Slides from a June 30th workshop at Parsons The New School for Design by Cynthia Lawson and Jesse Day.

1. PortfolioRedefined Workshop:
Documentation + Writing
Jesse Day
Cynthia Lawson
http://portfolioredefined.wordpress.com
Summer Intensive Studies
June 30, 2011

2. PortfolioRedefined
• Not just images
• images + video + sound + text + ?

3. PortfolioRedefined
• Not just images
• images + video + sound + text + ?
• Not just final work
• final work + process

4. PortfolioRedefined
• Not just images
• images + video + sound + text + ?
• Not just final work
• final work + process
• Not just documentation
• documentation + reflection = Today’s Workshop!

5. PortfolioRedefined
• Many audiences
• Yourself, your faculty, admissions, potential employers, etc.

6. Documentation
• What?

7. Documentation
• What?
• Capturing work you have done

8. Documentation
• What?
• Capturing work you have done
• Static, time-based, visual, written

9. Documentation
• Why?

10. Documentation
• Why?
• Quality of documentation affects perceived quality of the work

12. Documentation
• Why?
• Quality of documentation affects perceived quality of the work
• Capture your growth and development as an artist/designer

13. Documentation
• Why?
• Quality of documentation affects perceived quality of the work
• Capture your growth and development as an artist/designer
• For your PortfolioRedefined

14. Documentation
• How?

15. Documentation
• How?
• Myth of the camera

16. Myth of the camera
• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it

17. iPhone4 vs. Canon EOS 5D?

18. Myth of the camera
• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it
• Settings

19. Myth of the camera
• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it
• Settings
• Angle

20. Myth of the camera
• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it
• Settings
• Angle

21. Myth of the camera
• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it
• Settings
• Angle

22. From above From below

23. From left From right

24. Straight on
painting by Jenn Fuentes

25. Documentation
• How?
• Myth of the camera
• Lighting, lighting, lighting

26. Lighting, lighting, lighting
• NEVER use flash

27. Lighting, lighting, lighting
• NEVER use flash
• Studio lighting

28. Lighting, lighting, lighting
• NEVER use flash
• Studio lighting
from http://www.celuch.net/About_Us.php

29. Lighting, lighting, lighting
• NEVER use flash
• Studio lighting
• Natural light
from http://www.garyrobbins.net

30. Documentation
• How?
• Myth of the camera
• Lighting, lighting, lighting
• Context

31. Context
• Neutral

32. Context
• Neutral
from http://its4photography.blogspot.com/

33. Context
• Neutral
from http://www.cubanica.com

34. Context
• Neutral
• On-site
from http://www.uhurudesign.com

35. Context
• Neutral
• On-site
from http://www.sarahaphrodite.com/

36. Notes for digital work
• Digital file vs. printed version
from http://designmeans and http://www.cubanica.com/

37. Notes for digital work
• Digital file vs. printed version
• Websites (include browser in screenshot)
from http://designmeans

38. Documentation
• How?
• Myth of the camera
• Lighting, lighting, lighting
• Context
• File management

39. File management
• Online, print, or both?

40. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi

41. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi (.jpg or .gif)
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (only if you can!) (.tiff or .png or .psd)

42. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

43. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

44. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

45. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

46. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

47. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi (.jpg or .gif)
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (only if you can!) (.tiff or .png or .psd)

48. File management
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (only if you can!)
from http://designmeans

49. File management
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)
from http://designmeans

50. File management
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)
E D
P
P d”
A e
M at
IT el
B ix
“ P
from http://designmeans

51. File management
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (only if you can!)

52. File management
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

53. File management
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)
E D
P
P d”
A e
M at
IT el
B ix
“ P

54. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Online: Save As 72dpi (.jpg or .gif)
• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (only if you can!) (.tiff or .png or .psd)
• Both: Keep either both OR just the print version

55. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders

56. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses

57. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses
• Capture process and select final files only once you’re done

58. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses
• Capture process and select final files only once you’re done
from http://cre8ive.kr/thesis/prototype1/

59. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses
• Capture process and select final files only once you’re done
from http://cre8ive.kr/thesis/prototype1/

60. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses
• Capture process and select final files only once you’re done
from http://cre8ive.kr/thesis/prototype1/

61. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses
• Appropriately name files and folders

