HOW TO BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO
Your Portfolio is a collection of your artistic work. It demonstrates your creativity, interests, skills, and unique perspective. As an emerging artist or designer, your portfolio is an important part of your application to NSCAD.
Portfolio Requirements
Your NSCAD portfolio should be a collection of creative work presented in the form of digital documents, or links to audio or video pieces. All portfolio materials must be uploaded as part of your application on nscad.slideroom.com.
01
Finished work.
Include 10-20 recent examples of your strongest work in at least three mediums (materials or methods used to create your art).
We want to see original work that reflects your creativity, curiosity, interests, and artistic growth. Your portfolio should demonstrate a range of skills and mediums, showcase your creative process and methods, and communicate your ideas clearly. We also consider your commitment, self-motivation, and readiness for art and design education.
02
Process work.
Include 5-10 examples of how your ideas develop, how you prepare, and how you move a project to completion.
Process work does not need to be perfect. Sketches, observational drawings, prototypes, drafts, research, storyboarding and visual brainstorming progress all provide valuable insight into your creative thinking. Exploration, observation and experimentation help us understand your artistic process as much as the final results, so use the messy parts of creating to your advantage.
03
List of works.
Each finished work will need to include the following useful information: title, medium and materials, dimensions (if applicable), and the year it was made.
Want to take it a step further? Add a brief description about your work: the process, concepts, or inspiration. This will help the Admissions Committee better understand what your artworks are about and how they were realized.
Portfolio tips
- The Admissions Committee is interested in seeing your creativity expressed both inside and outside the classroom. Show the many ways you express yourself as an artist, designer, or creative thinker.
- If you have multiple versions of similar themes or mediums, curate your collection by showing us one or two of the best examples, rather than including everything.
- Include recent work completed in the past two years. If you choose older work, tell us why it remains an important part of your portfolio.
- You don’t need a fancy camera to take good photos of your portfolio. Clear, in-focus, well-lit images presented against plain backgrounds and clear surfaces are the most effective way to make sure the focus is on your work. Crop images of two-dimensional work right to the edge of paper or canvas if possible.
- Include multiple images with varying views for 3D work, series, site-specific work, or multi part projects to show important details and different perspectives
- Creative practice is often interdisciplinary. Projects that connect art and design with other areas of study and practice, including the sciences, food and agriculture, or emerging and traditional technologies are welcome.
Cultural Identity, Artistic Expression & Multiple Worldviews
At NSCAD, we recognize that artistic practice is shaped by diverse cultures, worldviews, communities, identities, and lived experiences. We welcome portfolios that include work created both inside and outside formal educational settings.
If your creative practice has developed through community learning, cultural teachings, self-directed exploration, family traditions, employment, or other life experiences, we encourage you to include this work in your portfolio.
Whether your work reflects Indigenous, African diasporic, Pan-Asian, Pacific, Middle Eastern, Latin American, European, or other ethno-cultural traditions—or combines multiple influences—we encourage you to submit work that is authentic to your creative practice. We are interested in seeing your ideas, curiosity, creativity, and artistic growth in whatever forms are meaningful to you.
Portfolio mediums
Examples of mediums you might include (but are not limited to) in your Portfolio:
- Acrylic
- AdinkraSymbolic Design
- Animation
- Basketweaving
- Beadwork
- Calligraphy
- Cartooning/Anime (with reference or originals)
- Cement
- Ceramics / Pottery
- Charcoal
- Circuit Bending
- Clay
- Clothing
- Costumes
- Creative Writing
- Performance
- Embroidery
- Film (Digital or Analog)
- Food
- Found/Recycled Materials
- Graphic Design
- Graphic Novels
- Illustration
- Ink
- Intaglio
- Interactive Displays
- Jewellery and Personal Adornment
- Knitting or Crochet
- Lithography
- Metalworking
- Oil
- Pastel
- Pencil/Graphite
- Photography (Film or Digital)
- Plastics
- Poetry
- Printed Matter
- Product Design
- Programming
- Regalia
- Robotics
- Rug Hooking
- Screenprinting
- Scripts
- Sewing
- Sound
- Spoken Word
- Stone
- Tattoo Design
- Traditional Craft Practices
- Upholstery
- Video
- Watercolour
- Weaving
- Wire
- Wood
- Wood Carving / Carving Practices
- Woodcuts
- Zines
Want to take your portfolio to the next level?
There are many ways to fine tune and strengthen your portfolio before applying:
- NSCAD’s Extended Studies offers virtual and in-person classes designed for you to explore your creativity and express yourself through various artistic mediums. Go to Home | NSCAD Extended Studies for more details
- Attend a NSCAD Open House or Portfolio Day for in-person exploration of our campuses and programs and receive personalised feedback on your portfolio. You’ll find more details at Portfolio day – NSCAD
- Meet us in Cape Breton for our Portfolio Day Road Show for information about studying at NSCAD, creative workshops, and to receive personalised feedback on your portfolio. Go to Cape Breton Portfolio Day – NSCAD
- To arrange an in-person or virtual one-on-one portfolio feedback meeting before you submit your application, go to Talk with a recruiter – NSCAD.
Meet us in your community!
Each fall and winter, NSCAD representatives travel across Canada, and to select US locations, to attend Educational Fairs and Portfolio Day events, visit schools and meet prospective students. Go to Recruitment events – NSCAD for details on upcoming virtual and in-person events.