Illustration

Why study with us?

To see much more of what we do please visit our website

www.cumbria.ac.uk/graphicdesign

and our course blog

http://grillust.blogspot.co.uk/

Although Illustration is a specialist creative discipline it’s also part of the wider profession of graphic design. Most universities teach illustration in isolation but we know that this can limit your prospects in a world where flexibility is a highly prized asset. We’ve produced a unique course that not only provides you with a complete education as an illustrator but also ensures you have the necessary graphic design skills to allow you to thrive as an illustrator who can also work as a designer.

It’s a sad truth that students at many other institutions rarely see their tutors due to huge group sizes – happily we’re very different! We know that small year groups are best and so we recruit around twenty students each year. This means that you receive individual support and feedback. We also believe that you should work from a studio base. In our case this is a huge, dynamic, modern, multi-functioning space in which all years of our Illustration and Graphic Design and courses mix, share ideas and inspire one another.

If you are visually inquisitive, motivated and ready for the challenge of one of the most exciting and fastest changing fields in the creative industries, then this is the course for you.

What can this course lead to?

Our graduate’s work can be found in books, magazines, advertising campaigns, web design, animation, and film and TV title-sequences. In fact as new media come into existence, we expect the versatility of our illustrators will enable them to be at the very forefront of developments, creatively exploiting the communication possibilities.

In August 2011, Year 3 student Amy Holliday won the prestigious Computer Arts Graduate Showcase, Illustration Category Excellence Award. Amy’s work was judged outstanding in its class against stiff national and international competition – a fantastic start to her career as a professional illustrator.

Two of our graduates, Dan Sutherland and Laura Willis, went on to work as illustrator/animators at MTV. Dan was subsequently head-hunted by RED Design in Brighton and amongst many other things has recently designed a website for Carla Bruni-Sarkosy (the wife of the former President of France)...

Upon graduating, Fredrick Aven joined Unit 9 in London, progressed rapidly and is now a creative partner at Helpful Strangers in Stockholm.

Sarah France and Hanna Viktorsson have both had their work featured in recent books. Hanna’s fashion illustrations are in ‘The Beautiful - Illustrations for Fashion and Style’ (edited by Anneke Krull) and Sarah is officially an ‘icon’ of design! Her work is illustrated in Steven Heller’s ‘Icons of Graphic Design’ (Thames and Hudson). When not being an icon, Sarah works at Threebrand.

It is their ability to be creative and effective image-makers within a design context that allows our illustration graduates to stand out from the crowd.

2012 news, awards and jobs

This year we were visited by no less a figure than Kevin Roberts, CEO of the world’s biggest advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi! Just as enjoyable were visits from former students Ryan Young of Sell! Sell!, Gemma Rice of White Space and Sally Henderson of Media Clash. Also, freelance illustrator Lucy MacLeod came by to offer professional advice to our third year students.

As for awards: Rachy McKenzie and Ben Barrow were both winners in the YCN design awards.

Kelcey Braine was also a winner in The Creative Times Student Design Brief and Claire Wood was the winner of Cancer Research’s Race for Life T-shirt Design Competition.

Third year student Jenny Cox was shortlisted for the prestigious Folio Society Illustration Award.

We are also celebrating the fact that many third year students had illustrations commissioned by publications as diverse as Computer Arts and Singletrack. This gives them the huge advantage of graduating with published work in their portfolio.

In the toughest financial climate for years, our students have proven their worth with many already in full-time employment by September 2012 (only two months after graduating).

Sarah Gill is now working at Matter & Co.; Grace Neal at Singletrack; Mica Connelly is employed at RF Design; Sarah Swanton is at Exporta Group; Lee Freeman works for Sell! Sell!; Kelcey Braine is at Mesh Marketing; Petra Bláhová works for Lavahouse and Gary Nicholson is at TakeOff Creative. Many other students are reporting back with good news about placements, internships and agency interest.

Resources and facilities

We are immensely proud of our fantastic, huge and well-equipped studio space. It contains over eighty Mac workstations, small tutorial and lecture spaces, staff offices, and lots of space for student work bases. It also has the advantage of having an in-house reprographics department for all your printing needs. The benefits to you of working alongside students from all years of the course are immense and the mix creates an inspiring, dynamic, stimulating and continually changing environment.

Unlike most other universities, we also believe you should be able to exploit any technical areas your project work may require. We make sure you have access to life drawing, computer training labs, animation suites, printmaking studios, moving image editing suites, wood, metal and plastic workshops, textile studios, photography studios and even our ceramics department! One of our students even converted a caravan into a travelling contemporary design gallery...

Please feel free to browse the photos in our course gallery of the studio, campus and resources our students use and enjoy on a daily basis.

Teaching, Assessment and Learning

We believe that assessment is not the end but the beginning of the process of learning. Feedback can come not only from lecturers, but also from their peers, or the student themselves. We have our own website with more information about teaching, learning and assessment in graphic design and illustration: www.grillust.com/tal.

Have a look at our learning resources for Illustration.

What our students say

“The course has a real community spirit in a friendly environment and we do lots of different stuff such as video, craft and traditional drawing practices.” – Year 1 student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

“The life drawing sessions are fun, I was always learning something new and you get a great mix of graphic design and illustration which helps you decide which one’s for you.” – Year 1 student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

“Feedback has been great. I’ve had the opportunity to hear where I can improve and things I should carry on with. My confidence and ability have progressed thanks to the encouragement of the tutors.” – Year 2 Student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

“The constructive advice given throughout the project and the assessment and feedback following each project really helps improve the quality of our work.” – Year 2 Student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

“The shorter projects forced me to work harder to stricter deadlines, we have lovely staff and we receive far more tuition than other courses I know of. I’m glad I came.” – Year 3 Student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

“I love the fact that I can work as an illustrator and as a designer.” – Year 3 Student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

Entry requirements

240 UCAS points.

Find out more about equivalent qualifications on the UCAS tariff table.

