What is a portfolio?
It’s a collection of your work demonstrating how your creativity has developed over time. It shows your ability to work with different materials, themes and techniques, as well as how you research, develop and plan your ideas. And the mistakes you’ve made along the way.
It’s a way of showing us your skills, personality and potential – we want to see you within the pages.
How to create your digital portfolio
A digital portfolio is simply a digital version of a physical portfolio – the advice about what to include in each is similar.
It involves photographing or scanning physical work, such as sketchbooks and 3D objects, to turn them into digital files. Once your work is prepared, you’ll create digital pages ready to upload later in the process.
The following 8 steps will guide you through the process of creating a digital portfolio for UAL:
1. Check your course webpage
It’s important to consider the focus of the course you’ve applied to as they each have different portfolio requirements and selection criteria.
While these tips will help you build your portfolio, always check the ‘Apply now’ section of your course webpage to check what's being asked.
2. Select your work
Include work from between 3 to 5 projects to show a range of ideas and skills. Remember to check your course webpage for specific requirements, but it could include things like:
- drawings
- sketchbook pages
- research
- video
- 3D objects.
Show us variety, even if you love a certain technique or material. If you select group work, make this clear and explain the role you played in the project.
3. Show your potential
We’re not just looking for polished, finished work. It’s about your potential and the journey you’ve been on, including experimentation and any mistakes you made along the way.
This is especially important for an undergraduate course application.
4. Create a narrative
Organise your portfolio by project and tell us the story of each of them.
Show us how you got to your idea – from the concept all the way through to completed pieces.
Think research, process and outcome.
5. Prepare your work
Now you’ve selected your work, get it ready to include in your digital portfolio. This is likely to involve taking good quality photos or scans of physical work.
It may also mean editing videos or sound files into short clips or showreels.
6. Build your pages
Lay out your work digitally using any software you like including InDesign, PowerPoint or Canva. These layouts will form your digital portfolio pages. A landscape page format is best.
Avoid overcrowding your pages with too much work or adding decorative backgrounds – white space can be a powerful presentation tool. Check our How to create a digital portfolio video for more detailed guidance.
7. Annotate your work
Keep any annotations on pages short, clear and concise. Size 12 font is the minimum size for on-page annotations.
Where relevant include details of the materials used, the size and scale of your work and the date it was created. PebblePad, our online portfolio tool, allows you to include annotations during the upload process which can be a great place to add this kind of information.
8. Upload to PebblePad
Once you’ve created the individual pages, you’ll upload them to PebblePad – our online portfolio tool.
When organising your pages, start and end with your strongest work to make a good first and last impression.
If you've been asked to send a video task, this is also submitted on PebblePad. The video task is uploaded to one of your pages and it's included in your page allocation.
Check out our How to upload your portfolio page for detailed advice.
How to apply with a digital portfolio
You’ve double-checked the portfolio requirements listed on your course webpage, selected your work and created your pages ready for the next stage of your application. So, what happens next?
1. Check your emails
You’ll get an email from us with a link to our online portfolio tool PebblePad soon after submitting your initial application. You’ll have around 7 to 10 days after getting this email to submit your digital portfolio.
Make sure you check your junk or spam folder. This email will also be available in your UAL Portal – along with all emails you receive from us.
2. Login to PebblePad
Once you get the link to PebblePad, try and login straight away. This gives you time to sort out any technical issues.
We won’t be able to offer any extensions to the portfolio submission deadline so logging in straight away is really important.
3. Submit your portfolio
Once you're logged in to PebblePad, you can go through the process of uploading your prepared portfolio pages and video task, if this has been requested.
Full instructions on how to upload and submit your digital portfolio can be found on the How to upload your portfolio webpage.
Need more help?
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Spine Photographic,
Portfolio preparation courses
These short courses will help you build a portfolio in preparation to apply to your chosen course at UAL.
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Materials composition by Lucie Hands BA (Hons) Textile Design
Pre-degree courses
Our one-year pre-degree courses will enhance your creative knowledge and skills ready for undergraduate study.
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Craig Green, MA Games Design, London College of Communication, 2018, © Alys Tomlinson
How to submit your portfolio
Learn how to submit your portfolio to PebblePad, our online submission tool.