Student Portfolio Review

Outdoor Product Design and Development

Submission Requirements

All design, development, and product line management students MUST apply to matriculate into the Professional Program (final two years). To apply to matriculate a student must have a 2.67 overall GPA, a 3.0 minimum OPDD GPA, with a C or better in the following OPDD core courses:

-OPDD 1000
-OPDD 1050
-OPDD 1100
-OPDD 1700
-OPDD 2420
-OPDD 2430
-TEE 1010
-TEE 1200 or TESY 1200

Two of the following lower-level OPDD technical elective courses:

-FCSE 1040
-FCSE 2040
-OPDD 2040
-TEE 1030 or TESY 1030
-TEE 2030

Students must schedule a time to meet with their Academic Advisor to create a long term plan and ensure that they have all prerequisite classes. Student’s must apply to submit portfolio 5 PM MST the last day of Fall classes. 

Start your application!

Students who submit an application will be added to a Portfolio Submission Canvas course during the Spring semester that will provide them access to submit their Final Portfolio and grant them access to the design challenge.
Students portfolio submissions and design challenge are due by 5 PM MST the Friday before Spring Break.

Professional Program Portfolio Guidelines:

  1. A web-based presentation focusing on a portfolio of your projects. This web site should have tabs at the top to direct the review committee to the following materials:
  • Resume (see #2 below)
  • Ideology statement (see #3 below)
  • Portfolio of your projects (see #4 below)

Create this web site using Wix, Dribble, Cargo, PortfolioBox, Adobe Portfolio (keep in mind that your Adobe Portfolio account created with a usu.edu email will expire upon graduation), or similar that is easy for you to use. You may use the free version.

  1. Resume
  • Single page document
  • Includes correct formatting and contains appropriate content for a resume
  • Linked and/or tab in your web-based presentation/web site.
  1. Ideology Statement
  • Maximum of 250 words
  • An explanation of how, what, and why you create. Please share why you love to create while avoiding telling a lengthy history of why you like the outdoors. Explain why you choose the OPDD major.
  • Linked and/or tab in your web-based presentation/web site.
  1. Portfolio of your projects

Include three projects that demonstrate your ability to work through a design and development process. These projects may be from assignments you completed in courses you have already completed such as: OPDD1000, OPDD1050, OPDD1100, OPDD1700*, OPDD2420, OPDD2430, FCSE1040, FCSE2040, OPDD2040, TEE2030, TESY1030, or other relevant courses. At your discretion, you may choose to substitute any project(s) you completed during course work with project(s) of your own choice. The three projects you choose to present should show your best process, skills, and abilities. You may rework or improve any project completed previously to show your current progress, regardless of when you completed your project(s). Please indicate what software and/or A.I. tools were used to create any items in your portfolio.

(*In OPDD1700, you may choose any of your projects to expand or improve upon to include in your portfolio. You will also learn more about what makes for excellent portfolio content and structure.)

Four aspects/phases of the concept design process

Each of the three projects needs to show the following four aspects/phases of the concept design process. Each project must include:

  • Research
  • Ideation and creative exploration
  • Refinement and development of the concept
  • Finalization and visualization of the concept and/or prototype

Showcase and emphasize the skills and creativity that you have developed in courses you have taken or projects you have worked on. Please include examples of the following throughout your portfolio:

  • Research
  • Layout and graphic communication
  • Ideation sketching
  • 2D Computer Aided Design/Technical drawing
  • 3D Computer Aided Design
  • Rendering
  • Physical Fabrication/Prototyping

You may choose to emphasize the different examples listed above in varying amounts for each project, but all must appear somewhere in your portfolio. For example, if a project you want to include has many ideation sketching examples but no physical fabrication/prototyping in it, that is okay. Simply show the final design as a rendering and show physical fabrication/prototyping in another project.

Please include a link to each of the projects on your website. No projects or prototypes need to be physically turned in. The web-based portfolio presentation is due by 5pm MST the Friday before Spring Break.

Transcripts
  • Can be unofficial copies from Banner
  • Include any from other institutions, if applicable
  • Submitted in pdf format in Canvas
  • Labeled as Lastname_Firstname_Transcripts.pd