Undergraduate Admissions

Design 3 campaigns that serve to connect an existing or imaginary brand, client, or cause with the public. As a Creative Director, you should strategically expand your brand, client, or cause’s reach, connecting it to its market in a fun, impactful, and enduring way, initiating two-way engagement with your target audience.

The campaigns you create could include strategic social media campaigns, video content, promotional stunts, print ads, in-store experiences, online experiences, and more. Think about some of the things you’re most passionate about and design content that will get it out into the world and allow others to engage with it.

For each campaign, show us examples of the ideas you generated before deciding on your final solution(s). Each campaign should include process examples such as mind-maps, personas/market research, or thumbnail sketches of different design directions in addition to your final pieces. Feel free to explore your ideas through a variety of formats and options.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.

CONCEPT

Submit a 20-25 page portfolio that demonstrates your ability to immerse us in imaginative story worlds that adhere to a specific visual and narrative logic appropriate to the story you are telling.

Concept art incorporates both “concept” and “art”. We want to see both your imaginative thinking to solve creative problems (concept) and the strength of your artistic skills (art). Immerse us in unique narratives by thoughtfully designing the elements of the world as dictated by the needs of the story-- either re-envisioning an existing story or creating a brand new one. Think big, make unexpected choices, and connect us to your story on an emotional level by visualizing your story in a way that only you can. Show us your passion and surprise us!

Your portfolio should feature 2-3 different story worlds, demonstrating different visual styles.

The four elements of the story world you should include in your portfolio are:

• Characters/Creatures
• Architecture/Environments
• Vehicles
• Props

Not all four elements are needed for each story, but each element should be represented in at least one of your stories. For instance, you could have characters, props, and environments for one project and only characters and vehicles for another.

When depicting each of these elements, be sure to include:

• Research/inspiration. Show us the inspiration for your design thinking by sharing visual inspirations and key concepts that will inform your design decisions.
• Process/Ideation. Include a number of sketches that demonstrate your development process, show us different design directions you explored in developing the elements of your story. Demonstrate your proficiency in the fundamentals of anatomy, drawing, and perspective.
• Final Renderings. Demonstrate your final design decisions through a digital or marker rendering or a keyframe painting. Keyframe paintings are a good way to put multiple elements together and demonstrate your proficiency in the fundamentals of painting, lighting, and composition.

In addition, please include 5 sample sketchbook pages and 6 figure drawings from a live model. These drawings should not be related to the stories you are depicting.

ANIMATION

Submit a 20-25 page portfolio that demonstrates your passion for animation with an original story for an animated short film, feature film, or television show.

Your portfolio should convey a deep engagement with the ways in which movement, performance, and expression play vital roles in visual storytelling.

The elements of you portfolio should contain three categories of work: story development, animation, and additional artwork.

Story Development:

• Story Pitch. A concise (1-2 sentence) synopsis of a storyline that will be the basis of your portfolio.
• Character designs. Design at least 3 characters to your story. Each character should be presented on a page of fully rendered drawings conveying the movements, expressions, attitudes and idiosyncrasies that express the character’s personality. Include reference images and inspiration/mood boards.
• Story Beats. Create at least 5 illustrations that convey critical, narrative moments from your storyline, depicting your characters in dramatic moments throughout the story’s arc.
• Storyboards. Show your storyboarding, composition, and cinematography skills through either storyboard panels or an edited animatic.

Animation:

• Animated Work. 2D, 3D, or stop motion, and effects studies/exercises, clips/scenes of animated projects you have created, or 1-2 short films. These do not need to be fully completed films, but can be shorter clips that show us your exploration of movement and performance. This is essential to your animation portfolio.

Additional Artwork:

• Figure Drawings. 6-8 figure drawings from a live model. This should include gestural sketches as well as more finished drawings.
• Sketchbooks. Include 3-4 pages from your sketchbook, focusing on observational drawings such as animals, people, and locations.

Optional:

• 3D Work. While it is not required, please include any modeling, animation, or sculpting work you have done.

GAME DESIGN

The Game Design program at ArtCenter is for students who are interested in creating play for users. To this end, please submit a written proposal for an original game concept, not to exceed 8 pages, that demonstrates how you would craft the elements of a game in service of building an engaging and satisfying player experience. 

Please note: the Game Design program at ArtCenter is not a Game Art program, artwork is not one of the elements we ask for below.

Your written proposal should put the player at the center of your thinking and should include:

• Game Overview: A short paragraph detailing the main features, target platform (e.g., PC, mobile, Xbox), and target audience.
• Player Mechanics: Describe how the player moves and interacts with the game world. What are the main actions they can take?
• Game Flow: Explain the overall structure of the game. How do levels connect and progress? How does the player ultimately win?
• Five Minutes of Gameplay: Walk through a specific moment in the game from the player's point of view, such as a puzzle or a narrative sequence. How does the player experience gameplay in real time?
• Video Walkthrough of a Game Prototype (Optional): If you have a working game prototype, you can include a video walkthrough of it.

In addition, please submit a 60-90 second video that answers the following questions:

• Why do you want to be a game designer?
• What do you think the role of a game designer is?

