Illustration - BA (Hons)

Illustrations are active images; they always have a purpose, making sense of complex ideas. As illustrators, you will work to enable understanding of the everyday - from enriching literature and poetry, to responding to societal issues from science and medicine to politics and economics. You will develop rich imaginative responses to build your unique practice, inviting your audiences in.

With core skills in drawing and narrative you will explore and experiment with materials, developing a range of both technical skills to find your own visual languages with which to tackle challenging subject matter.

Through our unique curriculum you will grow a practice that is defined in its purpose not only by how you make your work but importantly by what the work is about, and how it communicates, underpinned theoretically and historically.

You will test your illustrations in a variety of environments and scenarios – exploring beyond the immediate world of the illustrator through, for example; animation, film, printed and digital media to contextualise and articulate your discipline, enriching your work with a greater understanding of the environment it operates in.

Illustration is constantly extending its reach. Whether it’s working with clients and collaborators or authoring and directing your own projects, you will graduate with a multitude of transferable skills.

As students in illustration you will join our Vertical Studio where you will explore, examine and reveal the discipline through dynamic conversations, debates and presentations, unlocking the power of illustration.

The challenge is to understand and use visual trends in a critical way, whilst developing your own unique approaches – all while taking into account the power of images in a visually saturated world. Through the three years of study you will shape your own unique practice so that it speaks in a way that is inclusive of your audience.

Career

The course is designed to develop you into a rounded and capable illustrator and intellectual. This is built upon a curriculum that has your potential in mind. As such, the emphasis that will have been placed upon your work ethic, both creatively and academically, is matched with significant focus on real world experience. This will include building contacts and undertaking placements as well as live briefs. You will be offered support in forming your own business should you choose to do so.

You can elect to take a route through your second and final years of studies where you can engage with businesses or prepare to launch your own business upon graduating. In your final year, rather than submit a dissertation, you have the option of devising a detailed business plan.

Graduates from the programme are well placed to join design companies, work as illustrators and designers in large organisations, or set up their own businesses. Some take further training, for example a PGCE. Some elect to take their studies further by studying at CSAD for a Masters level qualification and there are opportunities to take this further still, through a Professional Doctorate in Design.