Author: Alexandra Suhner Isenberg: 英國中央圣馬丁藝術(shù)與設(shè)計學(xué)院碩士及教師，曾任Burberry設(shè)計師，并經(jīng)營自己的奢侈品內(nèi)衣公司?，F(xiàn)在她是Vitamin Daily 的時尚編輯，并任教于溫哥華視覺藝術(shù)設(shè)計學(xué)院 Visual College of Art and Design，同時她也是博客寫手，時尚咨詢師等。
這篇文章是源于她的一封答讀者來信。
Hi Alexandra,
I’m wanted to know how should I prepare an entry portfolio for entering into a fashion course ? Any piece of advice would be helpful. Thank you!
Alexandra，你好!
我想知道如何準(zhǔn)備申請時尚設(shè)計的作品集?任何建議都好，非常感謝!
Dear Srijaa,
Happy to help. I’ve been in the position to help students prepare portfolios, as well as evaluating prospective students’ portfolios, so I am happy to give you some advice. And let it be known that these tips are not only applicable to student’s preparing portfolios to join fashion courses, they are also relevant to graduates looking for fashion jobs.
親愛的Srijaa,
很高興能幫到你。我曾經(jīng)幫助學(xué)生準(zhǔn)備作品集也評估過申請者的作品，所以我很高興可以給你一些建議。 這些建議不僅適用于申請時尚設(shè)計課程也適用于畢業(yè)生應(yīng)聘時尚相關(guān)工作。
1. Read the portfolio requirements. All schools have different portfolio requirements, so make sure to READ the requirements and FOLLOW them. This may sounds like a no brainer, but I have seen a lot of students who used the exact same portfolio for ten different course applications, even though it meant they were turning up to interviews with the wrong material. So if they want 3 design projects, a sketchbook, and a toile, bring that. If you’ve got amazing stuff that doesn’t fit into the requirements, bring it separately, and tell them you have a few more things you’d like to show them. Maybe they will look, maybe they won’t. (On that note, make sure to read the course DESCRIPTION, too. I can’t tell you how many students came to the interview for our fashion management and marketing course and told us how they wanted to be designers. Duh.)
1.仔細(xì)閱讀作品集要求。
每個學(xué)校的作品集要求不盡相同，仔細(xì)研究并且遵循其要求。這聽起來很白癡，但是我見過很多學(xué)生申請10個不同的課程但是用一模一樣的作品集，這意味著他們面試的時候帶著錯誤的申請材料。因此，如果學(xué)校需要3個設(shè)計項目，一個速寫本，一種布料，帶著他們。如果你有非常棒的材料但是不符合學(xué)校的要求，那么分開攜帶，并且告訴面試官你還想給他們展示其他東西。他們或許會看或許不會。(關(guān)于這一點，確認(rèn)也要認(rèn)真閱讀學(xué)校的課程介紹。很多學(xué)生我面試時尚管理和時尚營銷的時候跟我們說他們想成為一個設(shè)計師。)
2. Prepare to be flexible, and take things in and out. Because different jobs and courses will have different requirements, make sure to be prepared to adapt your portfolio according to the position you are applying for (just like you do with a resume, right?) So if you have five great projects, maybe you only bring three to one interview, and four to another, because there were elements that weren’t relevant to one particular school or job. This also means you need a portfolio where you can remove content. Very important, see below.
2. 要利于編輯。
不同的工作(學(xué)校)有不同的要求，根據(jù)你所申請的職位(課程)不同對作品集要做相應(yīng)的調(diào)整(就像制作簡歷那樣)。因此，如果你有五個設(shè)計項目，你可能面試這個工作(學(xué)校)的時候帶三個，而去另一個面試的時候帶四個，因為作品當(dāng)中會有某些元素跟你所申請的工作(學(xué)校)不相關(guān)。這就是說你的作品集也方便你刪除內(nèi)容。這非常重要。
A line up of the whole collection, by Katharina Domokosch. This is a great way to end a fashion design project, as it allows the viewer to see the collection as a whole.
這是一列發(fā)布會的作品-- Katharina Domokosch. 這是一種非常好的展示時尚設(shè)計項目的方式，因為它可以讓人把整個系列作為一個整體來看。
3. Buy a good portfolio. And have a great digital version.
A good portfolio is an indispensable tool for a fashion person. I suggest A4 or letter size (bigger makes you look student-y, although some schools will require this, see point 1. ) Choose something neutral (ie. black. No logos, no weird colours, no cheap binding, please.) Make sure it is very high quality and has sleeves where you can easily change the content, and how many pages are in the portfolio. Your portfolio will last you for years, which is why you want it to be neutral. Even though you might be obsessed with pink bows and lace now, you don’t want your portfolio to be pink and lacy, as you may end up being a menswear designer in five years. Expect to spend well into the three digits for a good portfolio and sleeves, but count this as an investment.
