Creating a portfolio

If you've applied for our creative media, arts and architecture courses you'll submit a portfolio that we will assess as part of your application. 

The work you present to us in your portfolio is really important in helping us assess your suitability for the course you have applied for.

If you have questions or queries our enquiries team are always happy to help – or go to our chat to a student page to message someone who is already at the university.

We also host regular online events, including Q&A sessions about prepping and submitting a portfolio, so keep an eye on this page and sign up to an event for practical advice from the experts.

Log on to Student View

Have a question?

Which courses need a portfolio?

Each course has specific portfolio requirements and guidance on our course finder. Follow the links here to the entry criteria section of each page.

Undergraduate courses that require a portfolio

Postgraduate courses that require a portfolio

What types of portfolio are there?

We will require a digital portfolio to allow us to assess your work. If we were running in-person interviews we may also have asked you for a physical portfolio but because of COVID-19 all of our interviews and portfolio reviews are taking place online.

Your digital portfolio is a selection of your work that we can look at online (rather than a portfolio of digitally made work). We typically recommend including 15–20 images of your work, or a show-reel if you're applying to a course such as music or animation.

Your portfolio should be published on a single platform such as Carbonmade, Tumblr, Blogger, Wordpress, Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube or Soundcloud. The platform you choose may depend on the type of work you want to show.

It should be accessible from a web browser such as Safari, Chrome or Firefox without the reviewer having to enter a password.

female lecturer with three female students review photos on table

What kind of work should I include?

Your portfolio should contain work that is relevant to the course you’ve applied and that showcases your talents and interests. We are excited to see your work so far and your potential so don’t delay sending your portfolio because you think it isn’t ‘finished.’

For all courses

  • Anything that demonstrates your motivations and interests as an artist.
  • Your ability to develop an idea from concept.
  • Your potential to experiment, imagine, and explore ideas and techniques.
  • What we’re really trying to get is an impression of you as an individual artist, your artistic interests and influences, and your aspirations.
  • We expect you to be trying things out and experimenting, so don’t feel you have to be too rigid.
  • We’re very happy to see work produced during A-levels, foundation courses, work experience and from outside of your education.

For visual arts, design and media courses, this could be:

  • studies, sketches, collages, designs
  • work that shows a good understanding of drawing, composition, form, proportion and colour
  • images of working sketchbooks – our tutors are interested in your working process, not just final results
  • images of 3D objects you have made; paintings; prints; fashion and textile designs; photography; typography; illustrations; performance; video; sound composition; text or application of creative process such as weave or CAD work.

Preparing images for your online portfolio

All images should be in jpeg format and 72dpi resolution. Ideally they should be flattened and optimised for screen viewing with maximum dimensions of 800 pixels on the longest side – you can do this using Photoshop if you have access to this application.

The name of each image should be the title of the work. We recommend that you include a brief description, up to 20 words long, of each piece of work including the date that the work was made.

female applicant prepares online portfolio on laptop

Submitting your portfolio

Once you have applied through UCAS we'll email you your University of Brighton username and password which means you can access Student View to manage your application, including sending us your portfolio. You'll find the full advice about the kinds of work to provide, the format and any time-frames you need to meet. And when your portfolio is ready you'll send us a link on Student View.

Is the process different if I apply during Clearing?

During Clearing we ask for online portfolios only. Once we have your application, you will be asked to submit it on Student View in the same way as other applicants.

What is the process if I am an international applicant?

International applicants will be asked to supply an online portfolio only. If you are applying to a course that requires an interview and are selected, this will be conducted online too. You will be contacted by email and, once you have your university login, will find all the information you need on how to submit your portfolio and/or attend an interview in Student View.

Find out more about applying as an international student on our how to apply page.

female student wearing hijab working on laptop in studio

Presenting your portfolio at interview

For some of these courses you may also be invited to an interview and asked give a short presentation on your portfolio.

Interviews provide the opportunity to discuss your portfolio and your development as an artist, including showing more samples of your work. 

Read our advice about preparing for interviews.

 

male student and male lecturer discuss portfolio at interview