What is the Portfolio?
Your portfolio is a showcase of your work. It demonstrates:
- Who you are
- What you aspire to be
- What you offer to a potential employer
- What evidence you have to present to support the above
In addition to your experiences, skills and knowledge, the portfolio is critical for your professional career.
Why Portfolio Preview?
Considering how important the portfolio is to your professional career, it is important that you graduate with the best possible portfolio.
Since the knowledge and skills you develop in your classes are progressive, you would invariably want to go back to your earlier projects and bring them up to speed by adding, modifying and sometimes completely changing them.
The Preview is your opportunity to present your projects and go through an interview process that establishes a high likelihood of success in developing an impressive portfolio.
When is the Preview?
The Preview is scheduled in the eighth to tenth week of each quarter. A committee of faculty members will conduct the Preview interview. Approval of the faculty committee is a prerequisite for the Portfolio class.
You can sign up for the preview by contacting the department chair at ajadav@aii.edu or 770-689-4816 in the fourth week of the quarter.
What Does the Committee Look For?
The committee looks for the following:
- Professional presentation
- Punctuality
- Error-free projects
- Ability to respond to questions about the projects and the industry (research, design, technology)
- Quality of projects
- Correlation between the projects and your career goals
Where Can I Get Help?
Faculty advisor. Be sure to identify an advisor early on. After that, meet with your advisor at least once a quarter to show your work and get feedback.
As you start putting together your portfolio, get feedback from your faculty advisor and also from other faculty and students. Look at other students' and designers' portfolios.
Look at web sites, magazines, movies, billboards, posters, and performing arts for design ideas.
Checklist for Preview
Both AA and BFA candidates begin the process as follows:
- Sign up for the Preview
- Carry out thorough quality assurance on projects. All sites must be cross-browser, cross-platform compatible, free of spelling and grammatical errors, and must function without errors. At least one site should meet XHTML code and CSS validation standards of W3C.
- Meet with the faculty advisor to get feedback on your projects
- Dress professionally
- Be on time
Associate in Arts
- Prepare an Online jump page with access to the following:
- Name, Degree, Email
- Personal professional logo
- Resume
- Business card
- Statement of career goals
- Link to one job posting relevant to your career goal
- Project 1. Website (at least four pages - online)
- Project 2. Website (at least four pages - online)
- Project 3. Website (at least four pages - online)
- Project 4. Illustrations, animation clips, photography, comps, code library, etc.
- Online resource library with links to online as well as print resources in Web Design & Interactive Media.
- Portfolio book with the following:
- Resume
- Business card
- Statement of career goal
- Design briefs for projects 1, 2 and 3
- Bring a backup of all web and print projects
Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Prepare an Online jump page with access to the following:
- Name, Degree, Email
- Personal professional logo
- Resume
- Business card
- Statement of career goals
- Link to two job posting relevant to your career goal
- Project 1. Online website, interactive narrative or application
- Project 2. Online website, interactive narrative or application
- Project 3. Online website, interactive narrative or application
- Project 4. Online website, interactive narrative or application
- Project 5. Online website, interactive narrative or application (large scale project - senior project)
- Project(s) 6... Illustrations, animation clips, photography, comps, code library, etc.
- Online resource library with links to online as well as print resources in Web Design & Interactive Media.
- Presentation on a topic relevant to the industry and your career focus.
- Professionall packaged portfolio book with the following:
- Table of Contents
- Statement of career goal
- Resume
- Business card
- Concept notes for projects 1 to 4
- Other relevant materials
- Print or Web layout design
- Illustration or Logo design
- Photography
- Project 5 report book
- Bring a backup of all web and print projects