New to Typophile? Accounts are free, and easy to set up.
portfolio rip off
Posted by LoveType in
10 May 2007 — 8:42am
10 May 2007 — 8:42am
Hi Everyone,
I am senior in the design school in NYC and about graduate in this summer. I have a portfolio class at the moment. Our teacher asked us to give our portfolio files and give it to them. They even dare enough to ask to put the fonts that we used to the cd. (Outlines is still acceptable) if we dont give our portfolio files they would fail us. I opposed this idea but apparently I still have to give the files.
Please let me know if you have any suggestion.
thank you
User login
Support our Sponsors
10 May 2007 — 8:54am
What exactly are you opposed to?
Illegally re-distributing fonts? (It seems if outlining your type is OK, that's not a problem.) Submitting your portfolio on CD instead of on paper? Or doing it at all?
10 May 2007 — 9:00am
Do you think your school wil steal or sell your work or something?
If so, I would ask myself what I'm doing at that place to start with. :)
10 May 2007 — 9:01am
I imagine they want to look at the files to asses the design but also your technical skills. Apart from the font question I don't think you have grounds for objection.
10 May 2007 — 9:04am
What would be risky or unethical about making PDFs of everything, all fonts converted to outlines (vectors)? Then the work can't be opened or used and there are no fonts present.
10 May 2007 — 9:08am
What exactly do you mean by 'portfolio files'? Do you mean board layouts? or copies of every project you're showing in your portfolio?
10 May 2007 — 9:12am
Our teacher asked us to give our portfolio files and give it to them. They even dare enough to ask to put the fonts that we used to the cd.
If you look at the student handbook, you will likely find something about you owning the work, but the school having unrestricted rights to reproduce the work for promotional purposes. Getting original files from students is how schools get the materials for reprinting. Chances are that there is nothing you can do about this that won’t allow the school to toss you out right before graduation.
10 May 2007 — 9:17am
I have had to do give sourcefiles of designs to my schools countless of times. I don't see any problem with it.
10 May 2007 — 10:03am
Schools also need to collect work for program review purposes and other forms of evaluation. No one is trying to rip you off here - turning in projects is not going to get you in trouble - educational use is "fair use".
10 May 2007 — 10:43am
Yeah. I don't get the objection at all. I especially am taken aback with the use of "they even dare enough to ask..." You're in school. Your instructors don't "dare to ask," they give assignment parameters. If this is offensive to you, then you're in the wrong place AND the wrong field, because you'll be collecting for output the rest of your career.
10 May 2007 — 10:56am
And this is sent out like a beacon to all students of graphics or art:
YOUR TEACHERS ARE NOT INTERESTED IN STEALING YOUR WORK.
Sheesh.
10 May 2007 — 11:05am
I think we need more information here.
10 May 2007 — 11:29am
As a recent graduate myself I had to do this last week as part of our final portfolio review.
We however only had to submit 300dpi or higher PDF files of all of our work. Most of what I submitted was photography of the work itself and not the actual files.
10 May 2007 — 11:42am
Well, there are several very good reasons why an instructor would ask for such material. First, without knowing the format or application in which the portfolios are being created, it's possible the instructors need the font files and all placed images to view them correctly (if a PDF won't dofor the purpose of the assignment). Second, it's just darn good practice for students to learn about proper file preparation, collecting for output, and assembling COMPLETE and ACCURATE files. The third reason, as stated already, is that institutions have the right (and in another sense, an obligation) to collect work being produced by students for either academic review (very necessary) or for promotion of the program to prospective students (also very necessary).
10 May 2007 — 1:15pm
portflio files means they want everything that i put in my porfolio
10 May 2007 — 1:16pm
thank you for all your comments. I have some freelance works as well that i want to put in the portfolio because there would be some professionals would come to school to see our portfolios.
thank you for the coments.
10 May 2007 — 1:29pm
I can understand them wanting to include all the files. However, that said, it would seem to me that they would accept PDFs. Any educational institution worth their salt would not require a student to include fonts.
10 May 2007 — 1:57pm
Dear ChuckGroth,
I always gives my files to my teacher.
Portfolio class is helping student to do lay out their portfolio.
