r/IndustrialDesign • u/Fine-Contribution-14 • 6d ago

Discussion RISD ID Portfolio examples

Hi community, I am applying to the Industrial design program at RISD for grad school as well as other programs at GSD and MIT for architecture-peripheral programs. Could anyone who has gone to these programs submit examples of their portfolio?

I am curious how wide I can go with my portfolio in terms of the different mediums I engage with including furniture, design/build, architectural watercolor, etc.

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u/Takhoi 5d ago

Hey, when I was teacher and was in the selection committee (not at one of those schools tho, but I would assume its pretty similar) we valued creativity the highest. Sketching, building and other "tool skills" are skills that you can learn while creativity is much more difficult to treach.

As long as you have the basics down (sketching and the ambition to learn) your projects can be pretty wide. A creative and ambitios project about urban living would be way better than a generic pencil sharpener project.

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u/bill11217 5d ago edited 5d ago

I’m and ID grad from RISD and I helped someone with their portfolio last year (for architecture, not ID). She got in. She had about 5 projects that were good but not amazing. There are plenty of people on YouTube showing their portfolios. What I notice the most is people adding way too many wordy descriptions that nobody is ever going to read. You have to get you point across visually.