Architecture Portfolio Tips – Part 2: Get Styling

October 26, 20090 Comments Tagged: art deco, design, modernist, portfolio, post-moderist, style

Welcome back. One of the major rites of passage for an architecture student is the preparation of their final architectural portfolio. This is the second post in our series outlining tips and suggestions for Architecture Portfolios. Part 1 - Taking Aim can be found here.

Today we will be talking about the overall styling of your portfolio.

The style in which you design and layout you architectural portfolio may seem to have little significance, but in reality it may have great impact on the way your portfolio holds together, and the way it is received. A consistent style and feel can draw together projects that might otherwise feel out of place. By framing items that are different in a common framing, you bring them all together.

The style of your portfolio could be chosen to match the style of architecture you wish to work in, or perhaps to contrast. Alternatively it may be something that is totally separate, and acts mostly to provide you with a voice to present your architectural work. Only you will be able to decide what sort of style will work for your portfolio. Lets take a look at a few different styles that could work for your architectural portfolio.

Art Deco

Should you wish, you could style your architectural portfolio to match the feel of art deco architecture and art. Art Deco was a design art movement that occurred from the 1920s to the 1940s - resulting in work that was streamlined and functional, but still elegant and glamorous.

In terms of your portfolio, this may result in straight geometric lines with smooth rounded corners; backgrounds with gradients and shade; typography that is almost showy, but still quite geometric and functional; and colour tones of rich browns and golds.

Here is a gallery of Art Deco architecture and graphic design to whet you appetite.

Modernism

Like modernism in architecture - modernism in graphic design was indicated by a return to function as a priority. The style is clean, simple and minimal, with emphasis on clear communication with frills or decoration. Typography was simple and clean, often using a single typeface for clarity (like helvetica or akzidenz grotesk). Imagery was almost always a simple photograph or illustration, integrated with the type to help communicate the main theme or idea. There was great use of angles and shape to make a dynamic image with very little.

Here is a great selection of Modernist graphic design for you to flick through.

Post- Modernism

Post-modernism was a breaking away from the modernist principles that happened around the 1960s. It saw a return of creativity and ornamentation to the design process - often seeking to deliberately shy away from the simplicity and functionality that modernism had brought.

Post-modernism seeks out inspiration from all sources, and can often involve imagery or type that doesn't seem immediately to fit. Collage was often used, and this was were you first started to see the "punk" and diy aesthetic of cutting and pasting items in a rough fashion.

There are certainly lots of options - almost too many, but it opens a lot of possibilities for how you might style your architectural portfolio. This site has an interesting mix of imagery that fits in the area of post-modernism.

Deconstructivism

The next step from post-modernism was for things to be stuff to start being deconstructed. In the design world, grunge took over as a dominant style as things got messier and harder to read. Images and type were overlapped - typography had less defined forms and was about feel and emotion rather than readability.

This style could work to your advantage, but you must be careful that what you are communicating is clear - the last thing you want to do is make life difficult for someone reading your portfolio.

These are only a few of the styles you might choose to adopt for your portfolio. The important thing to remember is that a cohesive style can help your portfolio hold together as a unit, and communicate more effectively to whoever is reading it.

I hope this instalment has been helpful - in our next post we will look at the imagery involved in your architectural portfolio, and how to use it.