WHAT ROLE EDITING PLAYS IN YOUR PORTFOLIO

The portfolio is definitely not an archive of every piece of work that you have ever done. At a basic practical level you will not have the time and money to reproduce all that work, you will not want to pay vast amounts of money to mail it, and certainly the people who will be looking at your portfolio will not have time to look at everything you have done.

In a professional situation, especially if there is an economic recession and greater competition for work, very often if you do not capture in the first few pages of your portfolio the imaginations of the people who are looking at it, they may not even get all the way through your portfolio.

That means you will need to edit the portfolio itself to include only the best, the most engaging and sometimes the most provocative, work. In addition, you will need to remember that there are also differences between portfolio expectations in different countries. In the USA the portfolio you will most likely use to apply for entry into graduate school will probably be mailed in and be smaller in size and volume whereas in the UK, where you often take original work or large print-outs to a personal interview, the portfolio can be larger in size and contain more work. In the UK you may be able to explain work in person whereas in the USA you will need to make sure your portfolio will say everything you want your audience to know.

Finally, you will need to edit your work because your portfolio will have to be as clear as possible about your ideas and experience, and should only contain work that shows your strengths.

The second rule for making a portfolio is therefore EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!