I once saw Louise Wilson (course director on the MA at St. Martins) refuse an application because the portfolio looked “disgusting.” She didn’t even open it. But, I won’t deny she has a good point. What kind of person are you if you go to a job interview in a sweatsuit? The same type of person who puts their prized work into the portfolio equivalent of a sweatsuit.
3. 買一個好的作品集子(編者注：速寫本之類)，要有很棒的電子版。
一個好的作品集子是時尚界人士必不可少的工具。我建議選擇A4或者信紙大小(雖然有的學(xué)校要求大一點的尺寸，但是太大的話看起來太學(xué)生氣)。選擇普通的(就是黑的，拜托一定不要有l(wèi)ogo、奇怪的顏色、廉價的裝訂等)。確保它質(zhì)量很好，內(nèi)頁可以很方便的替換，并且頁數(shù)足夠。作品集要跟你好多年所以一定不要太花哨?？赡墁F(xiàn)在你的集子滿是粉色的蝴蝶結(jié)和花邊，但是你一定不希望你的作品集子變成蝴蝶結(jié)或者花邊，因為你可能五年以后變成了一個男裝設(shè)計師。就當(dāng)是一項投資，花費一定的時間將你比較滿意的三個作品和單頁做成電子版。我曾經(jīng)見過Louise Wilson(中央圣馬丁藝術(shù)與設(shè)計學(xué)院MA的面試官)拒絕了一個申請者，因為其作品看起來很“惡心”。她甚至沒有打開作品集。但是我完全同意她的砍伐。試想一下，什么樣的人會穿運動套裝去面試?就那個申請者就像這樣，把獲獎作品放在像運動套裝一樣的作品集里。
And don’t forget, a good digital version of your portfolio is also very important since we live in the digital age. This needs to be slightly different than your hardcopy, as some things can’t be represented the same in both formats (ex. videos or fabric swatches.) I make my students do a small 4MB maximum mini version of their digital portfolio, to send out as a taster. Then they need a larger version, which can be sent out on request (don’t ever send a 100MB file to someone unless they have requested it.) Make sure to have flexibility with your pages in case you need to do a 20MB version, or you want to remove pages.
別忘了，電子版作品集非常重要，因為我們生活在一個數(shù)字時代。電子版跟紙質(zhì)版稍微有點不同，因為某些東西不能用兩種形式呈現(xiàn)(比如食品或者樣布)。我讓我的學(xué)生給電子版作品集制作一個最大4MB的迷你視頻作為前菜。然后如果要求的話你可以再寄一個長一點的(除非要求千萬不要寄送一個100MB的視頻給人家。)確保你的錄像可以剪切，以防你需要一個20MB的視頻或者你需要刪除一些圖像。
4. Know your strengths. This is a life lesson for everyone, and applies to all careers, applications, and aspects of life. If you aren’t good at something, try and avoid including it in your portfolio. For example, if you suck at illustrating, don’t put any in your portfolio (this is very possible. On the MA at St. Martins, the course director thought everyone’s illustrations were “shit” – her words – and only one of us was allowed to include proper fashion illustrations in our portfolio. The rest of us managed to make beautiful portfolios without them, proof that it is possible.) If it is presentation skills, have a graphic designer friend help you with layouts. If you can’t spell, make sure your written work is proofread. No one is perfect, so don’t try to be and don’t try and do everything yourself. Remember, you are only as good as your worst illustration/design/layout/essay, so make sure there are no weak links.
