Fashion Illustration 3(1+2)

Lesson 16: Portfolio

Organization and Contents

A traditional portfolio should contain a variety of collections to demonstrate you design skills. Your interviewer will be looking for drawing ability, creativity, imagination, individual style and an awareness of the current trends. A traditional portfolio contains:

1. Introduction
2. Four to six collections with mood, color, fabric boards.
3. Specification drawings
4. Awards or Achievements

Remember that neatness, originality and creativity count. So make sure you choose the best of your work to present in your portfolio. Apart from this set, one can include a design journal which can be a conglomerate of all the raw sketches and rough ideas that inspired you. You can also include a booklet of graphic design with computer generated prints. Although, you can include a variety of things, you must remember to highlight your special skills and interests.

Size: The size of the portfolio is really up to you. But you must remember that it must be easy to carry and to present without disrupting an office desk during an interview. Some of the recommended sizes are: 14” x17”, 9” x 12”, 11” x 14”.

Determine the sequence of your collections within the portfolio once the work is edited. It is important to have a flow of the entire work.

The introductory page is usually left blank. It would be interesting to use this page to create a unique design that speaks about you. It will be the interviewer an idea of your personality and what is about to come.

Each collection should ideally include a theme board, a fabric board, a color story, ideation sheets, illustrations, specifications, and graphics (if any).

You can also decide to include the specification drawings next to the illustrations or the color story on the mood board or however you want to present it. While drawing flats, it can be helpful to refer to some industrial specification sheets.

You can also create your portfolios digitally. You can see some of them on www.coroflot.com. You can also create your own on this website! After compiling all the collection and presentation boards, it is important to edit and not include way too many elements in your portfolio as this can be seen as an inability to edit and decide.

With this information in the background, I hope that you will be able to build a cohesive portfolio which is unique in its presentation and it represents your style and personality. Good luck!