Undergraduate Portfolio Requirements

Applicants do not submit a portfolio for admission. Admission decisions are based wholly on your academic record.

It’s your choice to submit a portfolio or not! Creative potential comes from many backgrounds and experiences. If you choose to submit a portfolio, include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major.

• Applicants with a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher (first-year) or 2.5 GPA or higher (transfer) are eligible for admission based on GPA alone.
• Applicants with a cumulative GPA below these averages will be required to submit a portfolio for admission consideration.
• Students seeking to transfer studio course credit from another college-level program may need to provide a set of work examples for review. Your admissions counselor will let you know what is needed after you are admitted.

Your portfolio should demonstrate your interest in visual storytelling and your creative design process. The portfolio assignment is to develop a visual story that is 8 – 12 pages.

Choose either an existing story or an original story of your own. Develop original concept designs inspired by that story. Your portfolio should clearly show how your ideas evolved from the initial concept to the final design. Focus on technical skill, creativity, and your design thinking rather than producing a large number of finished pieces. Drawing skills should demonstrate proportion, volume, shape language, and proficiency in digital rendering.

• Submit 8 – 12 pages as a single multi-page PDF.
• Use landscape orientation for all pages.
• Your Visual Story Should Include Designs for These (4) Subjects Areas:
• Environments
• Characters
• Architecture
• Hardware (vehicles, props, accessories, weapons, etc.)
• Create at least 3 designs for each of the 4 subject areas listed above.
• Show Your Design Process:

For each of the 4 subject areas, include a few examples that show how your idea developed. This can include:

• Inspiration images or references
• Rough concept sketches
• Simple value studies or silhouette explorations (optional if not needed for your design)
• A finished rendering

Applicants do not submit a portfolio for admission. Admission decisions are based wholly on your academic record.

Include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major. Work could include but is not limited to: digital design, video, film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans, prints, ceramics, or fashion.

Include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major. Work could include but is not limited to: digital design, video, film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans, prints, ceramics, or fashion.

It’s your choice to submit a portfolio or not! Creative potential comes from many backgrounds and experiences. If you choose to submit a portfolio, include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major.

• Applicants with a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher (first-year) or 2.5 GPA or higher (transfer) are eligible for admission based on GPA alone.
• Applicants with a cumulative GPA below these averages will be required to submit a portfolio for admission consideration.
• Students seeking to transfer studio course credit from another college-level program may need to provide a set of work examples for review. Your admissions counselor will let you know what is needed after you are admitted.

Include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major. Work could include but is not limited to: digital design, video, film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans, prints, ceramics, or fashion.

Submit 5–12 of your strongest visual artworks, including at least five drawings.

Your portfolio should demonstrate strong drawing skills. Include a minimum of five drawings created from direct observation and/or imagination, using any drawing medium.

The remaining works may be in any visual art discipline or medium, including (but not limited to) digital design, video, film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans, printmaking, ceramics, or fashion.

Your portfolio pieces do not need to relate to your intended major.

Include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major. Work could include but is not limited to: digital design, video, film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans, prints, ceramics, or fashion. 

It’s your choice to submit a portfolio or not!  Creative potential comes from many backgrounds and experiences. If you choose to submit a portfolio, include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major.

• Applicants with a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher (first-year) or 2.5 GPA or higher (transfer) are eligible for admission based on GPA alone.
• Applicants with a cumulative GPA below these averages will be required to submit a portfolio for admission consideration.
• Students seeking to transfer studio course credit from another college-level program may need to provide a set of work examples for review. Your admissions counselor will let you know what is needed after you are admitted.

It’s your choice to submit a portfolio or not!  Creative potential comes from many backgrounds and experiences. If you choose to submit a portfolio, include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major.

• Applicants with a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher (first-year) or 2.5 GPA or higher (transfer) are eligible for admission based on GPA alone.
• Applicants with a cumulative GPA below these averages will be required to submit a portfolio for admission consideration.
• Students seeking to transfer studio course credit from another college-level program may need to provide a set of work examples for review. Your admissions counselor will let you know what is needed after you are admitted.

