I'm extremely glad I came here and I learned so much about myself. But, as an autistic student, it was terrible. I had to work at least twice as hard as my fellow students. When I expressed I was having a hard time to the higher ups, they suggested I worked harder. The other students were allowed to bully me incessantly, which was brought to the attention of the staff, they did nothing. There's no help for students with learning differences. While trying to get clarification, I had multiple teachers yell at me and refuse to explain things differently; they felt repeating the same instruction louder was sufficient. This school is hard enough without a brain that sees the world differently. Also, there is no elevator and no accessibility for anyone who is disabled. Those of us who are disabled and have divergent thinking, deserve equal education, too. Especially when it's $5000+ a quarter. read more

Portfolio Center was the most difficult, most rewarding, and most important endeavor I have undertaken. It prepared me completely for a life as a designer. I'm now 8 years into my career, and am an Art Director managing designers at a superb company. I hired a Portfolio Center grad, and am looking to hire more. They are remarkable, as the instruction we received was invaluable. read more

Portfolio Center - Art Schools Near Me - Atlanta, Georgia

The second best decision I've ever made--going to PC. Go to Portfolio Center to position yourself for a better job and better wages at a better agency. Stress out, freak out and lose your mind alongside like-minded peers, future colleagues and lifetime friends. In the end, you'll have a stellar portfolio and be a valuable asset to any creative team. Good luck and lemme know when ya graduate--always stoked to network with Portfolio talent! *Beware of the franchise art school factories accepting anybody with a pulse and box of crayons. read more

I'm a former grad, and was unprepared for the real world upon my exiting. I had tried on several occasions waiting hours on end to speak w/ someone about interning or future opportunities, but most of the time any direction was left feeling rudderless. The digital classes were more like brief overviews of digital programs, with only a few instructors giving you the tools to take your work to the next level in an efficient manner. I'm no longer in the field and neither are at least 5 people whom i went with at the same time. I finished with a decent book but there were no placement people, at that time, just a few portfolio reviews and many not looking to hire a Jr. person without experience. Many people did go on to work in agencies and design things, it can be a real wakeup for those that need a good structured format. In recent news The Portfolio Center has joined with the Miami Ad school, and has gone a lot of restructuring from the top down to help provide a better experience with better instruction, internship, and job leads. My experience with the past ownership will always leave its mark and a reminder that in graduate level programs it is best to do your own tour and draw your own conclusions. All the best to the new ownership/ leadership. read more

I graduated from Portfolio Center 12 years ago. Going to PC was the best decision I ever made. I graduated under grad with a BA in Communications. Not only did I learn everything there is to know about graphic design ie typography, composition, color, I was taught how to concept. PC is hard work but it's fun. You will leave with an amazing book. Having Portfolio Center on your resume will open any door. read more

After finishing college at Penn State for art education I decided to change career paths and went back to school at the Portfolio Center. It was a wild, sleep deprived, sometimes overwhelming, always exciting and often strange ride, but was undoubtably one of the best decisions I've made. I graduated from PC 2009 in a very challenging job climate but was able to land a job in NYC shortly after graduating through connections made during a portfolio review with the school. 5 years later I'm at a new job but still in New York and loving this career. It's been fun to follow my peers and see where everyone has ended up in life after PC...most have landed in some pretty impressive positions in New York and all over the world. read more

Portfolio Center helped me sharpen my illustration skills. Now I'm poking clients' eyes out left and right.