Optional:

If you have additional game design work that you would like to include in your portfolio, you can provide that work in addition to the required elements above. This additional work is optional. If submitting an additional game porotype, please submit a video walkthrough instead of the actual prototype.

Submit 2-3 moving image pieces (films) that demonstrate your ability to craft a narrative for an audience. The total run time of the films you submit should not exceed 20 minutes, and films should be presented in their entirety—not edited down and included in a reel.

Narrative films ideally contain a beginning, middle and end, and feature distinct storylines, plot development, and character arcs. Submitted work can include short moving image pieces of any genre (shorts, documentaries, commercials, brand/concept pieces, music video, etc.) but all work must demonstrate your storytelling abilities. Your work should also demonstrate some proficiency in cinematography, lighting, staging, editing, sound, and other technical aspects of filmmaking. At least one of your projects should employ sync sound with dialogue.

Submit only projects on which you played a key creative role as director, creator, writer, cinematographer or editor.

Films can be submitted as accessible links (not password protected) to Vimeo (preferred), YouTube or as video files.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.

Submit 15-20 selections of your work in any media that demonstrate your ability to explore concepts, ask questions, and examine ideas visually. Work can include all forms of drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, mixed media, photography, film, video, performance, sound and installation. While it can be helpful to see work that demonstrates your foundation skills, we are typically more interested in seeing personal work rooted in your individual curiosity, work that reveals experimentation and pushes the boundaries of a traditional narrative relationship to audience.

Students seeking the Illustration minor should include 4-6 figure drawings from a live model.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.

Submit 6-10 Graphic Design projects that demonstrate your ability to combine image, typography, and layout to communicate your ideas. Acceptable projects could include posters, brochures, editorial design, package design, motion graphics, web design, identity systems, and more.

Be sure to include process work that shows the development of each project, giving us a sense for your thinking and exploration. This might include mind maps, typographical explorations, thumbnail sketches of different layouts, color studies, and more.

We are interested in seeing work that is rooted in your personal curiosity and unique point of view as a designer. Think beyond technical exercises done as class assignments and show us projects about something important to you, visual problems you long to solve, or brands you would like to present more effectively.

DESIGN, FINE ARTS PAINTING, MOTION, SURFACE DESIGN, UNDECIDED

Submit a total of 20-25 drawings or paintings that demonstrate your ability to draw from observation, to tell stories, and to utilize illustrative elements such as composition, color, and more to convey your ideas and technical abilities.

Your portfolio should include:

• 8-12 figure drawings from a live model, including gestural and more developed pieces.
• 8-10 imaginative pieces that demonstrate your use of color, composition, and narrative. These should be finished, fully realized pieces that tell stories and communicate effectively.
  Some suggested types of imaginative work we recommend you include are:
  
  • posters, book covers, or album covers incorporating hand-drawn text and illustrated imagery
  • story-driven illustrations (digital or traditional)
  • a self-portrait
  • a concept painting of a personal moment or experience.
• 5-6 pages from your sketchbook. These pages should include observational drawings and unfinished explorations that express your point of view as an artist.

More so than seeing work you do as assignments that are focused predominantly on technical ability, we are interested in seeing work that is rooted in your personal curiosity and unique point of view as an artist. Through your work, we want to see who you are, what the world looks like to you, and who you aspire to be as an illustrator.

ENTERTAINMENT ARTS

Submit a total of 20-25 drawings or paintings that demonstrate your ability to draw from observation, to tell stories, and to utilize illustrative elements such as composition, color, and more to convey your ideas and technical abilities.

Your portfolio should include:

• 8-12 figure drawings from a live model, including gestural and more developed pieces.
• 8-10 imaginative pieces that demonstrate your use of color, composition, and narrative. These should be finished, fully realized pieces that tell stories and communicate effectively.
  Some suggested types of imaginative work we recommend you include are:
  
  • story-driven paintings (digital or traditional)
  • story-driven environment drawings or set designs
  • a self-portrait
  • a concept painting of a personal moment or experience.
  Please do not include Fan Art.
• 5-6 pages from your sketchbook. These pages should include observational drawings and unfinished explorations that express your point of view as an artist.

More so than seeing work you do as assignments that are focused predominantly on technical ability, we are interested in seeing work that is rooted in your personal curiosity and unique point of view as an artist. Through your work, we want to see who you are, what the world looks like to you, and who you aspire to be as an illustrator.

Submit 3-5 projects that demonstrate your ability to design user experiences, crafting how people engage with a digital product, system or service. For example, you could redesign an existing web site, mobile app, or other interface to improve the user-experience. Or, identify a particular challenge in everyday life and design an app or interactive solution that specifically addresses that need.

Projects can be screen-based (mobile or social applications, web sites, gestural interfaces or augmented reality), physical (consumer electronics, smart products), or both. But think beyond the screen user interface or object itself to design the ways in which users engage through your design.

