Hi Aaron, I can only speak to the CMU interaction design program, but when I applied six years ago they required a portfolio that consisted of a sheet of slides documenting previous design work.
Slides are static and don't communicate much more than visual qualities, so my take is that in the portfolio they're looking for evidence of basic visual literacy. I applied to three schools, and tuned the emphasis of my portfolio for each: a combination of web application design, website design, information design, page layout, logos, posters, photography and illustration. No wireframes; no design research. Just things that look good on a 35mm slide. As a counterbalance, your statement of intent will carry quite a bit of weight; explaining your interests and goals for study in Design. If I remember correctly only a handful of incoming students at CMU had a formal background in Design, so you're not alone there. Most came from other undergraduate programs such as Economics, Art, Marketing, English, German, Anthropology. I think one student used to build pipe organs. That diversity of experience is valuable, but I believe that all had actually worked as designers or come to Design in one way or another before applying to the program. Carnegie Mellon holds a summer session for incoming graduate students without an undergraduate Design education. 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=35211 ________________________________________________________________ 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