Please check any additional selection criteria below.

Credit and UCAS requirements UCAS code: W220 UCAS points: 240 Selection criteria

Find out more about Illustration including what our interviews are like (very friendly) and the kind of work we would like to see in your portfolio (wide-ranging).

Not quite ready for Year 1?

Many of the students we accept on to Year 1 of the course have normally studied for a Foundation Diploma or a National Diploma in Art and Design (or equivalent). Some applicants from other backgrounds (for example school leavers or people returning to education) may need further time and support to help them progress to degree level education – this is where the Foundation Entry (known as ’Year 0’) comes in.

This specialist, preparatory year, will provide you with an extensive range of underpinning practical, technical and theoretical skills. You experience a wide range of project work and have extensive inductions into virtually all of our technical workshops. The pace is fast, the projects are fun and successful completion of ‘Year 0’ gives you automatic progression to Year 1 of the BA(Hons) Graphic Design course. Find out more.

You may also be interested in:

Illustration - Year 0

Graphic Design

Graphic Design – Year 0 Costs

Click to view information on your study type and home location

Full-time students

Home

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year has been set at £8,250 (including an automatic £750 fee discount).

As a full-time UK student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning £21,000 per annum (if you're from England) or £15,795 (if you're from Scotland). You may also be eligible for a maintenance loan (up to £5,500) and a maintenance grant (up to £3,354). For more information about student loans and grants, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Access to Learning Fund
• Utilities trust

EU

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year has been set at £8,250 (including an automatic £750 fee discount).

As a full-time EU student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning £21,000 per annum (or the equivalent in your country). For more information about student loans, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Utilities trust

International

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year is £9,960.

Fees are billed annually and may be paid by the student or a sponsor. 75 percent of the annual tuition fees must be paid before or at registration. For students requiring a Tier 4 Student Visa, a deposit of £3,500 is expected as a minimum before a CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) will be issued. For more information, visit our international student finance page.

Early payment discount

If you are paying your own fees, you may be eligible for an early payment discount of £1,000. This discount is awarded to students who pay in full before registration.

International scholarship

If you are studying a full-time bachelor's degree (excluding teacher training and NHS-funded courses) or a top-up degree, you may be eligible for an international scholarship. The university has nine scholarships available. Find out more on our scholarships page.

Additional financial support

Our money doctors will be on hand throughout the year to help you manage your money while you’re in the UK. However, if you do happen to run into financial difficulty during your time here, you may be able to access a small emergency support fund.

Part-time students

Home

The tuition fee for students starting study in the 2013/14 academic year is £8,250 (including an automatic £750 fee discount). This fee is billed annually. For part-time students, the annual fee is calculated based on the number of years you take to complete your course. For example, a student studying part-time for six years may expect to pay £4,125 per year.

As a part-time UK student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning over £21,000 a year (if you're from England) or £15,795 (if you're from Scotland). For more information about student loans and grants, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Part-time students may be eligible for one of 40 NSP awards worth up to £3,000.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Access to Learning Fund
• Utilities trust

EU

The tuition fee for students starting study in the 2013/14 academic year is £8,250 (including an automatic £750 fee discount). This fee is billed annually. For part-time students, the annual fee is calculated based on the number of years you take to complete your course. For example, a student studying part-time for six years may expect to pay £4,125 per year.

As a part-time EU student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning over £21,000 a year. For more information about student loans, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Part-time students may be eligible for one of 40 NSP awards worth up to £3,000.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Utilities trust

UCAS Link

Visit UCAS

Modules

For detailed summary of all course content please read our programme specification for this course (PDF).

Course summary

Put simply, our aim is to give you the experience, confidence and creative skills to allow you to stand out from the crowd when you graduate. We also believe that it is vital that you develop strong drawing skills, which will underpin your unique visual language. During Year One we build your confidence and help you develop your ideas by looking at the fundamentals of illustration and design through a series of imaginative briefs that address core themes, issues and technical skills. These themes are further explored in an integrated design theory module. We are renowned for our teaching of drawing (including life drawing) and you also develop your two-dimensional and moving image skills using our state-of-the-art digital resources and technical workshops. To allow your confidence and ambition to grow, we cover a lot of ground and you do a huge amount of drawing, painting and digital work.

To see what’s going on right now please visit the Course blog.

In Years Two and Three you continue to work alongside graphic design students but now the focus shifts to illustration, a profession that has never been so varied, exciting and expressive. You examine illustration’s place within the design process and also the interface between traditional practices and digital media, from web to animation, static to motion, painting to vector. You design and build your own online illustration portfolio, develop your own, unique visual approach and apply it to a wide range of illustration project briefs, including live work and international competitions.

Our course is studio-based and allows you dedicated access to our creative computer suites, printmaking and drawing studios, and photography labs: all essential resources to aspiring commercial illustrators. Your practical skills are supported by studies providing a critical and contextual framework for your work.

You adopt an experimental approach to subjects, media and processes built on a solid foundation of drawing, mark-making and observational skills. You slowly discover your own visual style and we show you how to work across a wide range of illustration and design situations.

You can see current student work on our Flickr Site and ISSUU Site.