Tips

Tips to Finally Finish That Portfolio

Tips to Finally Finish That Portfolio

Doing your portfolio can become a nightmare. There's just too much to do.

Sometimes we can get stuck because we don't know how to organize the execution, or we feel that something is missing but we don't know what it is.

In the process of applying to grad school, I had to make several versions of my portfolio, according to the specific requirements of each institute. They varied in the number of projects, format and focus areas. So I had to rework a lot of things, but always making sure I met the deadline.

Here are my top tips from going through the grueling process myself, and doing a lot of research on the topic.

5 Things to Keep in Mind Before Applying to Grad School

5 Things to Keep in Mind Before Applying to Grad School

As I mentioned in the previous post, I came to Barcelona to start graduate school. One of the main reasons why I decided to continue my studies is that I believe in building from knowledge. 

Another big reason is that it is an exploration towards another area of design. Beyond my background in architecture which has shaped me strongly, I am also interested in product design. It is a matter of scale, I want to reach a level of detail and intimacy in the interaction with the user.

Now, speaking about the experience, this has been such a journey. I followed the trace of universities, prepared a bunch of applications, interviewed with different people, and in the process I have learned a lot I would like to share with you.

How to Figure out What to do With Your Life?

How to Figure out What to do With Your Life?

Discovering the answer to this question is not an easy task. I have struggled with finding my vocation pretty much since I finished high school, and just until the last couple of years I can say I got more clarity about what I want to do next, and the kind of future I would like to build.

Since this is a frequent struggle not only for me, but also for lots of my friends, I would like to share some ideas and tools that have been helpful for me in this process.

I've made a big effort to simplify the process I've gone through and to put into words things I would have liked to know years ago, when I had no idea of where to start, just to give you a little push.

One Secret to Boost Your Digital Illustration Workflow

One Secret to Boost Your Digital Illustration Workflow

One aspect that is fundamental for our process is to continually improve the workflow. Since this is a space for exploration and sharing, I would like to comment on a recent discovery in my learning path on illustration. As an extension of my interest in drawing, I have been immersing in digital paint and I know some of you that are on this journey too, so I wanted to communicate a find I have found very useful for myself.

As I have mentioned before, artists like filmmaker Kirby Ferguson consider one of the basic elements of creativity is copying and naturally, this happens with drawing as well. Even though you are not going to create an exact copy of another image (or perhaps you want to as a practice), it is natural to the process to create from existing references.  

Precisely, one of my top recent discoveries was an awesome tool for reference materials: PureRef. 

This was just to cool to keep to myself!