Applied Art, Design and Portfolio Presentation
Domain 9: Applied Art, Design and Portfolio Presentation
This domain tests design thinking, typography, print awareness and the professional presentation of your work. Expect questions on visual hierarchy, layout, logo qualities, colour in design and portfolio selection.
Design and layout
Use a grid to align elements and establish margins and safe areas. Visual hierarchy ranks headline, image, supporting text and logo. Contrast, scale, negative space and direction guide the eye. Limit yourself to two typefaces and use size, weight and spacing for emphasis. A logo should be simple, memorable, scalable and work in one colour. In print, use CMYK, 300 dpi images, 3 mm bleed and keep text inside the safe margin; screen work uses RGB.
Portfolio
Select 10–15 strong works showing range - still life, landscape, portrait, design - plus a sketchbook showing process. Sequence work so the strongest pieces open and close the portfolio. Mount consistently, label with title, medium, size and date, and avoid glare. A digital portfolio should be a compressed PDF with consistent backgrounds and no distorted images.
Worked example
Design an event poster. Put the event name largest at the top third, the image in the central field, date and venue in a smaller aligned block, and the logo bottom-right. Reasoning: hierarchy follows importance; a grid holds the blocks; negative space keeps the headline readable from a distance.
Traps
Do not use many fonts; do not place text in the bleed; do not include low-resolution images; do not present a cluttered portfolio; do not label works inconsistently.