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 Concept Sketching (Fall only)
  • OPDD 1050 Fundamentals of Design (Spring only)
  • OPDD 1100 Intro to Product Creation (Fall only)
  • OPDD 1750 History of Outdoor Products (Spring only)
  • OPDD 2420 Digital Tech 2D Design (prerequisite TEE 1010)
  • OPDD 2430 Digital Tech 3D Design (prerequisites TESY 1200)
  • OPDD 2710 Outdoor Product Professional Seminar (Fall only)
  • TEE 1010 Graphic Communication Tech
  • TESY 1200 CAD and Design

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

  • FCSE 1040 Intro Sewing Outdoor Products
  • FCSE 2040 Intermediate Clothing Construction
  • TESY 1030 Material Processing Systems
  • TEE 2030 Wood-Based Manufacturing Systems

A minimum grade of C is required for all Pre-Professional courses. No more than 2 retakes are allowed in the Pre-Professional program.

Retakes include multiple repeats of the same course and audits. The pass/fail grading option cannot be used for required or elective Pre-Professional courses (though it is allowed for University Studies courses).

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. Students must apply to submit their 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 Transcripts.

Portfolio submissions are due by 5 PM MST the Friday before Spring Break.

Professional Program Portfolio Guidelines:

1: A web-based presentation

This should focus on a portfolio of your projects. This website 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.

2: 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.

3: 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.

4: 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, 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 OPDD 2710, 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