62. File and folder naming
folders:
Project title

63. File and folder naming
folders:
Project title Your name_Project title

64. File and folder naming
folders:
Project title Your name_Project title
for yourself

65. File and folder naming
folders:
Project title Your name_Project title
to submit

66. File and folder naming
files:
date_project_version.file_extension
OR
name_project_version.file_extension

67. File and folder naming
for yourself
files:
date_project_version.file_extension
OR
name_project_version.file_extension

68. File and folder naming
files:
date_project_version.file_extension
OR
name_project_version.file_extension
to submit

69. File and folder naming
• Don’t use spaces (but underscores “_”)

70. File and folder naming
• Don’t use spaces (but underscores “_”)
• Use caps consistently or to distinguish words
• figureDrawing_Lawson.tiff
• sketch_painting_NYC.png
• 20110623_journal_coneyIsland1.docx

71. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses
• Appropriately name files and folders
• Save text with visuals
• “If a file doesn’t exist in two places...”

72. Save text with visuals
• Keep your statements and reflective text in the folder with documentation
•

73. Save text with visuals
• Keep your statements and reflective text in the folder with documentation
• If you are uploading images (to Flickr, for example), keep reflective and
descriptive text in description boxes or tags

74. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses
• Appropriately name files and folders
• Save text with visuals
• “If a file doesn’t exist in two places, it doesn’t exist at all.”

75. File management
• Online, print, or both?
• Files and folders
• Save each milestone file as the work progresses
• Appropriately name files and folders
• Save text with visuals
• “If a file doesn’t exist in two places, it doesn’t exist at all.” = BACKUP!

76. Questions?
• LawsonC@newschool.edu
• http://portfolioredefined.wordpress.com

77. Artist Statement
from http://madarts.org/artists/cb/index.html
Charles Buckley
Painting is evidence. Evidence of action. Evidence of thought. And evidence
of being. As a practice it is a means of engaging with the world and
investigating our notions.
A painting can be a brilliant conversation piece (in the best sense of the
phrase), yet it is incomplete without leakage.
Leakage is the area where things cannot be explained rationally yet fit within
the logic of the painting and seem to be known; where a narrative develops
on the horizon between rational thought and uncertainty.

78. Artist Statement
E.K. Buckley
I make subconscious figurative imagery. I'm drawn to martyrs, whores and
the sea. I'm fond of birds. Music and writing fuel a lot of the imagery that
evolves as paint is applied. I love savage and brutal work that maintains
beauty. Some of the work I think of as stained glass windows for my
imaginary church. I make up the saints. Others I would describe as
bookplates, some from real texts, some not.
from http://ekbuckley.com/about.html

79. Designer Statement
Container Corps
Container Corps is a publication design studio, printshop, bindery, and
exhibition space that serves as a platform for the creation, distribution, and
discussion of new arts publications. We publish contemporary drawing,
photography, literature, poetry, and other forms of expression.
We believe that all contributions to human culture are made possible by the
accomplishments that came before them. To this end, we takes as our duty
the moral act of creating books that preserve worthwhile human work for
perpetuity. To fulfill this duty, we push each of our projects towards perfection
in three areas.
First and foremost, we seek to publish rigorous works in the disciplines of
human expression. The only defining aspect of our editorial voice is honesty.
We embrace lesser-known and unknown artists whose work would go
unconsidered by larger, more market-driven publishers.
from http://containercorps.com/an-arts-press/

80. Designer Statement
Design is the tool with which we translate these various forms of work into
books. As designers, we create books whose form enhance the work
contained therein. Though we believe in beauty only as a natural result of
worthwhile work presented with respect, we strive for beauty in everything we
produce.
Finally, as much as possible, we manufacture our books to last through time.
We choose materials and production methods with the longevity of the books
as our ultimate goal. In the production of our projects, we do not sacrifice
durability of object for speed or ease of generation. We recognize the
carefully crafted hand-bound book as the most durable information storage
device yet devised by man. Our books serve as a reminder of the crucial
importance of durable information storage to the progression of human
culture.
from http://containercorps.com/an-arts-press/

81. Designer Statement
If all these conditions are met, our published works will have the potential to
be viable for generations to come. If one volume of one work that we publish
is found at some point in the uncertain future, and just one small speck of
insight is communicated through its pages, through time, from its author to
this new audience, we will have done our duty.
from http://containercorps.com/an-arts-press/