Portfolio Conundrum-please help

I’m going to try and keep this short.

I’m a senior BFA graphic design major. About halfway through my junior year I realized that I did not enjoy graphic design. It took me almost another semester to decide that I wanted to do Industrial design. ID is not offered at my school but rather than transfer my senior year and start over, I chose to finish off the graphic design degree.

Right now i have a fairly solid graphic design body of work. I also have a pretty strong sculpture (mostly figural, nothing abstract) body of work (I picked up a second concentration)

Finally I have what would be considered a small and pretty weak ID body of work because I simply haven’t had the time, direction, or actual instruction. I only have about 4 things I would include and two of them are basically proof that i can model in solidworks rather than creative, or original concepts.

I’m in a portfolio design class for graphic design, and wanted to make my portfolio directed towards industrial design, but include highlights from graphic design, sculpture and ID. My graphic design professor, oddly enough, doesn’t like the idea and wants me to make three separate books.

I guess my questions are: would it be weird to have all three in one book? How do i best handle this?

Depends on what you intend to use your portfolio for…

If you are using it to get into an ID school then the mixed bag of projects should be fine and with your existing training in graphic design should allow you to transfer into a school - perhaps even with credit for specific general courses.

If you are trying to find work - I would tailor the portfolio to the specific field. -Just graphics if you are staying in Communication Design.
and finally -
The ID job market is incredibly competitive at this time (lots of other posts on this). “In my opinion” it is highly unlikely that you will find meaningful employment as an industrial designer without completing some coursework in the field and having a very strong ID specific portfolio.

Hope that helps…

If you’re preparing a portfolio that will help you get into an ID program - and possibly get some GD work in the meantime, I’d structure it as a ‘graphic design + extras’ format. The extras are valuable and are generally what ID program entries require.

Echo’ing Van’s response, it will take a dedicated degree program in ID to even have a chance at decent employment in the field - unless you’re a combination of Einstein & Leonardo!