At The Cass, we are very much about designing and making. We look for students that can develop ideas and make them work in a real context as either prototypes or finished pieces of furniture. We expect you to show drawings in a range of media, demonstrating your ability to communicate through drawing. Being selective is important, various original works are preferred over hundreds of the same type of drawing or project, just a few stand out pieces and a range of design ideas, plus some interests in other disciplines or ways of working.
Interview
The purpose of the portfolio interview is to try and assess your ability and potential to benefit from the course. There'll be a discussion around your range of interests and focus on your portfolio of work. The interview is a two-way process: the interviewer wants to see what skills and interests you have, so it's important to spend some time preparing your portfolio.
Please bring an A0 to A3-sized Portfolio (Fine Art prefer an A1 portfolio) with a handle. No transparent plastic wallets to be used inside the portfolio.
Make sure that your portfolio is organised logically – either chronologically or grouped so that development work is placed next to finished piece. Include sketchbook and workbook samples.
Start your portfolio with your strongest pieces of work and keep the interest going through the portfolio with logical layout and good presentation. End your portfolio with another strong piece of work.
Title and date each piece of work on the reverse and, for reproductions only (for example photographs of a sculpture or large painting), also provide the original's dimensions (in cm x cm for 2D and cm x cm x cm for 3D).
Online/digital portfolio submissions
An online portfolio may be requested if you are an international student or cannot attend an interview for some other reason.
The same course guidance applies as for a hard-copy portfolio, but your selected work needs to be scanned (where necessary) and arranged in a clear way in either Microsoft PowerPoint or a PDF.
You will be asked to upload the file to the London Metropolitan University Applicant Portal – a username and password will be sent to you in an official email.
PowerPoint
- You can provide a digital portfolio as a Microsoft Office PowerPoint show file (.pps or .ppsx), ideally one image per slide, with a maximum of three
- Please include a clear contents slide at the start of the Powerpoint file
- Notes should be used for each slide image including the title of the work, date, materials and dimensions (in cm x cm for 2D and cm x cm x cm for 3D)
- Please use stills only – do not attempt to embed any moving image in the PowerPoint file. Please name your PowerPoint file only as below (ie, in no other way)
- Maximum file size: 5MB
- You can also provide your portfolio as a single Adobe PDF file, with one to three images per page with clear annotations and notes
- Please include a clear contents page at the start of the PDF
- Notes should be used for each slide image, including the title of the work, date, materials and dimensions (in cm x cm for 2D and cm x cm x cm for 3D)
- Please use stills only – do not attempt to embed any moving image in the PDF file. Name the PDF file only as below (ie, in no other way)
- Maximum file size: 5MB
What to call the file
Please name your file as follows: use the word 'Portfolio' followed by your surname in upper case, then by your first name in lower case and finally your London Met or UCAS ID Number.
(For example: Portfolio_SMITHJohn_1234567890).