10 May 2007 — 2:01pm
LoveType:
Can you explain why you think this is a bad thing?
10 May 2007 — 2:04pm
Any educational institution worth their salt would not require a student to include fonts.
I don't think that's quite fair. We don't know the exact details of the assignment; keeping track of and including the fonts may well have been a integral part of preparing the piece. For graphic design projects, I don't usually instruct students to include fonts, but I OFTEN require them to list each font used in the piece by its exact name and weight.
[edit]
Without being in the class or hearing the assignment ourselves, it's very difficult to condemn an instructor or institution. There may have been (re: probably were) particular objectives the instructor was trying to achieve.
10 May 2007 — 2:10pm
Sorry, Chuck. Maybe I spoke to harshly.
If one part of the reason for reviewing the work is to check for how they prepare for print perhaps including the fonts might be good, if it weren't so wrong. Listing the fonts, as you've suggested, is the best and most correct thing to do.
10 May 2007 — 2:13pm
Sorry, Miss Tiffany. I've been grading all day!
10 May 2007 — 3:30pm
If you look at the student handbook, you will likely find something about you owning the work, but the school having unrestricted rights to reproduce the work for promotional purposes. Getting original files from students is how schools get the materials for reprinting.
Several of our faculty ask for pdf versions of student work for grading, me included. It makes life easier and we don't end up having to haul a pile of boards around. Mounted work is a pain to deal with and students often don 't bother to pick it up or come by to get it until two semesters after it's been discarded. Using pdfs makes my life much easier.
The school does have a disclaimer as jpad said, but it differentiates what the school uses for promotional purposes. For that students sign a waiver granting permission for the artwork to be used. If the student doesn't want to do that it's no problem. The stuff faculty collects is only used for grading purposes and can't be used for anything else.
I also photograph some projects that won't pdf well — 3D stuff. Occasionally I will ask for InDesign files just to check on whether the student properly set indents and paragraph styles and didn't just hit the tab key. I hate that.
George
I felt bad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no Bodoni
10 May 2007 — 3:43pm
Lovetype, what's your issue with this 'submitting working files ... AND FONTS'?
I'm tipping we're being taken for a nice slow walk around the park ... we all needed the fresh air anyway. Cheers.
----------
Paul Ducco
Graphic Design Melbourne
10 May 2007 — 8:33pm
I'm young and haven't even graduated from school yet, but I was shocked reading your statement.
No offense or anything, but you need a reality check if you're that protective of your work as a college student. I would imagine, your best work is ALL ahead of you.
You need to prepare for the real world. If you're not giving college work to your own college, have fun working for demanding bosses.
10 May 2007 — 9:46pm
I just realize how bad year in school has changed my mind. I can understand that most of the people don't agree with me. I would give the same comment like most of you guys. I used to give all my works with no problem. I even gave all my prints to my teacher. Sometimes I did design for appreciation as well. I did intern for two of my teachers as well. One of my previous teacher also asked me to do project for him.
In this senior year, I almost didn't learn anything for graphic design or typography but I still learn different things :-). I felt very frustrated. I always spent my time in library ( I remember where most of the good books put even some of the book hasn't been took out for more than ten year). I go to museums, galleries or speaker to get inspiration. I do some freelances as well and do some competitions to improve my skill.
Some of my teacher don't know what they doing. It is very sad but true. A week ago I was yelled because I corrected something. I don't want to talk to much about negative things that happened to me. I belive I was trained to deal with people.
I felt in a year I didn't learn anything and most of my portfolio in 5th and 6th semester. None of the my work would be put in my portfolio from 7th to 8th semester. Suddenly my instructor ( I had this teacher for the first time)asked me to give all my portfolio files and i felt that my teacher ripped of my works. My teacher also asked to give our website file.
without your comments I wouldn't realize this. I am really appreciate it.
thank you
22 May 2007 — 3:01am
ok
----------
Paul Ducco
Graphic Design Melbourne
22 May 2007 — 8:01am
Another reason an instructor might be asking for files is that they might have been burned in the past by a student stealing someone else's work and claiming it their own. It is very easy to copy/scan a commercial piece and make a few modifications to it. A good teacher opening a file can see which bits are original and which were stolen.