SAGA held its Second Annual Portfolio Workshop inviting Hamagami/Carroll Inc. and The Vyant Group to review student portfolios in a informal open review. 16 students participated in the reviews and dozens more watched and asked questions as each reviewer gave feedback on their student work.
What did you find most helpful in your interview? More particularly in your projects or presentation and the overall experience?
Luis Andrade (Participant): It was good. I wasn't expecting it to be some what an informal interview. I thought it would have been different. What was helpful was presenting my work to somebody other than a student or professor. It really made me dig deeper than just a class presentation. I described everything in detail and the process. The communication skills really came out. she had me describe my interest, like print/web/package before going into my portfolio, which helped ease into it so she knew what to expect. Overall, the Portfolio Workshop was great - a good preparation for Portfolio Review.
What did you think of seeing all of the reviews take place? What did you find most interesting...from the set up of the room, the interviewers, etc.
Max Schuster (Attendee): I thought that the reviewers were very tactful and constructive with their criticism which was very cool for us listening because the reviewers would often give reasons for why they thought something didn't work. They would've sometimes made suggestions on how to fix it. There was a lot of very good student work but the most impressive stuff was the home made presentations and leave-behinds. Not just stuffing 11x17 into plastic sheets. although a few people had just amazing work and it really didn't matter that they had a basic presentation. The black [table] cloths were a good idea...very fancy. A bunch of people got business cards. Two thumbs up!
Special thanks to Marge Yang for the interviews and the pics!
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3 comments:
FINALLY! It posted correctly!
This was actually my first time NOT showing my portfolio when I had the opportunity. In the past, I was always right there, first to show my work. I guess I'm so used to talking that this time I wanted to just listen. I'm glad too, because I got to hear a lot of the comments made by the reviewers. Seeing things that worked, things that weren't working, all adjusting the direction that I'll be taking with my revisions.
One thing I really liked seeing was that the reviewers took time to talk with the students before looking at their work. I saw specifically with Catherine Reisen, the student would sit down, pull out their book and immediately open it. At that point, Catherine stopped them, asked them to close their book and talk with them for a good amount of time to get to know them, what motivates them, and what theyre going to expect when they finally do look at the book.
A portfolio is (at least, it should be) an extension of yourself, the things that you believe in and are passionate about. It was clear that Catherine, as well as all of the other reviewers, knew this when sitting down with the student. I know from my personal experience that this is something important to Catherine and The Vyant Group. When I interviewed for my internship at there, it actually flowed a lot like the reviews that Catherine was doing with the students. Not to say that it's the same with all studios, but it was with this particular design firm.
The most important bit of information was the leave behinds. I think every single reviewer emphasized the leave behind as being key to getting a job. I picked up a lot of things that I should do for my own leave behind. I guess to make a long story short, I've had my work seen by a lot of people, and I learn something new every single time.
As some of you already know, I could talk all night, so I'll spare you that and post up some more pictures!
Q and A session
John Hamagami asking the tough questions
Catherine Reisen telling it like it is...and me getting the stare of death from behind her
Sandra Whang being reviewed by Jim from H/C
SAGA President Theresa Shelson jumps into the lion's den with Justin Carroll
Tatsu's work gets looked at by Oui from H/C
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