Below is a template and example to guide you in making your own portfolio
Click here to see a completed student portfolio
Click here to see a completed student portfolio
Jane Smith
Digital Art & Design
and
Advanced Digital Art & Design Portfolio
MAT 110 articulation - MiraCosta College
(please scroll all the way down)
Artist Statement/Rationale:
Instructions:
Your artist’s statement should be clear and brief.
Make sure to address these:
1) Write the Artist's Statement in the first person.
2) Explain the motivation behind your artistic process.
3) Explain how your work develops and evolves during the creative process.
4) Describe your medium and your style.
5) provides a rationale for your design choices and connects the tools/techniques used to your artistic goals
6) Avoid self-doubt statements such as "I tried to…"
7) Discuss the way(s) in which your work, medium, technique or vision is unique.
8) Avoid grandiose and vague expressions.
9) Avoid being overly technical.
10) Avoid cliché’s and slang.
11) Make the statement simple, clear, and as straight-forward as possible.
First: Begin with a simple statement of why you create the artwork you do. Support that statement, telling the reader more about your goals and aspirations.
Second: Tell the reader how you make decisions and the process of your art-making. How and why do you select materials, techniques, themes and concepts? Keep it simple.
Third: Tell the reader a little more about your current work. How it grew out of prior work or life experiences. What are you exploring, attempting, and/or challenging by doing this artwork. Why is your work unique?
Your artist’s statement should be clear and brief.
Make sure to address these:
1) Write the Artist's Statement in the first person.
2) Explain the motivation behind your artistic process.
3) Explain how your work develops and evolves during the creative process.
4) Describe your medium and your style.
5) provides a rationale for your design choices and connects the tools/techniques used to your artistic goals
6) Avoid self-doubt statements such as "I tried to…"
7) Discuss the way(s) in which your work, medium, technique or vision is unique.
8) Avoid grandiose and vague expressions.
9) Avoid being overly technical.
10) Avoid cliché’s and slang.
11) Make the statement simple, clear, and as straight-forward as possible.
First: Begin with a simple statement of why you create the artwork you do. Support that statement, telling the reader more about your goals and aspirations.
Second: Tell the reader how you make decisions and the process of your art-making. How and why do you select materials, techniques, themes and concepts? Keep it simple.
Third: Tell the reader a little more about your current work. How it grew out of prior work or life experiences. What are you exploring, attempting, and/or challenging by doing this artwork. Why is your work unique?
Advanced Digital Art & Design Coursework and Process:
(instructions for students: upload final artworks, process documents, and sketchbook pages, and inspiration boards for each project. Add links for Self evaluations/reflections. It's a good idea to separate the projects so the MiraCosta Professor can see your process from inspiration board, sketchbook, to process doc, to final artwork self reflection, and critique forms.
You can label each photo in the weebly interface.
Merchandise & Company Branding Project:
(Students: add links to these files:)
-Merchandise Design Self Reflection linked here
-Critique from a peer linked here
-Merchandise Design Self Reflection linked here
-Critique from a peer linked here
Altered Perspective Project
add all work here
add all other projects in same format
Final Portfolio Project - Capstone Project:
(Directions for students: add all artworks, process docs, copy and paste the text of your Final proposal sheet, sketchbook research and thumbnails, inspiration boards. )
(Copy and Paste the Final Proposal Sheet Text Here
Example:)
CAPSTONE PROJECT FINAL PROPOSAL
1) Explain your finalized idea for your Capstone Project.
My idea is to create an app that identifies different plants/teas by using the phone’s camera and it will be presented as several animated gifs that show how someone uses the app. It can also be presented like how projects on Behance are usually presented, with some background and process as well as finished stills in the mockup as well as the animated interactions.
2) What are your learning goals for this project? By the time you complete this project what will you have learned, discovered, practiced, and be able to do? Explain in detail.
I want to improve my skills in visual design and get a better grasp on the effects of color usage as well as layout. I also want to learn more about the theory and reasons behind user interface elements and some psychology about that. I think that this project is a great way for me to learn a lot more things and go more in depth and explore one specific app idea.
3) What skills will you demonstrate through the execution of your project? Explain what they are and how they will be demonstrated.
I will show that I am able to use type, color, layouts, and other elements of design to successfully convey an emotion or overall feel of the app. Technical skills will be shown by the high fidelity animated gif.
4) Explain your strategy for completing your project. List the steps you will take to accomplish your learning goals and execute your artwork/photographs successfully. Include a description of your process, how you will research, investigate, and experiment.
First, I will need to do some research on if there are any existing apps that have a similar idea and see how they have executed it. Some
more reading on design theory will also help me learn, as well as looking into interface conventions, etc. After some research, I will begin thinking about how the app will work in specifics and sketch out some screens.
5) Explain what you will need to do to create your artworks or photographs. List the steps you will take in your process from the beginning to the end of the artworks or photographs in your project. Be very specific when describing your process. Include everything from sketching to equipment you might need, locations you may travel to, techniques you will need to execute, people that may need to assist you, an estimate of the time each step may take, etc.
