Pathway
Design & Visual Arts
Making things that look and work the way they should, brands, products, interfaces, illustrations. Portfolio-driven, which means what you build matters more than your transcript.
Majors
- Graphic Design
- Industrial / Product Design
- Illustration
- UX / Interaction Design
- Fashion Design
- Animation
Jobs people do
- Graphic designer
- UX / product designer
- Illustrator
- Art director
- Industrial designer
- Motion designer
Watch out
The choices that quietly close a door here
Waiting until senior year to start a portfolio.
Art and design programs admit on portfolio, and portfolios reviewed in the fall of senior year need years of work behind them. This is the most common and most costly mistake on this path.
Instead Start freshman year. Keep everything, including the work you don't like, process pieces count.
Only making personal work with no constraints.
Design is problem-solving for someone else. Portfolios of nothing but personal pieces read as illustration, which narrows where you can apply.
Instead Get at least a few real briefs with a client, a deadline, and revisions.
Dropping academics because 'it's a portfolio school'.
Most art programs sit inside universities with academic requirements, and scholarship money is often academic.
Instead Keep your grades. The portfolio gets you in; the transcript often pays for it.
Course ladder
Grade by grade
Course names differ at every school, and graduation requirements differ by state. Take this list to your counselor so the two of you are working from the same page.
Grade 8
- Any art class you can get intoWorth doing
Grade 9
- Foundational art, drawing, design principlesLoad-bearing
Start now. A design portfolio is four years of work, and it cannot be assembled senior year.
- English 9Load-bearing
- GeometryLoad-bearing
Grade 10
- Digital art / graphic designLoad-bearing
- PhotographyWorth doing
- Algebra IILoad-bearing
Grade 11
- AP Art & Design (2D, 3D, or Drawing)Load-bearing
The AP portfolio is a structured way to build the portfolio you need anyway.
- Intro programming or web designWorth doing
Designers who can build get hired faster.
- Art historyWorth doing
Grade 12
- Advanced studio or a second AP Art portfolioLoad-bearing
- Portfolio development courseLoad-bearing
- Business or marketing electiveIf you have room
Most designers freelance at some point. Knowing how to price work matters.
Outside class
Do design work for real clients
School clubs, local businesses, your church, a band. Free at first, then paid. Real constraints are what make a portfolio good.
From grade 9
Yearbook, school paper, or theater design
Deadlines, revisions, and a printed result. All three matter.
From grade 9
Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
The main national competition for high school artists, and colleges know it.
From grade 9
Pre-college summer art program
Many art schools run them and they double as a portfolio review. Financial aid exists, ask.
From grade 10
Things to build
Build the portfolio continuously, not at the end
Aim for 15–20 strong pieces by fall of senior year, showing range and process, not just finished work.
From grade 9
Redesign something badly designed near you
A school form, a local menu, a confusing sign. Show the before, the reasoning, and the after.
From grade 10
Is this actually a fit for you?
Ten minutes of questions, and Bearing turns this into a plan that starts from the grade you're in.
Take the survey