5 Tips to prepare your portfolio for CEED and NID 2025 Entrance Exam

If you are seeking admission to a design course, get ready with a portfolio because most of the top institutes will ask for one. Go through important tips to prepare your 2025 design portfolio. Also, find out 7 things you need to include in your portfolio for the NID and CEED entrance exams.

Almost every top design school asks students to showcase their portfolio at the time of the admission interview. So, right after candidates give their Design Aptitude Test (DAT) for CEED 2025  or NID DAT 2025 exam, they should immediately start working on building their Portfolio.

But you may have a questions - What exactly is a portfolio?

A Portfolio is nothing but a collection of the candidate’s best and typically most recent artwork/designs/projects. Most popular entrance exams like NID DAT, CEED, IISc etc., ask students to present their portfolio primarily because they want to know more about the creative streak in the candidate as well as understand if the student has a natural inclination towards the course they are applying for. It can be an assignment of images, sketching, rendering, graphics print and much more.

If you have a large body of work, selecting the right combination of works from the existing work also would play a crucial role in how you are judged. If you are not sure which items to pick and which to leave out, you needn't worry as we have it covered in this article.

Update on NID DAT and NIFT exams

5 Tips to Prepare a Portfolio for CEED and NID 2025 Entrance Exam

The NID DAT exam is conducted in TWO stages - DAT Prelims and DAT Mains. The DAT Mains will include a Studio Test and Interview. The candidate may be asked to showcase the portfolio at the time of the interview.

The Studio Test for the B.Des program will be conducted from April 26 to May 4, 2025. Meanwhile, the Studio Test for the M.Des program will be conducted from March 3 to April 4, 2025.

Note that the DAT Mains exam for the M.Des program will also include a Personal Interview.

The DAT Mains for the B.Des carries 60% weightage, whereas it carries 70% weightage for the M.Des program.

Here we bring you expert tips on preparing a portfolio that would stand apart from the crowd and showcase all your best qualities. 

1) Include your best work: First of all, one needs to understand that the entire task of building a portfolio is to showcase your skills. So, ensure that you include all the artwork that highlights your skill set as against what you feel reflects a good end product. Therefore, make sure that the work you include in your portfolio is such that it reflects your interests, ideas, experience as well as abilities in the field of design. Apart from this, in your portfolio include the work that will differentiate you from competitors and give you that edge that the panel before you is looking for.

Bharti a previous student at NID shared, “I was working with Accenture when I applied for NID and in my portfolio among other things I had included a project wherein I had designed a brochure for my company. And as luck would have it my entire interview was about the brochure and why I chose a particular font and colour. The interviewers even asked me what my entire thought process was behind designing the brochure header in that particular way”. She further advised NID aspirants on how to make their portfolio impressive by saying, “Know thoroughly every art piece/project that you include in your portfolio because the interview panel is very smart and they will pick small-small details in your portfolio and start quizzing you on them”.  

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2) Limit your work/Put your best samples: Next, you need to understand that the portfolio presentation is not about the volume of work you have done, it is about showcasing your creative skills. So, our suggestion here would be to restrict your portfolio to a maximum of 10-15 pages wherein on every page there is just one project. This would help bring clarity and bring attention to the project at hand.

Always double-check to see that your portfolio includes only your best-of-best works. An Industrial Design graduate from IIT Bombay, Karan said, “Make sure that your portfolio includes images that are in line with your interests. Further, one can also include work that showcases the individual’s awareness of colours, themes, designs, that is, basic design elements”. Elaborating further he said, “If a portfolio successfully manages to project that the student is well-versed with various tools, design styles and approaches as well as media then it is a plus.

3) Work on presentation: It is advisable to label your portfolio adequately. So, try and give an introduction to the project you have included in your portfolio. However, restrict yourself to a one-line introduction. The task here is to give the panel a brief introduction regarding what to expect in the product that follows without getting too word-heavy and let the visuals talk for themselves, thereafter.

Further, you can also label your figures in such a way that your thought process and usability of the design at hand are communicated aptly to anyone who goes through the portfolio.

4) Printed vs Web-Based Portfolio: Yes, technology is the call of this century. However, our advice would be that you present your work as a hard copy for a better impact on the panel. Vishal a design student from NIFT shares, “Nowadays there are many websites where you can upload your work but I would suggest avoiding doing this because there might not be proper internet access at the exam centre and your entire portfolio presentation process will go for a toss”.

Confirming the same and elaborating further on it, Simi Aggarwal who coaches aspirants on how to prepare their design portfolio states, “Many students prefer showcasing their skills through a presentation on a laptop these days. I usually suggest to them that if they wish to present their portfolio on a laptop, they should ensure that the entire presentation is simple, easy to understand and not too flashy. Also, if one is good at sketching, it is advisable that one includes a page of the sketchbook or sketches some of their thought processes on an A4 or A3 size paper”. She quotes, “In design exams, handmade sketches do help earn brownie points”.

5) Models/Prototypes a plus: If you are good at making models, then definitely carry one to your NID Entrance Exam as well as the CEED interview round. Also, a model helps the panel understand your thought process behind the product in the best possible way. Don’t worry, the model should be a mockup/prototype, it doesn’t have to be very hi-tech or perfect. The models we are referring to here are rather simple ones that are made from paper, foam or even clay.

7 Things to Include in Design 2025 Portfolio

• Table of Contents: List all the contents of the portfolio properly, page number-wise.
• Career Summary and Goals: Include a brief description of yourself and where you wish to see yourself after 5 years.
• Resume: Put in information regarding your educational qualifications, work experience and achievements.
• Work Samples: Include samples of your best work such as brochures, presentations, projects, reports, papers, studies, etc.
• Awards and Honours: Include any certificates, awards, honours, or scholarships received by you. You can also include newspaper clippings of articles/photos reflecting your achievements.
• Workshops and Conferences: List the seminars, conferences or design workshops in which you have participated or attended.
• Testimonials: Include positive reviews received for your work from professors, clients, customers, colleagues, past employers and the likes

NID DAT 2025 Application form

The National Institute of Design has closed the online application form for NID DAT 2025; the application edit window is open from December 6-11, 2024. 

The DAT Prelims exam will be conducted on Jan 5, 2025.

The scores of the exam will be used to shortlist candidates for DAT Mains, which will include a Studio Test.

The Studio Test for the B.Des program will be conducted from April 26- May 4, 2024; meanwhile, the Studio Test for the M.Des program will be conducted from March 3 - April 6, 2025.

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