After finalizing the rough sketches to where I’m happy with them, I will work on the computer in Adobe XD, designing the different screens through trial and error and seeing what works and doesn’t. The screens can have multiple approaches and I will have to decide which I prefer. After finalizing the designs, I will link up the art boards and think about the animations. I will then save the animation and place it in a phone mockup in photoshop and finally export that as an animated gif.
Capstone Final Project Self Reflection:
1) Summarize your original learning goals for this project. Now that you have completed your Capstone Project, explain how you achieved your original learning goals. What techniques did you master, what did you learn and discover through the process of creating your capstone? Explain.
I wanted to learn more about the whole process of going from an idea to a prototype and follow through with an idea to execution. Through the project, I have learned to take my time sketching before creating high fidelity screens and tried out user testing using feedback on a prototype posted to Reddit. I was able to take the feedback into account to iterate on my design to make it better. I also conducted more research before the design process, trying out similar apps on the market now to see how they compare--what they do well, and the pain points that could be improved.
2) List and briefly describe the Elements of Art & Principles of Design you emphasized or utilized your Capstone Project and how they function in the works.
I gave the user interface a bit of depth using shadows that put some elements in the foreground. Background blurs were also used to give a sense of depth and increase readability of the text. The blurs help increase focus to the important elements on the page and obscure unnecessary information and cognitive load.
4) List and discuss the programs/software you used and your techniques. Discussion may include a new technique you explored in digital art or photography, risk- taking with style choices or techniques, media experimentation (a new painting program, a different lens, new props, etc.) and/or demonstration of personal artistic voice.
To inject some personality into the app and try to strengthen the brand identity, I used ProCreate on the iPad to create onboarding illustrations to help guide the user through the app and its functions. I first blocked in solid colors, then used masks to confine the
shading to the shape. The user interface was created in Adobe XD (Experience Design). I used more drop shadows in this UI then in previous designs and I think it works well. I also used a bold serif font that I found on Google Fonts instead of using a more popular or widespread sans serif font.
5) What were any challenges you faced? What did you learn? What could you do to rework any pieces for possible reassessment?
It was hard to find fonts that worked well together as well as choosing between fonts that gave a similar feel. I learned more about how to pair fonts and to create better text hierarchy. I also read more about the 12 Principles of Motion to make my animations feel more alive and natural, some of these include easing, offsetting and delaying, as well as anticipation. Some things I could rework are the copywriting which could be more effective in conveying information as well as enforcing a brand identity. I would also implement more of the feedback from Reddit such as trying out a new loading icon that is more minimal to be more consistent with the design language of the rest of the UI.
1) Summarize your original learning goals for this project. Now that you have completed your Capstone Project, explain how you achieved your original learning goals. What techniques did you master, what did you learn and discover through the process of creating your capstone? Explain.
I wanted to learn more about the whole process of going from an idea to a prototype and follow through with an idea to execution. Through the project, I have learned to take my time sketching before creating high fidelity screens and tried out user testing using feedback on a prototype posted to Reddit. I was able to take the feedback into account to iterate on my design to make it better. I also conducted more research before the design process, trying out similar apps on the market now to see how they compare--what they do well, and the pain points that could be improved.
2) List and briefly describe the Elements of Art & Principles of Design you emphasized or utilized your Capstone Project and how they function in the works.
- I used contrast to emphasize a button or primary action that I want the user to click on.
- Bold and bright colors were used in the illustration to convey a brand that is happy and light.
- The shading on the illustration have a spray paint texture that gives it a quaint feeling instead of being too polished and lifeless.
- Value and contrast were also used to make sure that all the text was easy to read and pass accessibility standards. Instead of pure black, a dark desaturated blue was used. Instead of white, a light grey was used on dark backgrounds to make it easier to read and cause less eye strain.
I gave the user interface a bit of depth using shadows that put some elements in the foreground. Background blurs were also used to give a sense of depth and increase readability of the text. The blurs help increase focus to the important elements on the page and obscure unnecessary information and cognitive load.
4) List and discuss the programs/software you used and your techniques. Discussion may include a new technique you explored in digital art or photography, risk- taking with style choices or techniques, media experimentation (a new painting program, a different lens, new props, etc.) and/or demonstration of personal artistic voice.
To inject some personality into the app and try to strengthen the brand identity, I used ProCreate on the iPad to create onboarding illustrations to help guide the user through the app and its functions. I first blocked in solid colors, then used masks to confine the
shading to the shape. The user interface was created in Adobe XD (Experience Design). I used more drop shadows in this UI then in previous designs and I think it works well. I also used a bold serif font that I found on Google Fonts instead of using a more popular or widespread sans serif font.
5) What were any challenges you faced? What did you learn? What could you do to rework any pieces for possible reassessment?
It was hard to find fonts that worked well together as well as choosing between fonts that gave a similar feel. I learned more about how to pair fonts and to create better text hierarchy. I also read more about the 12 Principles of Motion to make my animations feel more alive and natural, some of these include easing, offsetting and delaying, as well as anticipation. Some things I could rework are the copywriting which could be more effective in conveying information as well as enforcing a brand identity. I would also implement more of the feedback from Reddit such as trying out a new loading icon that is more minimal to be more consistent with the design language of the rest of the UI.
Digital Art & Design Coursework:
(Instructions for students: add all artwork, process docs, and add links to self evaluations)
Add links to self Reflections or copy and paste text here.