Portfolio Guidance
When applying to many of our Arts, Design and Media courses, you will be asked to provide a digital portfolio. This is an opportunity to show us who you are, your artistic ability and your potential.
This page provides a detailed insight into how to prepare the best possible portfolio for your course.
Portfolio submission deadlines
You will be asked to submit a digital portfolio to us within 28 days of receiving your invitation to submit a portfolio review. We know that you may be applying to us relatively early in the academic year, while you are still building an updated portfolio, so please note that we are happy for you to submit the following: GCSE work (for undergraduate programmes); work from the previous year; work in progress, such as sketches of ideas; and photos of your work.
Which courses require a portfolio?
You will be asked to submit a digital portfolio if you are applying to the following courses:
- BA Jewellery and Objects
- HND Jewellery and Silversmithing
- BA Jewellery and Silversmithing - Design for Industry (top-up)
- MA Jewellery and Related Products
For detailed guidance, select your course from the dropdown below.
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BA Jewellery and Objects
The content of your digital portfolio and the skills it demonstrates should be the same as if you were creating a physical portfolio. The only difference is that you will need to submit your portfolio through your applicant portal rather than physically bring it in for us to see.
We recommend that you start by watching our video guidance on creating a digital portfolio, and then take a look at the course-specific guidance below.
Content
- Examples of the type of work that can be included are scans or photos of: sketchbooks, design sheets in any medium, samples of material exploration, jewellery and/or objects made. This is not an exhaustive list so please feel free to include any other work that you think is relevant.
- Try to structure your portfolio in a chronological way that shows your most recent work first, and reflects a genuine relevance and interest in the subject area.
- Include a project brief and ensure your work is clearly labelled, that projects are titled and that page/artefacts are named through annotations.
Skills we would like to see
- Use of a visible design process for idea development
- Willingness to experiment using a range of media, materials and technologies
- Any relevant work you’ve created outside of academia
- Innovation and enquiry
Format for digital portfolios
You have the option to submit your digital portfolio in PDF, PowerPoint or video format.
If submitting a PDF or PowerPoint file:
- Submit your work as one PDF or PowerPoint file, no more than 2MB in size. Please compress your file if it exceeds the limit.
- Ensure your work has a good screen resolution and present it in the order you would like it to be seen in.
- 3D work can be represented by including a few photographs of the work from different angles. Remember to show a sense of scale.
- To help your reviewer get a better understanding of you and your portfolio please include annotations where relevant.
If submitting a video file:
- Please copy and paste a link to YouTube or Vimeo into a document (Word or PDF) and upload this to the MySRS portal. If using YouTube, please ensure that you upload your file as ‘Unlisted’ to limit visibility to those with the direct link to the video.
- Include your name, course and a short description of your video content.
- This should be between two and five minutes in length.
Once we receive your portfolio, we will provide feedback at the earliest possible opportunity. Please note that we may recommend that you study an alternative course with us – for example, foundation year entry, based on the assessment of your portfolio submission.
HND Jewellery and Silversmithing
The content of your digital portfolio and the skills it demonstrates should be the same as if you were creating a physical portfolio. The only difference is that you will need to submit your portfolio through your applicant portal rather than physically bring it in for us to see.
We recommend that you start by watching our video guidance on creating a digital portfolio, and then take a look at the course-specific guidance below.
Content
- Examples of the type of work that can be included are: paintings, drawings, designs, sketchbooks, 3D models, CAD design work, any jewellery you have made.
- We’re looking for quality rather than quantity so there is no set limit for the amount of work you should include. Try to include as much as possible, focusing on offering the best work you have produced.
- We like to see 3D pieces, so take photographs of your 3D work from a variety of angles to give us the best impression of the work.
- Include design projects from start to finish as they allow us to see the design-thinking and design-processes in action.
- Work outside of prescribed school/college work is always very welcome. For example, if you’ve been making work in a part-time job or a night-class, include this.
- In terms of the structure, it is best if the portfolio corresponds to the layout of the sketchbooks if these are being presented.
- Portfolios should, where possible, be presented by project, with materials relating to each other in the same section. Chronological presentation if useful but not essential.
- To help your reviewer get a better understanding of you and your portfolio please include annotations where relevant.
Skills we would like to see
- The ability to think in three-dimensions.
- Problem-solving.
- Visualisation of processes.
- Evidence that you’re enthused by the subject, or by the subjects you have chosen to explore.
Format
- The accepted formats for your digital portfolio include: PDF, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Open Office Presenter or online.
- There is no preferred file size for your digital portfolio but images should be scales for web use- under 0.5MB each.
- Ensure your work has a good screen resolution and present it in the order you would like it to be seen in.
