often wind up
getting work from these presentations, and their portfolios are
generally excellent.”
Then there is the issue of whether you
should have a portfolio at all, at least in traditional terms. Many
students are putting their portfolios on CD, DVD, or websites. Teague
is a big fan of multi-media portfolios, if, for nothing else, sheer
convenience. “I think you'd be crazy not to use a website or a CD,” he
says. “I can see everything I need to see from a CD and it's just so
convenient.” He added that hand drawn work can be easily scanned and
computer work can just be saved.
Tosti-Lane is very comfortable
reviewing work on a website or CD — he recently received a DVD from a
BFA candidate — but he says that designers should not rely on just a
multi-media portfolio. “If they have a really good presentation on CD
or a website, then they can probably make the decision to go smaller
with their paper portfolio, but there are still enough potential
employers and grad school evaluators out there who are computer
challenged,” he explains. “If anything, I might lean toward either
website or DVD at this point — DVDs are easy to make and more and more
people have DVD players at home.” He added that he would advise a
student using a DVD portfolio that they might also do a simple
QuickTime and Windows Media version and carry them on a CD, in case the
reviewer doesn't have a computer with a DVD drive.
DVDs, CDs, and
to some extent Web portfolios can work especially well for a sound
designer because they have the capacity to introduce time-based events.
“The danger is always that you'll wind up presenting to someone who
just doesn't have the gear to play back your presentation,” Tosti-Lane
says. “I suppose the fallback is to always bring something that you can
play it on — laptop, portable player, etc. But do not commit yourself
solely to this technology; always have a real, honest to goodness,
hold-it-in-your-hand-and-turn-the-pages portfolio.”
A digital
portfolio does, however, give a professor an instant insight into a
student's ability, and Beudert likes being able to get that first
impression of a student's work. “However, I always need to see the real
thing at some point because I think there's an awful lot a digital
portfolio can mask,” he says. “It's easier to oversell your work in a
digital portfolio. I would certainly take in a student after having
only seen their work in a traditional portfolio but I can't say the
same is true with only a digital portfolio.” He added that sound
designers in particular can benefit from a mostly digital portfolio but
that he needs to see how visual artists draw, paint, and draft, even if
it is only in CAD.
“I think it is quite telling how students
present their work,” Beudert continues, “although some students may not
be terribly well coached. However, when you speak with a student you
try and establish a connection to their work. I prefer to encounter a
student who has an artistic investment in their work but their skills
may need improvement and that's what graduate school can do. The reason
you're going to school is that you want to learn more. If you were
perfect, there'd be no need to go to grad school, and that's less of an
interest to me.”
Beudert added that he has seen portfolios that
are, in a word, fantastic, and he encourages those students to skip
graduate school altogether. “Quite frankly what are they going to get
out of three years in school when they probably need to spend that time
working in theatre, whereas other students need that environment and
could benefit from grad school [in order to improve their design
skills]. What graduate school can't do is create a passion that isn't
there.”
Even MFA design faculty have their pet peeves. Here are a few missteps to avoid when assembling your work for review:
