Jacque
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Posts posted by Jacque
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Personally, I think in-person interviews are the best way to go. Many times interviews aren't just to learn more about your work, but to judge the character of your person (very important when putting together a great cohort that will work/critique together for the next few years).
With that said, admissions committees are generally not unreasonable people, they wouldn't expect you to fork over serious $$$ for international flights just for an interview. For anyone that is geographically far-removed from their institution's location it is basically expected that they will go the Skype route and it wouldn't be held against you.
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If that was the case then how come less than a week after I submitted my application and got an interview, my POI didn't have anything but the images themselves? Following that logic, no desc/titles in first review to get rid of unwanted portfolios, why did I get an interview at all?
Now, I'm not any member of an admission committee or anything but it seems more like they didn't have all the information available instead of didn't want to have all of it. For example, one of my pieces was a video and the description wrote it was a projection in a planetarium. She was super surprised by that and said how it made so much more sense. (Space related video would be best shown in space related way.) I don't think they get the info that we provide.
Don't have an answer for you for your specific case with your POI. I can however tell that when I interviewed at both places that used Slideroom the person(s) interviewing me pulled my work up in the administration side of Slideroom and I could plainly see the titles, descriptions, and images. They then asked me for more detail about projects they were particularly interested in.
- kafralal and smartstrategy
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Photoshop uses DPI and PPI interchangeably. If you use photoshop's image settings to change the DPI to 72 from 300 it will shrink your image canvas size.
You're incorrectly changing the DPI of your images, you need to make sure "Resample Image:" is not selected. Notice then how the physical pixel resolution stays the same while the document size (as it would print) changes.
Also, missed the c, and no s.
- smartstrategy and n/a
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I was going to provide a nice clear answer but then i managed to confuse myself between dpi, ppi, etc..
Regardless, you want your "resolution" to be 72 or higher. That's the 240 and 300 you're seeing. So being higher is fine. It just makes it a big clunky file.
But then there's the actual image size and how "big" it will look on people's screens. You want 1000 pixels in any given direction for the image size - assuming you're
At 72 pixels/inch, bumping an image to 1000 pixels wide puts it at about 14 inches when displayed (13.889). However, at 300 pixels/inch, it "shrinks" down to 3.33 inches. So when someone goes to look at it, it's data dense but itty bitty. They can bother to zoom in, and it will remain clear as the data is all there and will just expand-outward, but you really want it around the 14 inches of the 72 pixel/inch default. So they dont/can't/wont need to zoom in to see it large and clearly.
So just be mindful of your canvas/image size when you're changing resolution.
DPI will not make a difference on how large an image displays on a person's screen, 1000 pixels is still 1000 pixels on anyone's screen. DPI is important in the context of printing. Of course there will be slight differences in display size whether it's viewed on a Macintosh or a Windows machine, as the default PPI for those is 72 and 96 respectively. Now, you will notice that on "retina" displays images appear half as large, but thats because the pixel density is much higher.
On the topic of Slideroom... the people that have to review submissions are looking at hundreds of portfolios, they still have classes to teach, and programs to run; they don't want to read an essay about every piece and they certainly don't have time to. And yes, Slideroom doesn't let you show of each of your works just how you'd want to, but the people reviewing them are artists themselves, and they understand that one image and a short sentence description of a piece is not telling/showing them everything that that artwork is about.
The initial application review process is to weed out the inferior portfolios. After that, usually they then dig deeper into the quality applications, spending more time reading the descriptions and analyzing the work with more deliberate thought and conversation amongst the reviewers.
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Current first-year MICA graphic design MFA student here.
Last year I applied to MICA, RISD, Yale, and MIT (media lab). Got rejected from Yale and MIT, but interviewed and accepted at both MICA and RISD.
As for what it's like here... both of the GD MFA directors — Ellen Lupton & Jennifer Cole Phillips — are awesome mentors, critics, and people in general. Our studio space is pretty great, taking a big chunk of the Brown Center's 4th floor, and it can get kinda noisy when everyone is in there at the same time though we try and keep the noise and mess to a respectable level. Everyone has their own space and computer so we're generally not stepping on each other's toes.
The classes I took this past semester were pretty awesome overall: Design Studio 1 (required), Graduate Typeface Design*, Advanced Publication Design**, and Aesthetics & Critical Theory. Additionally this past semester I was a "graduate student intern" (TA basically) for two classes where I mostly helped out students (undergrad and grad) in class but I did have the opportunity to teach class on occasion as well as run a workshop or two.
I wouldn't say we have a bigger focus on print design than the other GD MFA programs out there. Generally for projects each student is able to find their own solution be it print, interactive, or whatever (when applicable at least). When the GD MFA cohort is put together Ellen and Jennifer try very hard to put together a group of individuals that come from varied backgrounds and bring different skills to the table so that everyone can learn from and play off each other, but I'm sure that's the same thing you'll find at a lot of MFA programs out there. In my class (of 15 students), three of us come from web design/dev backgrounds.
Comparatively with many other graphic design MFA programs ours is quite young, barely a decade old having been established in 2003, whatever that's worth.
If you've got any specific questions, ask away here or PM me. Applying to grad school is definitely a pain, and it feels like just yesterday I was in your shoes; pulling work together, applying, waiting to hear about interviews, etc.
*Taught by Tal Leming, TypeSupply (previously of House Industries).
**Taught by Kim Walker, Pentagram
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Coool congrats!
Were you for the 2 year GD programme at RISD or 3 year?
I was waitlisted for the 2 year programme so I'm hoping I miiiiiiight get some good news sooon!
Fingers crossed.
2-year, so hopefully you won't have to keep those fingers crossed much longer.
woooooooo!!!!!
If you email me, I may be able to hook you up with some folks who are leaving their apartments/email introduce you to some folks that can help ya out! PM me and i'll give you my email.
Oh, have so much fun in Baltimore!! It's such a good city. First order of buisness here should be to get yourself a Brewer's art beer and cheeseburger to celebrate!!!
Check that inbox.
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I finally committed to a grad school and now all those anticipation, nervousness, and freak out feelings have subsided, which is a nice change of pace compared to the last few months. Although, those stresses are now replaced with the stress of finding an apartment in a new state among other moving and expense related concerns.
As of last week I turned down RISD's offer, and I am headed to MICA this Fall. I'm pretty interested to see what the make up of my cohort will be.
- Erpnope, Emoree, GraphicDesigner and 1 other
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Got a call from MICA this afternoon following up after the unoffical acceptance email that actual printed acceptance packet was in the mail.
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Hi,
I have interview scheduled with RISD (3 year MFA Graphic Design) this friday. I am really freaking out. Can anyone please give me some hints about the questions they ask in the interviews.
Thanks
I interviewed at RISD yesterday for the 2 year program. They were super mean and made me cry!
Not really. The interview was extremely chill. I interviewed with Bethany, Nancy, and Tom. They are all very nice people and have a great energy and excitement for their program (and their students).
They had my SoP printed out and asked a few things about sections that had been noted, asked if I knew of the work of so-and-so (and if I didn't, Bethany wrote it down in my little notebook so I could look it up later), and asked what questions I had for them. My slides submitted through Slideroom were pulled up on the computer on the desk be we didn't even talk about it. I took some loose printed things with me and my computer but I never even pulled them out. We talked briefly about the work I do and what faculty I'd line up with well.
Both this RISD interview and my MICA interview were less about my work and more about them getting a sense of who I am, my personality, how they think I'd work with other people, and what I could bring to the table for the cohort they're trying to put together.
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I have several questions that I wanted to ask, and would really appreciate it, if I can get everyone's opinions/advices/personal experience/etc..
