 The portfolio, like you can think of it a little bit as a, maybe as a business card in some ways. And with the right business card, what it does, it's like it opens a door. A portfolio is essentially a body of work that represents the kind of point of view and the skills and the breadth of an artist through a designer. My name's Cameron Neate. I'm faculty in the design program at Emily Carr University. My name is Birta Fjontek and I teach in the Faculty of Art and I am an assistant professor of photography. It is not so important that it's technically fully resolved. I'm looking for more unique ideas, experimentation, that a person is really having fun or is dedicated to what they're doing. And I mean, that's amazing if you kind of feel like, oh, this person is not only practicing their artistic skills, but they really have something to say. I generally do like seeing creativity or originality and how those skills are being applied, right? Something surprising, innovative or different is always a standout. I do not expect anyone to be a master when they're entering design school. That's the reason we want you here is to develop those skills. So a certain level of commitment and growth and a certain technique is looked for, but we really look at potential. My main advice is just like you never want to pull this together just like three days before the deadline or something. I definitely think it's worth getting a portfolio review for a couple of reasons. You want to get great feedback on your work. The other thing that is helpful is it will help you learn about the school you're applying for. You will know from that review what kinds of things the school is looking for, what kind of culture and what kind of educational environment and values are behind that. So it goes both ways. You're going to get advice about how to present your work and maybe some things that you may want to work on, but you also will learn more about whether it's a good fit for you. A key thing that I want to see is some process and development. And what I'm looking when I view that, it's not simply like a sketch, but how do those things build into the final piece? Also, you can tell if it's a strong edit. If you feel like everything was done with a purpose and it has its place there and if you would take it out, something would be missing. Students who may have over-prepared where we're only seeing very polished final work, right? And I'm not seeing maybe the parts of the work where there was risk-taking, parts that may be a looser, sketches, free-thought coming out. I do really like to see sketches in a portfolio. And also, work that I can see was either heavily coached by someone else or prepared by someone else, I usually can tell. And I really want to see how the applicant is actually curating and putting themselves forward. That's very important for me. I really appreciate it when applicants are able to maybe include a little bit of write-up or even have a title that kind of refers to something that I understand, this is what the work is about and this is what they want to see with this. I would encourage students as preparing the portfolio to really have fun with it, to not be fearful, to put yourself into it. We love seeing the work. We love seeing young artists developing and we really are looking at the work with joy and kind eyes. We love seeing young artists and what they do and helping them find their path.