The Eugene Hénaff lycée is located in Bagnolet in a difficult environment. It hosts 825 pupils and many general, professional and technological pathways. This school tries to prioritise pedagogy per project in partnerships with professionals. One of the most successful actions is that proposed by graphic arts teachers. It consists of responding to requests from contractors for work related to signage and design. The immersion of pupils in real-life situations is intended to help them develop their school skills as well as their own reflexive analytical skills. This should make them better able to face educational and professional challenges, and more generally to progress in their daily lives. Our own educational activity is part of this dynamic of strengthening students’ capacity for reflexive analysis. This is why we have moved towards a portfolio approach in order to improve the arrangements already in place. In Delalande’s view, the student ‘must be an individual who is able to react to what he is offered and is likely to be at the initiative of deeds and thoughts.’ The concept of cognitive autonomy of Bernard LAHIRE ‘effectively refers, on the one hand, to the freedom left to the student to search, select information, conduct experimentation to build his knowledge...’ The pedagogy adopted by the leading teachers is thus adapted to the exercise of students’ cognitive autonomy, the development of their capacity for reflex analysis is a tool to achieve their political autonomy. The portfolio approach we have enthusiastic and accompanying tends towards students’ political autonomy, so that they “take ownership of the rules to free themselves from dependency on the teacher. Students need to be aware of the learning strategies they implement to learn and understand the world”. This approach of documenting a portfolio by pupils is a complement to the self-assessment of the skills carried out by their leading teachers at the site of the Biennale du Design de Saint-Étienne. The initiation and support for the use of a portfolio was strongly influenced by the particular framework imposed by the Typotopy project (a site which was geographically remote and limited over ten days). The framework of the survey has therefore been strictly defined and its various phases have been precisely sequenced (presentation, experimentation, exploitation, analysis). The survey provided answers to the research question. The collection of evidence is the fundamental step of the portfolio approach. The evidence collected is a condition for the development of students’ capacity for reflex analysis. But this step is not enough. Individualised support for students remains a necessity for them to take ownership and develop their analysis autonomously. The scope of the survey influenced the actors: facilitator of the procedure (choosing Edmodo) but also perceived as binding and as a brake for some (daily frequency). But education as a whole is positive for stakeholders (pupils and teachers) and has been able to provide them with additional lessons.