Once we receive your portfolio, we will provide feedback at the earliest possible opportunity. Please note that we may recommend that you study an alternative course with us – for example, foundation year entry, based on the assessment of your portfolio submission.
BA Jewellery and Silversmithing - Design for Industry (top-up)
The content of your digital portfolio and the skills it demonstrates should be the same as if you were creating a physical portfolio. The only difference is that you will need to submit your portfolio through your applicant portal rather than physically bring it in for us to see.
We recommend that you start by watching our video guidance on creating a digital portfolio, and then take a look at the course-specific guidance below.
Content
- Examples of the type of work that can be included are: paintings, drawings, designs, sketchbooks, 3D models, CAD design work, any jewellery you have made.
- We’re looking for quality rather than quantity so there is no set limit for the amount of work you should include. Try to include as much as possible, focusing on offering the best work you have produced.
- We like to see 3D pieces, so take photographs of your 3D work from a variety of angles to give us the best impression of the work.
- Include design projects from start to finish as they allow us to see the design-thinking and design-processes in action.
- Work outside of prescribed school/college work is always very welcome. For example, if you’ve been making work in a part-time job or a night-class, include this.
- In terms of the structure, it is best if the portfolio corresponds to the layout of the sketchbooks if these are being presented.
- Portfolios should, where possible, be presented by project, with materials relating to each other in the same section. Chronological presentation if useful but not essential.
- To help your reviewer get a better understanding of you and your portfolio please include annotations where relevant.
Skills we would like to see
- The ability to think in three-dimensions.
- Problem-solving.
- Visualisation of processes.
- Evidence that you’re enthused by the subject, or by the subjects you have chosen to explore.
Format
- The accepted formats for your digital portfolio include: PDF, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Open Office Presenter or online.
- There is no preferred file size for your digital portfolio but images should be scales for web use- under 0.5MB each.
- Ensure your work has a good screen resolution and present it in the order you would like it to be seen in.
Once we receive your portfolio, we will provide feedback at the earliest possible opportunity. Please note that we may recommend that you study an alternative course with us – for example, foundation year entry, based on the assessment of your portfolio submission.
MA Jewellery and Related Products
The content of your digital portfolio and recorded presentation, and the skills they demonstrate should be the same as if you were creating a physical portfolio. Please see our guidance below to help you create and organise your work.
Recorded presentation or vlog
Please provide a three minute recorded presentation – in the form of a video blog or vlog – in which you speak to the camera and introduce yourself and your aspirations. Please answer the following questions:
- Why are you interested in studying jewellery, in particular? What aspect of the discipline are you most driven to explore and learn about?
- Why do you wish to study jewellery and related products at Masters level? What are your motivations for study at postgraduate level?
- What knowledge, skills and abilities do you want to develop on the MA Jewellery and Related Products course?
- How do you envisage the next five years, in terms of your career trajectory?
Digital portfolio
- We would like to see between 2-4 projects, and we are particularly interested in the methods and approaches used to develop your design ideas. Please make sure you make reference to your source of inspiration for the concept, research processes, iterative development of ideas and provide evidence of technical skill. Please label/annotate images, and credit all published sources used.
- We would like to see a variety of work, in order to understand the breadth of your previous learning and experience. This might mean that your projects reference a range of forms and genres, including art jewellery, commercial jewellery, accessory design, jewellery for performance, eating implements or vessels, or other related artefacts.
- It is useful to include any live projects, competitions or industry projects, as this can highlight your potential. Likewise, indicate if any of your projects were completed as part of an industry or work placement.
- The order you present your work in is the order we will view it, so structure your work in a clear and organised way. You may find it useful to start with your most detailed projects showing your journey from start to finish. Later projects in your portfolio might be snap shots of products foregrounding key techniques you wish us to be aware of.
- If you are including work that was created as part of a collaborative creative team, it is important that you state what your role was in the project and evidence the specific organisational or studio elements that you contributed towards the project.
Skills
- Evidence of enthusiasm for the field of jewellery and its related products.
- Evidence of your ability to visualise ideas – in two and three dimensions – with an emerging sense of your own voice or visual style.
- Evidence of being able to create three dimensional forms in a variety of materials, from quick models to test ideas to more refined final pieces.
- Use of an iterative approach to develop and refine your design ideas, with evidence of reflective thinking.
- Knowledge of jewellery designers and artists spanning a range of jewellery genres, as well as critics and theorists from a range of relevant fields.
Required formats
- Submit your digital portfolio as a single PDF file (max size 20MB), and your recorded presentation as an MP4 file (max size 150MB) or a link to an online video hosting platform such as YouTube or Vimeo.
- Please compress your files if they exceed the limits set above.
- You can add any external website links in your PDF portfolio. Please check that these links work before you submit your portfolio and they can be viewed without a password. We will not be able to view links that require a password.