4. 清楚你的長項。
這是一個終生課題，適用于所有職業(yè)、申請以及生活的各個方面。如果你不擅長某一方面，盡量避免在作品集中展現(xiàn)。比如，你的插圖很爛，別往作品集里放(這非常有可能。中央圣馬丁藝術(shù)與設(shè)計學(xué)院MA的系主任說每個人的插圖都是“狗屎”—她的原話—我們所有人中只有一個人可以在作品集中放入合適的時尚插圖。其他人只能再插圖的情況下試圖把作品集做的漂亮。)如果你展示技巧很差，找一個平面設(shè)計的朋友幫你進(jìn)行排版。如果你寫作比較差，確保你寫的東西有人幫你看過。沒有人事完美的，所以不用試圖自己做所有的事情。記住，大家只會記住你的短板：差勁的插圖、設(shè)計、排版、寫作，所以一定要確保你的作品沒有弱項。
5. No unprofessional photoshoots. I was just saying to some students the other day, who are planning photoshoots for their styling class, that it is ESSENTIAL that they get professional models. Nowadays, with Instagram and photo editing software, a good model is even more important than a good photographer. This is one of the reasons why I organize our fashion design graduates’ photoshoots, because most local schools make the students do them on their own, and they end up with poor photos because they don’t have a pro team. As you can see here, a pro team makes a huge difference. And spare me the argument about wanting to use “real women” as models, that is a load of bollocks. If you want a model that isn’t a size four, then hire one who is bigger. Or hire an actress, but it must be someone that is comfortable in front of a camera. Don’t get your mate to model instead. Read more on this here.
5. 不要有非專業(yè)的攝影。
前幾天我剛一些計劃給造型課攝影的學(xué)生說，職業(yè)模特非常關(guān)鍵?，F(xiàn)在，有Instagram和其他的照片編輯軟件，一個好的模特比好的攝影師更重要。這也是我組織時尚設(shè)計畢業(yè)攝影的原因，很多當(dāng)?shù)貙W(xué)校都讓學(xué)生自己做，而由于沒有專業(yè)的團(tuán)隊學(xué)生的攝影非常差。就像你通過這個鏈接看到的一樣，一個專業(yè)的團(tuán)隊會帶來很大的不同。不要跟我爭論用“現(xiàn)實中的女性”做模特的問題。如果找不到四號身材(歐美標(biāo)準(zhǔn)身材，對應(yīng)的尺寸：胸圍83-86 腰圍：68-71 臀圍：89 -91)的模特，找大一點的?；蛘吖鸵粋€在鏡頭前感覺比較自在的演員。不要讓你的配偶做模特。
6. Edit. When people look at portfolios, they are usually in some type of recruitment process and will be exposed to a lot of work. Which is why you need to make your short and SWEET. Don’t bore people to death. Don’t start with the OK stuff and save the best for last (the interviewer may not even bother to get through the first half.) And don’t include anything mediocre. Editing seems to be something that is FAR more challenging than creating content (I am guilty of this, look at the size of this blog post) and so take the time to edit your portfolio carefully so that it isn’t too long and doesn’t get boring. In the case of applications for courses that require written content, be sure to edit down your projects and use clear titles, introductions, bullet points, nice diagrams, and subtitles so that the interviewer doesn’t need to read your 4,000 word market research project, they can skim it and get an idea of what you’ve done. I am not going to get into specifics of page numbers here, as sometimes a 20 page portfolio will bore me to death, while a 100 page one will be riveting and exciting the whole way through. It depends. And remember point 2, you will probably have a lot of work you want to show, just don’t include all of it for every submission. Edit and choose according the job/school/course you are applying to.
6. 編輯。
當(dāng)面試官看你的作品集的時候，他/她通常在招聘季(申請季)，工作量非常大。這就是為什么你要讓你的作品集簡短而吸引人。別讓人覺得你的作品集無聊死了。不要把最好的作品放在最后(面試官不一定會看完)。不要放任何不起眼的作品。編輯似乎遠(yuǎn)比創(chuàng)造有挑戰(zhàn)，因此一定要自信編輯你的作品集，別讓它又長又無聊。如果你的申請需要有寫作的內(nèi)容，使用明確的標(biāo)題、簡介、要點符號、漂亮的圖表、副標(biāo)題等，讓面試官可以不用看完你4000字的市場研究項目。他們可以跳讀獲取主要信息。作品的數(shù)量我沒有什么建議，有時候20頁的作品讓我看的無聊的要死，但是有的時候100頁的作品卻讓我激動萬分，可以吸引我從頭欣賞到尾。不過參見上面說的，要遞交符合要求的作品。根據(jù)你所申請的工作/學(xué)校/課程的要求進(jìn)行編輯。
7. Excellent presentation. If I had a dollar every time a student handed in good work poorly presented, and got a crappy mark as a result, well, I’d have many dollars. This is fashion, is ALL ABOUT presentation! So how can you ignore it? You can’t. Layouts need to be SPECTACULAR. Maybe I need to do a separate post on layout tips, because I see more fails than I do successes. Go back to the sweatshirt analogy. Or the part about only being as good as your worst element. So think great graphics, a well-considered font, high quality imagery, consistency, white space, good quality paper, and a presentation style that is relevant to your work and yourself. This is a great time to get your graphic designer friends to help out.
