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Hello! I'm an artist who is applying for RISD, and I've been using Photoshop for about 4 years.

http://risd.edu/Admissions/Apply/Freshmen/

^ To apply for RISD, you'll need the ever-so-famous bicycle drawing, and another drawing that they request (it changes every year) to fold up and send it to their mail. That's the first part of the application.

The second part is the portfolio, and from what I've read, they're pretty picky, but they don't exactly say if they want variety, or a series, or any specifics in medium. If you have any good works that aren't any to do with pursuing graphic design, still, include them. However, if you've got some awesome website designs and graphic concepts or whatnot, I'd say put a good number, perhaps even a majority into them.

Also, do you know any computer language coding? Like CSS, or HTML, or even Java? This is VERY useful if you want to code your own website layouts. It can be confusing at first, but after several months of observation, you'll do fine, and after a year, you'll probably be coding extremely well. You can be self sufficient as coding your own pages and designing them. Double win!

Believe it or not, this may sound corny, but I learned by myself all of CSS and HTML by Neopets. Yeah, I know, it's a kid's site. BUT they have this things called petpages, and you can basically broaden and practice your coding skills. All for free. Below are some examples of my best work.

http://www.neopets.com/~Dragonair

http://www.neopets.com/~Aramoui

http://www.neopets.com/~Volcano

If you have the experience of making your own website design and coding, these will give you an advantage.

If your school offers any computer design classes or art portfolio classes, that would be a good opportunity.

I really hope that helps! Good luck, God bless!

Here are some highlights of becoming a graphic/web designer. As long as you include these elements in your portfolio pieces, you're one step ahead :):

Scoping out the design problem: It could be simple as "how can we enhance the visual design to keep the brand consistent through out the web site?", "how can we lay a website out so users can click on this link?", "how can we deliver the right message with icons and ONLY icons?"

Visual Execution: Polished, consistent visual execution of the project is very important. This can be done by photoshop and illustrator. Some great examples in dribbble.com and catch up on the latest Design trends.

User Interface and Experience: If you're considering layouts and graphics, User Interface Design (UI) and User Experience Design (UX) will be great for you. UI Design serves a visual execution of the Interface, and UX is less graphics and more blueprint of the website but web designers NEED to consider it for user-friendly web design... for example if a sign up button was right below the log in text field, you get more people signing up, or if this was an ipad app, the buttons should be on the bottom corner because that's where people hold the ipad.

If you don't know how to code a website, maybe you can make a polished visual comp and wireframes of the web design with photoshop. RISD is an awesome school, good luck!

as early as possible. Correctly, it would were first-class when you had started slightly prior than now. Precise schools appear for exact matters. Even getting in for design, its fine to exhibit off portray/drawing skills if possible. Exhibit off how good you should use colour in a section, and placement of gadgets to create a just right outcomes. Oh, and adding typography designs to your portfolio is a plus. I received sooooo many feedback from school reps about how excellent it was that I had font sketches/finished fonts in my portfolio and no one else did. Most colleges will ask for roughly 20-forty portions, including a sketchbook. Bear in mind to simply decide on your excellent portions! Do not add crappy matters simply to get to the restrict.

Show you approach a design solution in a variatey of ways and show you use a range of materials and processes and that you donate not narrow minded, include paintings and drawings not just one format for your work also include all your web stuff and how it was successfully for filling its task, hope this is helpful

Take Visual Arts, and if possible, some sort of Visual Design subject in high school. Most of all, you have to pursue art outside of school to get your art up to the standard of good art colleges. This doesn't mean you have to take art courses, just draw outside of school time.

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