Preparing and sharing your portfolio

Which postgraduate courses include portfolio review?

We will ask you to share a digital format portfolio with us if you apply for one of these postgraduate courses. Specific portfolio requirements for each course can be found on our portfolio request page.

• Architectural and Urban Design MA
• Architecture RIBA Part 2 MArch
• Fine Art MA
• Graphic Design MA
• Interior Design MA
• Photography MA
• Sequential Design/Illustration MA

What steps do I need to follow?

The admissions process has the following steps.

• Step 1: Apply through the University of Brighton Student View portal.
• Step 2: Receive an initial conditional offer from us. This will be based on assessment of your predicted grades or academic achievements.
• Step 3: Respond to our request to share your digital portfolio.
• Step 4: Your portfolio will be assessed by the course team.
• Step 5: Following successful portfolio review we will confirm your offer of a place.
• Step 6: Make Brighton your firm choice.

How should I present my portfolio?

What to includes varies  by course – you'll find specific details on the portfolio request page. We will also send you advice about what to include when we invite you to share your portfolio. For all courses we want you to demonstrate your creative process, your development and how you research, solve problems, explore techniques and media, experiment and develop your ideas.

• Your portfolio is a selection of your work presented in a digital format that we can look at online. 
• It should be accessible from a single link and should be published on one platform such as Blogspot, Blogger, WordPress, Flickr, Wix, Vimeo, YouTube or SoundCloud. The platform you choose may depend on the type of work you want to show.
• The reviewer should be able to access your portfolio via a web browser such as Safari, Chrome or Firefox without having to enter a username or password.
• Include clearly captioned images of your work, or a show-reel if you're applying to a course such as music or animation. For some courses you may also be asked to provide a supporting written statement.
• Take time to plan and prepare what you include – this can really help the story of your creative development.

What kind of work should I include?

Your portfolio should be relevant to the course you’ve applied for and showcase your talents, interests and development. We are excited to see your work so far and your potential so don’t delay sending your portfolio because you think it isn’t ‘finished.’ We expect you to be trying things out and experimenting. We’re very happy to see work produced during your most recent studies, work experience and from your practice. You don’t need to create work specially for your portfolio but we recommend that you start thinking about what to include and how to organise it and present it before we invite you to share it.

For all courses

• Anything that demonstrates your motivations, influences and interests as an artist.
• Your ability to develop an idea from concept to a finished piece of work.
• Your potential to experiment, imagine, and explore ideas and techniques.

Depending on course this could include:

• work that shows your understanding of drawing, composition, form, proportion and colour
• images from working sketchbooks – which show your working process
• images of 3D objects you have made
• images of paintings; prints; fashion and textile designs; photography; typography;  illustrations; the application of a creative process such as weave or CAD work
• images or recording of performance; video pieces; sound composition
• written statements or essays.

How should I prepare images for my online portfolio

All images should be in .jpg format and 72dpi resolution. Ideally, images should be flattened and optimised for screen viewing with maximum dimensions of 800 pixels on the longest side – you can do this using Photoshop if you have access to this application.

How do I share my portfolio with you?

1. Activate your University of Brighton username and password. After you apply, we will tell you how to activate your University of Brighton username and password. You need to do this to access Student View, this is where we will ask you to share a link to your portfolio and where you can message us about your application.
2. Log on to Student View. Read our advice on what to include in your portfolio and when you need to share it with us.
3. Share a link to your portfolio. When your portfolio is ready log on to Student View and share a link to it with us.