Hi Robert, I can only speak to the CMU design program, but when I applied they required a portfolio that consisted of a sheet of slides documenting previous work.
This was six years ago, and most other graduate design programs I investigated required the same thing, though I'd imagine the requirement is shifting away from film toward digital submissions. Either way, it seems important that you're able to show work applicable to design that displays an interest in the field. Your statement of intent will also carry quite a bit of weight; explaining your interests and goals for study in Design. I'd do a Dave suggests and try to put together a handful of portfolio pieces, either from existing work or from independent projects you embark on specifically for this purpose. You should also read as much as you can on the subject. Start with Dan Saffer's book Designing for Interaction and Jon Kolko's Thoughts on Interaction Design. If I remember correctly only a handful of incoming students at CMU had a formal background in Design. Most came from other undergraduate programs such as Economics, Art, Marketing, English, German, Anthropology. I think one student used to build pipe organs. All found their way to Design in one way or another. That diversity of experience is valuable. Carnegie Mellon holds a summer session for incoming graduate students without a Design background. It's a series of one-week immersions into photography, layout, type, form etc, coupled with a software bootcamp to get up to speed with the Adobe suite of tools. Check out Dan Saffer's CMU blog. http://www.odannyboy.com/blog/cmu/archives/000596.html He documented his entire course of study in the graduate program, starting with the summer boot camp. It might give you some ideas for the kind of portfolio pieces to focus on for admission. Good luck with the search. // jeff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=33644 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