Be sure to include the following elements for each of your design projects:

• Research/inspiration. Explain the design objectives for your interactive experience, include user research, personas, mind maps of key concepts, and/or visual inspirations that will inform your design.
• Process/Ideation. Provide user journey maps, wireframes, thumbnail sketches of possible layouts, and/or sketches of physical objects relevant to your design. This work should demonstrate your development process and show us different design directions you explored.
• Final Renderings. Demonstrate your final design through digital mock-ups, URLs, videos, and/or prototypes.

If you have previously worked on collaborative projects that have made it to production, include a statement about your role in the design and any URLs, working versions, videos or multiple images that show how your interactive project works.

Applicants should feel free to include 3-4 other examples of your art and design work such as drawings, graphic design or any sort of personal work to show us how you think and communicate visually.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.

Submit a range of 20-25 black-and-white, color, or digital images in which you are making deliberate choices as a photographer to craft and develop imagery that communicates a concept or idea. We are interested in seeing work that is intentional, has a specific point of view, and utilizes photographic elements such as composition, lighting, framing, and more to communicate your ideas effectively. This can include subject matter such as people, places, or objects. Your portfolio should demonstrate a range of approaches to crafting imagery and can span a variety of styles, subjects, and visual aesthetics, but should emphasize your ability to “make” images more so than just “take” pictures.

We want to see a variety of subjects in various settings. This could include some indoors or in the studio, some outdoors, and/or some in locations that are intentionally chosen. We suggest that you not include multiple images of the same location or multiple pictures of the same person unless you are presenting a sequential or conceptual project built around specific individuals or environments. Such projects are okay to include, but should not dominate your portfolio.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.

Submit 3-5 original commercial product designs. These projects should go beyond just the visual appearance of your products and also emphasize problem-solving, the mechanical functionality and sustainability of your products. Your concepts should be practical and applicable to real world users.

Each design should be presented as a project including the following elements:

• Identify the Problem/Research/inspiration. Explain the design objectives for your product by establishing a profile of your target user/market, share visual inspirations that will inform your design, present key concepts you aim to articulate in your design, and demonstrate any emphasis on sustainability.
• Process/Ideation. Include a number of sketches that demonstrate your development process, show us different design directions you explored, show us your product from multiple perspectives, explore the mechanical functionality of your product, include photographs of any rough prototypes or models of your product.
• Final Renderings. Demonstrate your final design through a digital or marker rendering or model.

Industrial design sketching and the applied nature of your products are critical components of the portfolio, so include plenty of sketches and think practically about the problems you aim to solve.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.

Submit 3-5 projects that demonstrate your ability to design the spatial experience of an environment by addressing both the function as well as the conceptual, emotional, and narrative elements of being in that space.

Examples might include designing a branded retail store, a concept-driven restaurant or hotel, a museum or trade-show exhibition, or residential/living spaces. For each project, your work should consider elements such as interior design, architectural design, lighting design, set/exhibition design, or furniture design as relevant to each environment.

Be sure to include each of the following elements for each of your designs:

• Research/inspiration. Explain the design objectives for your space by sharing visual and conceptual inspirations that will inform your design, present key concepts you aim to articulate in your design.
• Process/Ideation. Include a number of drawings and sketches that explore the development of your space.
• Final Renderings. Demonstrate your final design through a digital or marker rendering or through photographs of models that demonstrate your understanding of 3D space, show your technical skills, and articulate your design sensibility.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.

Submit 3-5 original vehicle designs. These projects should demonstrate a passion for and curiosity about the future of transportation and can include cars, trucks, public transportation, boats, motorcycles or alternative mobility. While you can use a particular brand as a starting point, you should create a design that is new, innovative and embraces the future of transportation design.

Each design should be presented as a project including the following elements:

• Research/inspiration. Explain the design objectives for your vehicle by establishing a profile of your target user/market, share visual inspirations that will inform your design, present key concepts you aim to articulate in your design.
• Process/Ideation. Include a number of sketches that demonstrate your development process, show us different design directions you explored, show us your vehicle from multiple perspectives, explore specific facets of the design as well as the vehicle as a whole.
• Final Renderings/Models. Demonstrate your final design through a digital or marker rendering or a digital 3D model.

Automotive sketching and original concepts are critical components of the portfolio, so include plenty of sketches and think beyond the vehicles you currently see on the road.

You can also include a sample of sketchbook work (up to 5 images) highlighting your visual communication skills not featured in your projects. Please group these images in one PDF.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.

Submit 12-15 selections of your creative work that demonstrate your ability to communicate ideas visually. We welcome work in any medium and encourage you to show a range of interests across art and design disciplines. Your portfolio should reflect your personal curiosity, creative voice, and the way you see and interpret the world. Alongside experimental or conceptual projects, we strongly encourage the inclusion of technical exercises—especially in drawing—as a way to show your foundational skills and dedication to craft. We also value work that reveals your creative process, whether through sketchbooks, iterations, or exploratory pieces, as well as projects that respond to social, cultural, or environmental contexts. The most compelling portfolios balance technique and imagination, offering us insight into who you are now and who you hope to become as an artist or designer. If your portfolio is primarily lens-based (Photography, Film), please also include pieces that highlight your drawing and storyboarding abilities.

In addition, submit your required portfolio video/essay.