PC has its pros and cons. For me and much of my class, it felt that the cons outweighed the pros. I think this used to be a dynamic institution, but has suffered in recent years with the economic downturn and the advanced ages of the dept heads and owners. When the economy turned, school loans were harder to come by for private, unaccredited institutions (you won't receive a graduate degree here). As a result, PC eased the acceptance criteria and allowed anyone who had the money into the program. They skimped on facilities (big roach problem the whole time I was there) and some very well respected, well known, and top notch teachers left (Sylvia, Carmen, Snyder, Waters, and Burns). These things seriously degraded the experience and became problematic for the program. Hank, heads the design program. Hank is in his 60s and has been in academia all his life. He has no actual real, agency work experience, and let's face it, this isn't the culture of "Mad Men" anymore. This is a digital age and design cannot be separate from digital - those disciplines should be integrated - if not merged. But at PC, they are not. This is not representative of the design world today. Instead it is a reflection of how out of touch Hank is. The owner, Gemma, is heading towards her 70s and also spent her time in academia. She is blissfully unaware that Hank, and the design curriculum, are desperately out of touch. This leaves students woefully unprepared for the real world. Digital classes are few and far between for design students. And barely scratch the surface in teaching what a designer is expected to know today, especially one coming out of "grad" school. One note on Hank... In order to thrive at this school, you must be prepared to sacrifice your dignity to bolster Hank's confidence, clout, and ego. For girls this means enduring inappropriate and unwanted touching, comments, and closed-door meetings. Failure to do so or reporting of this behavior will result in a loss of opportunities, decent class placement, and poor treatment. You will spend at least 40% of your energy trying to remain in Hank and Gemma's good graces - this means a lot of kissing up, stress, and enduring Hank hitting on you non-stop. You will quickly hear whispering about Hank having been in trouble with sexual harassment charges in the past. You'll hear about the girls who were killing it in the program - just to stand up to Hank and have a miserable time in the program after being punished for doing so. I personally found this to be incredibly exhausting and distracting from school work. Stuff like this would never happen in a larger or public program. But in this small, private institution, it happened everyday. To me, these things far outweigh any positive things about the school. So much so, there's no point in even listing them. SCAD, the Creative Circus, and other local schools are much better alternatives. read more

Deciding to go to the Portfolio Center was one of the best choices I have ever made. I graduated from PSU with two majors and a minor (marketing, international business with a Spanish minor). I worked for a few years in sales and marketing before deciding that I wasn't happy with my current career path, and that I wanted to go back to school for graphic design. Since I would be paying for it myself (with student loans) I wanted to find a school that would pack the most amount of knowledge into the least amount of time. The Portfolio Center was exactly what I needed. I was a true graphic design virgin, my first day of class I had never even heard of adobe illustrator, and by the time I graduated two years later I had a portfolio that landed me a design job at one of NYC's top branding agencies. (and to be clear I had absolutely no connections to the industry, other than the people that I met at the portfolio review in NYC set up by the portfolio center). 5 years later I'm still living in NYC and working at a job that I absolutely love. Portfolio Center isn't for everyone... it's ridiculously time consuming, hard work and at times downright bizarre. But if you're up for the challenge, PC will leave you with an impressive portfolio that (with hard work and persistence) will ultimately pay off in a job. read more

Miami Ad School, the new management, has revitalized this historic institution. I recently had the pleasure of touring the facility. The people in charge were incredibly wonderful and welcoming. Moreover, they are exceptionally knowledgeable in every imaginable aspect of design, marketing, digital integration of both. Additionally, the school offers concentrations on other branches tailored to this career like copyrighting. The programs they offer give any students hands-on experience. The facility left me in awe. The school has a basement level floor with dedicated theme rooms, a gallery that displays the works of their staff and students they complete on their spare time, and a renovated AirStream Trailer where they host small classes and meetings. I will definitely apply and hope to get in! The school was a culmination of the perfect creative environment led by true magnates of this expertise of ingenuity. read more

I graduated from PC close to a decade ago. It was a rigorous program that demanded both your time and your soul. But like anything hard in life, it was well worth it. I went directly to NYC and worked at some of the finest agencies around. I hit the ground running, contributing to client work immediately. Since then, I've moved back South, helping to run a couple of agencies from the creative side. PC was a game changer for me and it gave me the foundation and confidence to succeed in a highly competitive field. Sure, not everyone is going to succeed in design and advertising. You have to have thick skin and a competitive spirit. But if you think this field is for you, I'd give PC a hard look. I'd sure recommend it. read more