K100 Architecture Portfolio Information

Content and Format: Portfolios should be sent as one single PDF file, containing no more than 6-8 pieces of artwork in total (usually 1 piece of artwork per page/slide) and of no greater size than 8mb. The portfolio may include examples of the following:

• Artwork • Evidence of architectural awareness • CAD work • Model making • Line drawings • Life drawings • Demonstration of colour awareness • Sculpture or any other artefact that demonstrates creativity

(NB: This is not a list of what you have to include, but a suggestion as to the type of work you may wish to include in your portfolio). Please note that we will NOT assess portfolios of greater than 8mb or those not sent as one single PDF file. You may find that you have difficulty reducing the file size of your portfolio to 8mb. If you re-size the photographs of your artwork before inserting them into your portfolio, this should help to reduce the overall file size. This can be done using most photo processing software (save for web) or by reducing the pixels to 900 on the short side and 1260 on the long side. Converting your portfolio to pdf once complete will also help to reduce overall file size. It is important that you keep the overall file size lower than 8mb, or you will have problems emailing the portfolio to us (many email providers will not allow you to send large attachments) and portfolios with large file sizes cause issues in our systems. Please try to make your portfolio personal, varied and interesting. Try to show a range of media and styles, utilising as many from the list above as possible. Architectural awareness is important, this does not necessarily mean drawings of buildings (although that’s fine) but use of architectural imagery and a clear understanding of form is useful. Take care when you put together your portfolio, it is better to send us a smaller portfolio of your very best work and try not to rely too heavily on only school work (for example GCSE/AS coursework). NB: ‘6-8 pieces of artwork’ means just that – ideally each piece of artwork should be represented by 1 image. The exceptions to this are:

3d (sculpture/model) – up to 3 images on one slide can be used to show the work from different angles.

Showing development of a work from idea to finished piece – again, up to 3 images on one slide can be used to show the progress of the work.

Do not forget the value of annotation/explanatory notes within your portfolio. There is a large difference between being presented with a series of images, and being presented with a well laid out presentation of images, with notes explaining why these particular images have been included. In a sense, the overall design of your portfolio is as much a reflection of your artistic and design abilities as the actual artwork contained within the portfolio.

Sending Your Portfolio: Portfolios should be sent to the following e-mail address: archportfolio@newcastle.ac.uk. NB: you MUST include your name and UCAS ID number in the subject line of the e-mail. Please note: We do not normally accept online portfolios. The reason we ask for portfolios to conform to the format mentioned above is so that all portfolios are assessed on a fair and equal basis.

Process: Once we receive your portfolio, it is forwarded to the selector for Architecture to review. If your portfolio is successful, an offer will be sent to UCAS which will also include appropriate Academic and English Language requirements. If your portfolio is unsatisfactory, an unsuccessful decision will be sent to UCAS. If you have applied for entry to Stage 2 of the course, but your portfolio does not quite meet our requirements, an offer may be made for Stage 1 only. This will be made clear in the body of any offer sent to UCAS.

PortfolioAND HOW TO REDUCE OVERALL FILE SIZE

This picture (after processing) is 16.5 mb in size.After inserting into a Presentation, the file size of the presentation with the photo is 2mb

To reduce the size of the original picture, I opened it in MS Paint (free on most pc/laptop with Windows installed). I went to the Resize menu, and chose to resize using pixels.

If your photo is landscape orientation, then you put 1200 in the ‘horizontal’ field.If your photo is portrait orientation, then enter 1200 in the ‘vertical’ field.

By entering 1200 on the long side the shorter length was automatically calculated.I then saved the photo (renaming it so it did not overwrite the original photo), and inserted the smaller photo into my presentation.

The resized image is less than 3kb, which is much less than the original picture file size.Any reduction in image quality is minor.

The total file size of the presentation with both the original and the re-sized photo is 3mb.(File size of images is reduced once inserted into a Word document or presentation).

If I remove the larger photo, the total file size is less than 1.7mb.

By then saving as a pdf file, the overall size is reduced further to 1.4 mb.

Reducing the file size of the original photos before inserting them into a presentation can reduce the overall file size by almost 50%.