It’s your choice to submit a portfolio or not!  Creative potential comes from many backgrounds and experiences. If you choose to submit a portfolio, include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major.

• Applicants with a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher (first-year) or 2.5 GPA or higher (transfer) are eligible for admission based on GPA alone.
• Applicants with a cumulative GPA below these averages will be required to submit a portfolio for admission consideration.
• Students seeking to transfer studio course credit from another college-level program may need to provide a set of work examples for review. Your admissions counselor will let you know what is needed after you are admitted.

It’s your choice to submit a portfolio or not!  Creative potential comes from many backgrounds and experiences. If you choose to submit a portfolio, include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major.

• Applicants with a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher (first-year) or 2.5 GPA or higher (transfer) are eligible for admission based on GPA alone.
• Submit any genre of visual art, in any medium – including, but not limited to: digital design, video/film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans or orthographic, prints, ceramics, fashion, etc.
• Portfolio pieces do not need to relate to your intended major but they should show your strongest skills and work.
• If you are unsure about what to submit, complete any or all of the following Suggested Assignments.

• Include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major. Work could include but is not limited to: digital design, video, film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans, prints, ceramics, or fashion. 

Submit 5–12 of your strongest visual artworks, including at least five drawings.

Your portfolio should demonstrate strong drawing skills. Include a minimum of five drawings created from direct observation and/or imagination, using any drawing medium.

The remaining works may be in any visual art discipline or medium, including (but not limited to) digital design, video, film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans, printmaking, ceramics, or fashion.

Your portfolio pieces do not need to relate to your intended major.

Include 5–12 pieces of your strongest visual artwork in any medium. Your work does not need to relate to your intended major. Work could include but is not limited to: digital design, video, film, photography, sculpture, jewelry, painting, drawing, installation, performance, design plans, prints, ceramics, or fashion.

CONNECTIONS THROUGH SPORTS

Athletes, more connected than ever, are expecting brands not just to deliver quality, but to resonate with them on and off the field. Identifying with a brand is more about creating memorable experiences that engage people, and athletes, at every touchpoint. For companies that specialize in athletic gear and/or footwear, this means reconsidering the ways they interact with the athlete before, during, and after their product purchase. 

DESIGN BRIEF

Choose a sport-centric brand to work with and create a presentation that shares your new idea of how to connect athletes to the products they wear to win, and to the larger public through a memorable experience, engagement activity, or another method.

• For best results, choose a segment of the audience your company creates products for, i.e. kids, parents who influence kids, adults, professional athletes, coaches, college athletes, amateur athletes, etc. 
• Conduct research about how they connect sponsored athletes to their brand and the products those athletes choose to wear and promote. 
• Explore the associated experiences around and beyond the products an athlete chooses. 
• In the past year, some companies made the decision to sell directly through teams, instead of through distributors. This has allowed more connections between the company and athlete/end-user. How can your chosen company continue to bridge the gaps between digital and physical experiences? 
• Create a holistic concept that infuses an engaging and thoughtful story around the athlete and product that shows your new ideas about how to connect athletes to both the digital and physical experiences with their product and the public. 

PATHWAYS OF EXPLORATION (these are simply suggestions- you can choose anything; we suggest you focus on one Pathway):

• Product Purchase Experience – In-store, mobile/online store, rogue/grassroots events, digital integration; How to make retailers better advocates, etc.
• Product Launch Strategy – New and interesting ways to disrupt the industry and maximize impact for our product launches moving forward.
• Customization Journey – We think the future of athletic sporting goods may very well be centered around the performance benefits of the ‘perfect fit’. How and where is this achieved? At home? In a store? How quickly can we turn around a custom product through thoughtful innovations in manufacturing and distribution?
• Athlete Engagement – How the athlete interacts with the brand before, during and after product purchase.

