Illustration

Illustrators are not merely stylists who transcribe text, they are visual thinkers, interpreters with opinion.

The illustration route celebrates and encourages the individual’s character and aspirations. It welcomes diversity of opinion and experience together with an appetite to challenge the concept of illustration whilst having an awareness of professional practice.
The course welcomes applicants from a diverse range of disciplines, including textile designers, ceramicists, sculptors, printmakers, painters and illustrators.

This course seeks to arm students with the understanding that illustrators have a visual voice and a choice about where their work can be applied.

The course is underpinned throughout by an exploratory programme of short image-based projects examining the nature of drawing. It sees drawing as an attitude and raises awareness of research, function, observation and personal position. Issues such as clumsiness, accuracy, media usage, memory, context and development of ideas are challenged. It is about the relationship between illustrator, subject and the space in between.

A seminar programme is structured around key issues within the subject, providing a framework to support and challenge students’ personal projects. Some examples of this are:

- What is illustration?
- Visual narrative and personal hierarchy
- The medium is the message
- The figure and communication
- Images, context and meaning
- Personal versus public
- Visual metaphor
- Observation
- Research strategies and professional practice

The route encourages students to explore the ever expanding application of images. It sees illustration as having a relationship with context; this can be a picture on a wall in a gallery, mural in a city playground, shop window display, theatre backdrop, series of spot icons in a magazine, visualisation of a novel idea or data, children’s book, large format advertising hoarding, packaging or TV animation.

The illustration route teaches through seminars, crits, tutorials, student vivas and live projects. Collaboration with the other pathways is welcomed.

In summary, the Illustration route examines:

- Visual language, its development through the exploration of media
- Visual exploration of ideas and their relationship to visual language
- Context and the application of image
- Positioning yourself within the market place.