Your portfolio should represent your ability and potential as a designer, and should include four or five recent projects that show evidence of your design work and creativity, together with other drawings, illustrations and photographs of any 3D models and prototypes. You should also include extracts from sketchbooks and workbooks and an example of any relevant written reports.
Interview
The purpose of the portfolio interview is to try and assess your potential and ability to benefit from the course. This will take the form of a discussion around your range of interests and focus on your portfolio of work. The interview is a two-way process: the interviewer wants to see what skills and interests you have, so it is important to spend some time preparing your portfolio.
Please bring an A0 to A3-sized Portfolio (Fine Art prefer an A1 portfolio) with a handle. No transparent plastic wallets to be used inside the portfolio. Your portfolio must be organised logically – either chronologically or grouped so that development work is placed next to the finished piece. Sketchbook and workbook samples should be included. Your portfolio should start with the strongest pieces of work and keep the interest going through the portfolio, with logical layout and good presentation, end your portfolio with another strong piece of work. Title and date each piece of work on the reverse and, for reproductions only (for example photographs of a sculpture or large painting), also provide the original's dimensions (in cm x cm for 2D and cm x cm x cm for 3D).
Online/digital portfolio submissions
An online portfolio may be requested if you are an international student, or cannot attend an interview for some other reason. The same course guidance applies as for a hard-copy portfolio, but your selected work needs to be scanned (where necessary) and arranged in a clear way in either Microsoft PowerPoint or a PDF. You will be asked to upload the file to the London Metropolitan University Applicant Portal – a username and password will be sent to you in an official email.
PowerPoint
You can provide a digital portfolio as a Microsoft Office PowerPoint show file (.pps or .ppsx), ideally one image per slide, with a maximum of three. Please include a clear contents slide at the start of the Powerpoint file. Notes should be used for each slide image, including the title of the work, date, materials and dimensions (in cm x cm for 2D and cm x cm x cm for 3D). Please use stills only – do not attempt to embed any moving image in the PowerPoint file. Please name your PowerPoint file only as below (ie, in no other way).
Maximum file size: 5MB.
You can also provide your portfolio as a single Adobe PDF file, with one to three images per page with clear annotations and notes, please include a clear contents page at the start of the PDF. Notes should be used for each slide image including the title of the work, date, materials and dimensions (in cm x cm for 2D and cm x cm x cm for 3D). Please use stills only – do not attempt to embed any moving image in the PDF file. Name the PDF file only as below (ie, in no other way).
Maximum file size: 5MB.
What to call the file
Please name your file as follows: use the word 'Portfolio' followed by your surname in upper case, then by your first name in lower case and finally your London Met or UCAS ID Number.
(For example: Portfolio_SMITHJohn_1234567890).