Applicants are required to send alongside the UCAS application and personal statement, a portfolio of 20 to 25 pages with an additional ten pages outlined below.
Digital portfolio format
Your portfolio will need to be in landscape orientation and saved/uploaded as a PDF file. Include a title for the project or image for each page of the PDF. A short description of project will help explain your intentions and response to a brief.
You may want to answer the following questions to structure your descriptions:
- What was successful about your approach to the project?
- What might you do differently next time?
You may have an animation or moving image/film which can be uploaded to Vimeo, Flickr or YouTube – please supply these links in your portfolio and make sure they are active and work on all platforms.
Even if you have expressed an interest in animation, it's not a requirement to include moving image to be offered a place.
Digital portfolio content
Please include the following in your digital portfolio:
- Evidence of thinking about and testing ideas
E.g. pages from sketchbooks, development pages, worksheets, notebooks.
- Evidence of researching
E.g. pages from sketchbooks, development pages, worksheets, notebooks. Whilst we want to see research and development work, make sure that the majority of the portfolio is your own work rather than the work of artists/designers that have inspired you.
- Developmental work demonstrating how a project has progressed from brief through to outcome
E.g. pages from sketchbooks, development pages, worksheets, notebooks.
- Drawing from life
E.g. observational drawing, life drawing or drawing on location.
- Narrative, storytelling, or sequential work
E.g. a series of images that are sequential, comic/graphic novel works, a story told in a single image, animation, moving image.
- Experimentation with a range of different materials process and techniques
E.g. drawing, printmaking, collage, 3D, digital works, photography, moving image.
Additional 10 pages to include in your portfolio
Please include five pages or images which show a project that has somehow been transformational in your development as a creative. This should be presented from the beginning (brief) to end (outcome), showing the process of how you got there. You may consider selecting a project where you tried out a new way of working and it was successful or you got great feedback from your peers and tutor or perhaps it was a real failure but you learnt a great deal in the process.
Use the last five pages or images to show us visually who you are, what you are interested in or what inspires you. Choose one thing that we should know about you. To make, take or find images that visually communicates this to us. E.g. drawings of a location you find inspiring, paintings of a hobby you enjoy, photos event or moment you find interesting, or make a model of a favourite possession.
How will your portfolio be reviewed?
Due to the possibility of travel restrictions relating to Covid-19 the Kingston School of Art (KSA) courses will not be able to undertake interviews. The Course staff team and student panel will undertake the selection process, considering the quality of your creative practice presented in your portfolio, your personal statement and your UCAS application with your supporting references.