7. 完美的展示。
如果學(xué)生每交每一份糟糕的作品，我就得到一美元的話，我現(xiàn)在就已經(jīng)很富有了。時尚，就是展示!為什么忽略它呢?排版必須非常漂亮，非常吸引人。或許我該另外講一下排版的建議，我看過太多失敗的例子?；叵胍幌履莻€運動套裝的例子，或者你最不擅長的事情。再想象下漂亮的平面設(shè)計、考慮周到的字體、高質(zhì)量的圖像、一致性、留白、質(zhì)量很好的紙張、與你或者申請工作/課程相關(guān)的展現(xiàn)方式。這非常需要你平面設(shè)計朋友的幫助。
8. Show your process. Most people like to see the process in which a person goes through to get to their final result, as that is the main part of the role in most fashion jobs. So with design portfolios, make sure to show research, development, experimentation, fittings, and more. This can be as part of a project (all my students need to show these elements when they hand in a design project) or it can be in a sketchbook.
8. 展現(xiàn)過程。
大部分人想看到你如何獲得最終的設(shè)計成果，因為這是大部分時尚工作的主要內(nèi)容。所以在時尚作品集中一定要展現(xiàn)研究、發(fā)展、實驗、試裝等等而不僅僅是設(shè)計成品。這可以是設(shè)計項目的一部分(我所有的學(xué)生在遞交設(shè)計項目的時候都需要包含設(shè)計過程)或者是有速寫本來體現(xiàn)。
9. Research and development! See above. But I wanted to have a separate point for this because research is one of the most important elements in a fashion design portfolio and is usually what separates a St. Martins student from a student from crappy fashion school in the middle of nowhere. Our projects and portfolios were probably 50-90% research and development, with a resolution or conclusion at the end. We did research for months before we started designing, and that’s often what happens in industry. I don’t let my students even pick up a pencil until they’ve collected a crap load of research. So if you are wondering what makes St. Martins and all those other English schools so good, it is usually the importance they place on research skills.
9. 研究與發(fā)展。
我想單獨說一下是因為研究是時尚設(shè)計項目中最重要的因素之一，也是區(qū)分中央圣馬丁藝術(shù)與設(shè)計學(xué)院的學(xué)生和其他糟糕的時尚學(xué)校的學(xué)生的標(biāo)志之一。我們的設(shè)計項目和作品集的50-90%是研究相關(guān)，然后獲得一個解決方案或者結(jié)論。我們再設(shè)計之前花費數(shù)月的時間進(jìn)行研究，而這也是時尚行業(yè)的常態(tài)。在他們做大量的研究之前我甚至不會讓我的學(xué)生動筆。為什么中央圣馬丁藝術(shù)與設(shè)計學(xué)院和其他著名的設(shè)計學(xué)院那么的好?原因就在于他們非常重視研究技能。
10. Don’t limit your content to fashion. If you are great in other things, then make sure they get a mention. Schools and companies aren’t accepting/hiring you based on your work, they are also making an investment in you as a person. And so if you are good at other things, then that will always be a plus.
P.S. One last very important tip: if you are applying to schools, check out the graduate portfolios from the recent grads. That will give you an idea of where the course is supposed to take you, and demonstrating that you have the ability to get there will only help you. Most schools do public portfolio shows, or put work online. In fact, all of these images came from Showtime, which has the graduate portfolios of the University of the Arts grads (includes St. Martins and London College of Fashion), a great resource to see what some of the top London fashion school grads are doing. I’ve shown work from students at London College of Fashion.
10. 作品集不局限于時尚。
如果你也擅長其他方面也可以在作品集里體現(xiàn)。學(xué)校和公司不僅會因為你的作品錄取或者雇傭你，也會對你個人進(jìn)行投資。因此你其他方面的長項也可以是個補充。
PS，最后一個重要的建議：如果申請學(xué)校，去看看最近的畢業(yè)生的作品。這會讓你知道學(xué)校的課程方向，也證明如果給你幫助你也有能力可以做到。大部分學(xué)校會展示學(xué)生作品。英國藝術(shù)留學(xué)事實上你也可以通過Showtime來欣賞畢業(yè)生的作品(中央圣馬丁藝術(shù)與設(shè)計學(xué)院和倫敦時裝學(xué)院)，這是一個幫助你了解頂尖的倫敦時尚院校畢業(yè)生們的動向的網(wǎng)站。更多資訊請訪問壹壹網(wǎng)官方網(wǎng)站wujixian120.cn