- Entering Grad school fresh out of college vs. Coming back to Grad school after working in the industries
As I was in my final year of my BFA I considered going straight to an Master's program. I consulted my professors I trusted to tell me like it is, and they all said that working for a few years and then going to grad school is the way to go. And now after working for about 4 years out of school, I definitely agree with everything they said.
Working after school helps build that professional work ethic that would serve one well in graduate school. It gets you out of the undergraduate college mindset. Gives you time to really figure out your life goals and priorities. Your worldview can really change after a bit of time in the real world out of the warm enveloping embrace of higher education.
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Well I've scheduled my interview with RISD! Getting a little nervous as it gets closer, but oh well. I'll be glad when it's over!
Anyone else interviewing with RISD?
Got mine scheduled for March 4, 2PM. You?
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Any news about design yet at MICA? I have Interviews scheduled for both yale and cranbrook and Im anxious to get the news so a can plan it all. My march is already looking hectic with final solo shows for graduation and the two interviews all only 2.5 weeks apart...
Yup, heard from MICA Friday morning (back a few pages). Requested interview through Skype, or in person March 1st or 8th.
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MICA Graphic Design interview request also just came in. This Friday is pretty awesome!
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Just got the email, RISD: Graphic Design, interview requested.
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Got an email a few hours ago from MICA admissions person that my application is complete and ready for review, which I'm guessing means they will start doing that soon. And then interview requests should follow along right after that, which seems to line up with last years admissions timetable.
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I don't think it would be much of a hinderance at all, especially if you were exhibiting and making art in a fashion where down the line you can say "Even though I was working this non-art job, look at all the art I made. Look at my dedication."
Lots of artists who apply for graduate school aren't doing the art thing for their day jobs.
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Also, reading the last years freak out thread, a lot of people declined to post their portfolio because they were aware schools would actually cruise this site and look at stuff, yale was one of them known. I wish I had known that before posting, I couldn't edit my original post, so i just deleted my tumblr, it's not my main one anyways, just created it for this site.
Would this be a bad thing? Personally, I would very much hope they'd look at my web portfolio. Slideroom's system is a little too restrictive, and these schools generally only allow 20 or so uploads whereas on my portfolio I can present sketches, multiple views, detail shots and all that stuff that fleshes out projects. If some enterprising admissions committee member gets that far that they find my website, well, hats off to them.
But knowing how busy admissions teams* are around this time I don't think they'd spend much time trawling internet forums looking at portfolios when they've already got tons on their desks (or slideroom administration panels if you will).
*I work at a college that primarily admits graduate and Ph.D. students (undergrad less so) and our admissions team is crazy busy around this time with applications.
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Well, that's reassuring to hear!As for the lightmeter app, it's not on the store yet, it's still in development. It's about 90% done, the UI is done and works*, there's just a bit of logic to put in and that's it. Hopefully I'll have it in review by the end of the month. I'll start the real work on the hardware dongle component shortly thereafter.*The hard part. UIPickerViews are not really customizable so I had to recreate it all that functionality using UITableViews, which was a whole process.
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So, here's my portfolio: www.alexjacque.com
I've been I'm only applying to a few schools, as my fallback is continuing working as a web designer:
- Yale (MFA Graphic Design)
- RISD (MFA Graphic Design)
- MICA (MFA Graphic Design)
- MIT - Media Lab (MS)
ie. "only a couple of schools with high standards, so don't expect the world, buddy." I was going to apply to UMich's MFA program (hello fully funded) since I'm very familiar with the program, faculty, and staff (and currently work in the building), but of course they're taking the year off from incoming graduate students as the new Dean and faculty try to restructure the program, so that idea got nixed right quick.
I'm hoping the interdisciplinary-yet-design-focused aspect of my work gets the attention of the admissions committees.
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All my applications are in and now it's just a waiting game. I'm not very stressed about the whole situation; if I get admits then I get admits, if not then I'll just continue working to make things happen outside of graduate work.
University of Michigan
in Visual
Posted
Did my undergrad there and worked for a few years in the building (albeit for the Architecture school), feel free to PM me with any questions.