Illustration - Year 0

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/

Illustrators' work can be found in books, magazines, advertising campaigns, animation, film and TV title-sequences, web design and the interfaces of tomorrow. Our graduates have gone on to work as animators at MTV, freelance illustrators and illustrator/designers working within a wide range of creative studios and agencies.

To achieve your goal it’s crucial that you have frequent contact with tutors. Sadly, students at many other institutions rarely see staff 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 see us regularly and receive a massive amount of regular 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 course mix, share ideas and inspire one another.

If you know that you want to be an illustrator but feel you aren’t quite ready for entry into Year 1 of the BA(Hons) programme this is where the Foundation Entry Year (or Year 0) comes in. We give you a thorough introduction into the fundamentals of illustration and design – where ideas come from, how to nurture them and allow them to blossom. We then show you how to develop alternatives, how to question, evaluate, re-evaluate, test and navigate your solutions. We will make use of journals/sketchbooks/worksheets and get you to think out loud on paper.

This specialist, preparatory year, will provide you with all the necessary underpinning practical, technical and theoretical skills. Working with others you will 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) Illustration course. You will be able to hit the ground running!

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 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.

What our students say

“Small class sizes, the atmosphere and the facilities brought me here” – Year 0 Student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

“The staff and students went out of their way to make me feel welcome. This is such a friendly place.” – Year 0 Student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

There are lots of resources, good workspace and plenty of face time with our tutors.” – Year 0 Student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

“The best thing about Year Zero has been the tutor and technician support, helping me to create work that I didn’t think I could.” – Year 0 Student (2011 anonymous feedback survey)

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.

We also believe you should be able to exploit any technical areas your project work may require and so you will have access to computer training labs, animation suites, printmaking studios, life drawing studios, moving image editing suites, wood, metal and plastic workshops, textile studios, photography studios and even our ceramics department! 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.

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.

Entry requirements 100 UCAS tariff points.

Find out more about qualification options from the UCAS tariff table.

Please check selection criteria for any additional entry requirements.

Credit and UCAS requirements UCAS code: W222 UCAS points: 100 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).

You may also be interested in:

Illustration

Graphic Design – Year 0

Graphic Design 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.

UCAS Link

Visit UCAS

Modules

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

Course summary

Many of the students who join 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 develop the necessary specialist skills and experience to progress smoothly on to degree level education – this is where the Foundation Entry Year (known as ’Year 0’) comes in.

This is a one-year intensive programme that will guarantee progression on to the three year BA (Hons) Illustration degree. It is a practical, studio-based experience, developing your visual language through experimentation, mark-making and digital manipulation. As well as computer-based technology we introduce you to composition, shape and visual dynamics and an exciting range of workshops ranging from drawing and printmaking, through to photography and typography. You will also study the key historical and contextual events that have shaped graphic design today.

You will meet designers from the past, present and future. You will learn how to draw anything and everything. You'll become passionate about paper, colour and type. We will discuss books, films, exhibitions, the Internet, music and cake. We will expose you to lots of ways of working, from experimental to controlled, quick to quicker, immediate to considered, hi-tech to lo-tech, big to small, delicate to robust, 2D to 3D and all points in-between. Yes, sometimes your head will hurt but we promise it will be worth it!

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

After successfully completing this year you automatically progress to the graphic design degree and it will be a step, not a giant leap. This is because at the end of the year you will be more than ready for your first year on our three-year degree course in Illustration.

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