GENERAL RESEARCH

Do some research into one or more of the categories below to discover your own ideas for making connections between athletes, the brand, and the public. We recommend doing thorough research in one or two different categories- but you can focus on all of them if you wish: 

• Social and Technology Trends Relevant to the Sport
• Primary Brands & Competing Companies
• Current Product Trends
• Current Sales Strategies

Keep in mind the various channels that are used to present a brand:

• eCommerce (Website)
• Brick & Mortar Retail
• Off-site Events (Local, Regional, National or Global Tournaments, exhibition games, etc.)
• Direct Team Sales

DELIVERABLES

Create an impactful, emotional story that outlines your idea. Your solution should be your original ideas presented in any, or all, of the following formats. Don’t forget that to complete our portfolio requirement you must submit a total of 8-12 pieces, so you can submit these along with other work if you need to.

Mission Statement – a brief 3-5 sentences about the solution you have developed

Inspiration Board – a visual representation of the images, video, etc. that have influenced your thinking, inspired your solutions, and that show a look/feel/existing solution that you would like to emulate in your own project.

Storyboard – a visual representation of your final solution; include ideation sketches, or representations of your idea, it’s parts, and how they connect in a narrative way

Additional 2-5 Items – choose your format and create 2 additional items to promote the solution i.e. an original song, a video, an event flyer, a presentation, a sketch of an app, etc.

• Idea bubble charts
• Written statements, tag lines
• Social Media posts or campaigns
• Video, sound or image-based commercials or promos
• Images; idea boards, stills, collage – use of found images is fine since this is essentially a proposal of your ideas 

Two Dimensional Design project: Use a camera to create the following:

• A portrait of how you see yourself.
• A portrait of how others (or “the world”) sees you.
• Documentation of your environment and how you interpret your environment.

Three Dimensional Design project:

• Create a 3D sculpture from a variety of found objects or materials that you are drawn to. Explore color, texture, form and message. Photograph it in its environment.
• Create a mask that transforms the wearer into a whole new character, creature or world.

Written project: Create a distress / “SOS” or “message in a bottle” letter.

Contact the Admissions Office for more suggestions.

Create a Mood Board

A Mood-Board is often used to convey a feeling using colors, themes, textures, shapes, patterns, etc. This exercise is a loose and easy guide to create one. Look around you for found images that appeal to you. Then, identify a common theme among those images – like colors, textures, etc. Arrange the images on an 18×24″ board or sheet of heavy cardstock. Consider placement, balance, and how the images relate to one another.  Add 4 -7 words that describe the feeling you are creating through these images on the board, or in the description you submit with your final board.

Document your world through the lens of color

Pick one color and document the color over a period of 1 week using a camera or smartphone. Shoot a minimum of 30 images, then organize the images by the order of hue and value. 

• Hue — describes the wavelength of the color. There are 12 basic hues.
  It serves as a basic material that can be transformed in three different ways — tinting, shading and toning.
  •  Tint — is created by mixing a hue with white
  • Shade — is a mix of a hue and black
  • Tone — is a color to which black and white (or grey) have been added.
• Value — is a property telling how light or dark a color is.

Visual Story-telling

Produce a 1-3 minute video on how you see Color around you. Use your smartphone or camera to create a video that describes the impact of color in your life and how light impacts color and feeling. Consider writing out your statement or narrative before your start filming. You may edit your video and sound in any way that contributes to your overall project, but keep it to 3 minutes maximum duration.

Space

Find an empty box (a shoe box is recommended). Use recycled/found objects and elements (cardboard, plastic, paper, textiles, leaves, etc.) to create tactile and visual representation of an experience or memory, in the box. Include a short description (25-100 words) of the experience or memory that inspired your work.

Inspiration

Create a series of compositions based on an artist you are interested in. 

Re-interpret (don’t copy) their work using color, form or material.

• Composition: Refers to the arrangement of elements within a work of art.

An artist arranges the different elements of an artwork to bring them into a relationship satisfactory to the intent of the artist, the project and, it is hoped, the viewer.