Illustration BA(Hons) (Online)

You'll begin by exploring the art of visual problem-solving, identifying a range of strategies for research and idea development. Through practical work and critical theory sessions, you'll discover and experiment with varying media and processes, using established and emerging technologies to explore your own visual language. You'll also investigate the wider contextual, ethical and professional environments of the industry, focusing on Editorial and Narrative applications.

Modules 

Innovate

In this introductory module, you will get under the skin of visual storytelling. By observing how the conversations, events and objects around you capture your imagination, you will discover a broad range of problem-solving strategies to help you produce innovative illustrative solutions.  

Delivered through a series of projects, critical studies and independent research, this module will introduce illustration’s practical, theoretical and historical contexts, and equip you with vital conceptual thinking skills.  

Apply

In this module you will investigate how editorial illustration operates within the industry and how it communicates with its corresponding audience. You will develop your research, problem solving, analytical and time management skills through working on text-based thematic projects, exploring the value and function of visual communication in the context of the editorial illustration industry.

Explore

This module supports you to experiment with a wide range of media, mark making techniques and drawing styles, initiating a crucial exploration of visual language. 

To begin to identify and strengthen your own visual language you will engage with themed projects that encourage mark-making in all its forms, including wet and dry media, drawing, digital process, collage and 3D assemblage, and colour and compositional theory.   

Life drawing, printmaking, colour, composition and digital skills workshops are embedded alongside webinars that will allow you to engage in an experimental approach to media, process and mark-making.  

Communicate

This module focuses on narrative illustration, exploring its different features alongside a variety of applications for publishing. 

You will undertake thematic projects which will provide you with an understanding of context and audience, and will develop skills such as sequential thinking, character development and storytelling. 

There will be an ongoing focus on analysis, visual communication, media and process. It will provide a framework to utilise and develop your visual language while strengthening your time management skills.

Through critical theory lectures, workshops in life drawing, digital skills, colour and composition and print-making, you’ll refine your practice and expand your industry knowledge. Embarking on project briefs independently and in collaboration with your peers, you’ll investigate information illustration and then move on to an advertising project. Collaborative work will build your project management, communication and team-working skills, which are vital in industry.

Modules 

Shape

This module enables you to make decisions about the future direction of your work through testing of skills developed earlier in the course, and through engaging in critical studies related to contemporary illustration practice. 

A variety of contexts may underpin each project: commentary (editorial and journalistic themes), persuasion and identity (advertising and promotion), narrative fiction (adult themes and young audiences), non-fiction/information (educational, documentary and instructional themes) authorial (self-initiated, self-published).  

You will be challenged and supported to develop your visual problem-solving techniques whilst refining your visual language through experimentation with media and process, while deepening your knowledge of the theoretical, historical and contemporary issues related to editorial, journalistic illustration, advertising and promotion, narrative fiction and information illustration. 

Evolve

The illustration industry is broad and evolving, and in this module, you will gain vital insights into a range of industry contexts, platforms and applications including information, design, product and packaging; digital, printed and site-specific platforms.  

With an ongoing focus on visual problem-solving, you will gain an understanding of the specific features of these different illustrative contexts, and how they operate within the industry according to their different functions and audiences. 

Refine

This module is all about uncovering and evolving your authentic illustrative voice. Through a series of workshops and lectures led by professional practitioners, you will discover new ways to experiment, reflect and refine your visual language.  

Taking this toolkit of knowledge, you will create a self-directed project to challenge your ongoing practice, led by a theme or process inspired by your own interests and ambitions. Through experimentation with a range of established and emergent technologies alongside reflective and analytical research, you will work collaboratively with peers to progress and evolve as an illustrator. 

Share

Working as part of a team, you'll work on 'Challenge Briefs' that reflect the sort of assignments you could expect to be working on in industry. Developing your 'soft skills', like communication, problem-solving, critical thinking and leadership, you'll sharpen your ability to work well as part of a group to produce outstanding work. 

Through self-negotiated projects, you’ll continue to refine your creative practice and visual problem-solving skills, formulating a range of strategies to best communicate ideas to audiences. In ambitious live projects, working with clients and/or your peers, you’ll showcase your honed team-working and professional practice skills. You’ll also evidence your strategic critical and analytical skills, choosing to take an entrepreneurial, educational or illustrative pathway.    

The final Employability module is all about launching your illustration career. You’ll gain real feedback from leading international designers, publishers, editors and art directors and have the opportunity to participate in a self-organised work placement.  

Modules 

Define

In this module you will be empowered to design your own practice projects, tailored to your personal interests and skills within illustration. Developed via negotiation with your tutor, your practice projects will enable you to challenge yourself within your chosen area and enhance your research, visual problem-solving and technical skills in the production of original and innovative visual solutions.  

Through ongoing visual experimentation and evaluation, you will further refine your authentic visual language through several outcomes in the form of a body of work. 

Reflect

Geared towards helping you excel within the creative industries, this module focuses on professional practice. Facilitated through a programme of lectures, you will build reports and personal research into areas including; self-promotion, marketing, industry working processes and procedures, self-publishing, collaborative and entrepreneurial opportunities, transferrable skills and business management - all aligned to the changing needs of industry. .

Reach

The module requires you to engage with an extended programme of research, leading to a written research report analysing a subject of your choice tailored to your personal interests and skills within illustration. 

Supported by a programme of themed lectures and workshops, you will research and analyse a variety of sources to write a research report, developed via negotiation with your tutors. This report will enable you to challenge yourself within your chosen area and develop fundamental skills accordingly, such as research, analysis and project management. 

Connect

Through continued negotiated projects, this self-directed module will support you in the creation of a professional digital portfolio, equipping you to enter the visual communication industries with strong project management, analytical and reflective skills.  

You will build a body of work utilising appropriate processes defined by your strengths and interests within the broad spectrum of illustration, demonstrating your intellectual, technical and self-reflective skills, to consolidate an emerging authentic visual language that connects and communicates with industry. 

The projects you design via negotiation with your tutors will enable you to push and challenge yourself in your chosen areas and enable you to refine research, visual problem-solving and technical visual skills in the production of original and innovative visual solutions.  

Industry week, towards the end of the module, will provide you with feedback on your portfolio from international art directors, publishers, designers and agencies, and may take the form of a placement (to be arranged by students on an individual basis).