Date of entry

September 2024

This information is for applicants to Jewellery and Metal Design BDes (Hons) who have received an invitation to upload their portfolio for assessment

About your portfolio

As part of your application to study at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, you need to submit a portfolio of work showcasing your development, creativity, skills, presentation and enthusiasm for your creative practice.

Portfolio format

Your portfolio should consist of one PDF file showing of up to 15 pages of work.

File format

  • One PDF document with up to 15 pages of work and one contents page
  • No more than 50MB
  • Named using your full name and student ID number for example MaryAnnBaxter_1234567.pdf

Including text and image

Each page should contain high quality images of your work - you can have more than 1 image on each page.

You should include a brief description of each piece of work indicating media, size and date produced (for example Image 1 – Acrylic paint, 30cmx15cm, November 2021).

Some example pages are provided below. This is just an example - your layout, type of work and style may be totally different, but you should aim for a similar balance of text and image.

Download example portfolios

dundee-ug-jewellery-metal-design-portfolio-01
PDF Document 7.96 MB

Including video content (optional)

You can include up to 5 minutes of video content by sharing a link to a video hosting service (like YouTube or Vimeo) or cloud storage (like Dropbox or OneDrive) in your digital portfolio.

Make sure your link is publicly accessible (or provide a password if your video is password protected). Do not provide us with your personal login details.

Guidelines

  • Demonstrate your creative ideas, skills, abilities and personality
  • Show examples of your thinking and developmental process (usually in the form of pages from your sketchbook)
  • Carefully consider the order of the content displayed in your portfolio. You may wish to arrange your work by a particular theme or by specific projects undertaken.
  • Make sure your images are clear, bright and at a scale suitable to view online
  • Use typography that is legible for online viewing

What we expect

Your portfolio will be assessed across five criteria:

  • research, development and sketchbooks
  • creativity and originality
  • practical competence and application of skills
  • quality, presentation and selection of work
  • engagement with the subject

You should keep these criteria in mind when deciding what to include in your portfolio. Demonstrating your journey from inspiration to outcome and showing the range and quality of your creative skills, is as important as polished, final pieces of work.

Research, development and sketchbooks

Your sketchbook should be used as a tool for developing your thought processes. Demonstrate how you develop an idea, project or concept.

Show us how extensive your research is and how thoroughly you develop your visual and spatial research before arriving at the final outcome.

Creativity and originality

Highlighting your creativity and originality could take the form of designed solutions, final material sampling and resolved paper design work.

Practical competence and application of skills

We’d like you to show how skilled you are material handling. You may wish to show this through:

  • application of media through drawing
  • craftsmanship in material handling
  • consideration of material choice
  • appropriateness of application

Show us evidence of your understanding or empathy with materials, surfaces, structures or artefacts.

Quality, presentation and selection of work

We’d like you to show us a portfolio which is professionally presented and clearly communicates your work.

Engagement with the subject

Demonstrate how well you have researched the subject area. Show us your knowledge, understanding and awareness of Jewellery and Metal Design, as well as the broader art and design landscape.

You should demonstrate an awareness of historical and/or contemporary jewellery designers.

Applied for more than one Art & Design course?

You need to upload a portfolio for each course you have applied for.

You may choose to include different work in each portfolio to showcase your strengths, but this is not a requirement.

Timescales

Receiving your invitation

When you are invited to upload your portfolio, we will email your invitation to both your personal and @dundee.ac.uk email address. You will not be notified of an invitation via UCAS.

Rather than issuing all invitations at once, we release them in phases depending on when your application has been assessed by our Admissions Team.

After you have been invited

You should upload your portfolio as soon as possible after you receive the email invitation. 

Deadlines

  • Scottish fee status: 1 March 2024 18:00 (UK Time)
  • All other fee statuses: the deadline will be in your invitation email

Outcome

If you are unsuccessful

We will let you know the outcome of your application via UCAS and by email to both your personal and @dundee.ac.uk email address.

If you are made an offer

You will receive an offer (conditional or unconditional) via UCAS and by email to both your personal and @dundee.ac.uk email address. You will then be invited to attend an online event to meet with academic staff to allow you to ask questions about the School and Courses.

If you are invited to interview

You will receive an invitation by email, but you will not be notified on UCAS. Interviews will take place online in March. You will also have the opportunity to show additional work at your interview. Full details will be included in your interview invitation.

Upload your portfolio

You need to upload your portfolio to My Applications on eVision.

Application

We will consider all aspects of your application including qualifications, personal statement, reference, and portfolio. It is therefore important when completing your UCAS application to include all relevant qualifications including any obtained at High School (where applicable).

Portfolio guidance
djcadundergraduate@dundee.ac.uk

Help with My Applications
app-support@dundee.ac.uk