PortfolioRedefined Workshop: Documentation & Writing

Jesse DayCynthia Lawson

http://portfolioredefined.wordpress.com

Summer Intensive StudiesJune 30, 2011

PortfolioRedefined Workshop:Documentation + Writing

• Not just images

• images + video + sound + text + ?

PortfolioRedefined

• Not just images

• images + video + sound + text + ?

• Not just final work

• final work + process

PortfolioRedefined

• Not just images

• images + video + sound + text + ?

• Not just final work

• final work + process

• Not just documentation

• documentation + reflection = Today’s Workshop!

PortfolioRedefined

• Many audiences

• Yourself, your faculty, admissions, potential employers, etc.

PortfolioRedefined

• What?

Documentation

• What?

• Capturing work you have done

Documentation

• What?

• Capturing work you have done

• Static, time-based, visual, written

Documentation

• Why?

Documentation

• Why?

• Quality of documentation affects perceived quality of the work

Documentation

• Why?

• Quality of documentation affects perceived quality of the work

• Capture your growth and development as an artist/designer

Documentation

• Why?

• Quality of documentation affects perceived quality of the work

• Capture your growth and development as an artist/designer

• For your PortfolioRedefined

Documentation

• How?

Documentation

• How?

• Myth of the camera

Documentation

• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it

Myth of the camera

iPhone4 vs. Canon EOS 5D?

• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it

• Settings

Myth of the camera

• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it

• Settings

• Angle

Myth of the camera

• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it

• Settings

• Angle

Myth of the camera

• It’s not which camera you use but how you use it

• Settings

• Angle

Myth of the camera

From above From below

From left From right

Straight onpainting by Jenn Fuentes

• How?

• Myth of the camera

• Lighting, lighting, lighting

Documentation

• NEVER use flash

Lighting, lighting, lighting

• NEVER use flash

• Studio lighting

Lighting, lighting, lighting

• NEVER use flash

• Studio lighting

Lighting, lighting, lighting

from http://www.celuch.net/About_Us.php

• NEVER use flash

• Studio lighting

• Natural light

Lighting, lighting, lighting

from http://www.garyrobbins.net

• How?

• Myth of the camera

• Lighting, lighting, lighting

• Context

Documentation

• Neutral

Context

• Neutral

Context

from http://its4photography.blogspot.com/

• Neutral

Context

from http://www.cubanica.com

• Neutral

• On-site

Context

from http://www.uhurudesign.com

• Neutral

• On-site

Context

from http://www.sarahaphrodite.com/

• Digital file vs. printed version

Notes for digital work

from http://designmeans and http://www.cubanica.com/

• Digital file vs. printed version

• Websites (include browser in screenshot)

Notes for digital work

from http://designmeans

• How?

• Myth of the camera

• Lighting, lighting, lighting

• Context

• File management

Documentation

• Online, print, or both?

File management

• Online, print, or both?

• Online: Save As 72dpi

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)

File management

• Online, print, or both?

• Online: Save As 72dpi

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

File management

• Online, print, or both?

• Online: Save As 72dpi

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

File management

• Online, print, or both?

• Online: Save As 72dpi

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

File management

• Online, print, or both?

• Online: Save As 72dpi

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

File management

• Online, print, or both?

• Online: Save As 72dpi

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

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)

File management

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (only if you can!)

File management

from http://designmeans

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

File management

from http://designmeans

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

File management

from http://designmeans

BITMAPPED

“Pixelated”

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (only if you can!)

File management

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

File management

• Print: Save As minimum 150 dpi (if you can!)

File management

BITMAPPED

“Pixelated”

• 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

File management

• Online, print, or both?

• Files and folders

File management

• Online, print, or both?

• Files and folders

• Save each milestone file as the work progresses

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

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

File management

from http://cre8ive.kr/thesis/prototype1/

• 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

File management

from http://cre8ive.kr/thesis/prototype1/

• 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

File management

from http://cre8ive.kr/thesis/prototype1/

• Online, print, or both?

• Files and folders

• Save each milestone file as the work progresses

• Appropriately name files and folders

File management

File and folder naming

Project title

folders:

File and folder naming

Project title

folders:

Your name_Project title

File and folder naming

Project title

folders:

Your name_Project title

for yourself

File and folder naming

Project title

folders:

Your name_Project title

to submit

File and folder naming

files:

date_project_version.file_extension

name_project_version.file_extension

OR

File and folder naming

files:

date_project_version.file_extension

name_project_version.file_extension

OR

for yourself

File and folder naming

files:

date_project_version.file_extension

name_project_version.file_extension

OR

to submit

File and folder naming

• Don’t use spaces (but underscores “_”)

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

• 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...”

File management

• Keep your statements and reflective text in the folder with documentation

•

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

Save text with visuals

• 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.”

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!

File management

• LawsonC@newschool.edu

• http://portfolioredefined.wordpress.com

Questions?

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.

Artist Statementfrom http://madarts.org/artists/cb/index.html

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.           

Artist Statement

from http://ekbuckley.com/about.html

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.

Designer Statement

from http://containercorps.com/an-arts-press/

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.

Designer Statement

from http://containercorps.com/an-arts-press/

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.

Designer Statement

from http://containercorps.com/an-arts-press/