After Bucks Careers in illustration
BA (Hons) Illustration at Bucks provides many opportunities to explore the diverse world of illustration, whether your chosen field within image-making lies in vector art, pictograms or storytelling. Developing a diverse range of creative projects and engaging in external competition or industry briefs, there is freedom and opportunity to shape your ideas and refine your skills. You’ll also work with professional illustrators who will critique your work and help you improve your illustrations. When you go out into the world, knowing how to manage your own projects will be crucial. As an illustrator, you’ll probably work freelance after graduation. We equip you with essential skills in preparing for a successful career, informing you about the business and how to keep your head above water in today’s complex professional world. We have a good employment rate with many of our graduates going into work or further education after the course. We have graduates in typography, illustration, web design, advertising, and publishing. Some have also started their own businesses. We’re really proud of our graduates, whose profiles tell their own story.
Cover by Alex Tait
Sara Groborz
Studied BA (Hons) Illustration Currently working as a director of graphics at The Yard Creative as well as a freelance designer and illustrator. Throughout my three years at Bucks I have participated in a number of live briefs, which resulted in industry internships. As I’ve continued to gather more experience I realised that it’s perfectly fine to develop multiple styles and various techniques. As much as it’s important to be recognised for a particular style, it is as much crucial to never stop learning and developing your approach and style of working. Not only is it beneficial commercially but is also very rewarding on a personal level. The tutors at Bucks definitely pushed me on every brief by encouraging me to go outside my comfort zone. The course provides many opportunities which will allow you to challenge yourself and progress at the right pace. The rest is up to you! The most valuable thing I learnt is that great work starts with a good idea. You can make anything look beautiful but it’s the idea that gives the form its substance. The best thing about my time at Bucks is being surrounded by passionate people from different backgrounds and who have different opinions. It helped me grow and gave me a chance to see things in a different light, and ultimately grow as an illustrator.
Rob Flowers
Studied BA (Hons) Illustration Currently working as a freelance illustrator. Bucks gave me an excellent grounding in all aspects of a professional designers’ practice. Through practical and theoretical teaching I gained a wide range of skills which I have built upon since leaving in 2004. I work on a wide range of different sorts of projects, from editorial illustration to animation direction and costume design. My most recent project was my first book, ‘Festival Folk’, written, illustrated and designed by me; it is an exploration of some of the interesting and unique festivals from all over the world. I am also working on a number of advertising projects which I’m not allowed to talk about! I came to Bucks with quite a broad idea of what I wanted to do. The course exposed me to varied workshops, briefs, lectures from practitioners and studio culture. This really helped me focus, in the later stages of the three years, on what really interested and excited me.
The print making rooms were an excellent resource and something I feel, through teaching and seeing more limited facilities at other institutions, really thankful for. Being challenged and not satisfied with merely ‘good enough’ was an excellent culture that was fostered through being challenged at tutorials and crits, though I probably didn’t enjoy it at the time! We were encouraged to take part in as many ‘live’ briefs as possible in my time at Bucks and this was built into the course. From memory, we did D&AD, Macmillan Children’s Book award, a few briefs with agencies, an animation one for Bloomberg and probably loads more I’ve forgotten. The best part of my experience at Bucks was desinfitely the connections and friendships I made. Because of the broad range of students on the course I’ve made lifetime friends who now work in advertising, film direction, music, production, photography that have stood me in good stead, not only career wise but in general life. The studio culture really helped to foster these connections and is something I’m very grateful for.
Lily Jones
Studied BA (Hons) Illustration Currently working as a freelance illustrator and visiting lecturer. My course at Bucks introduced me to a broad set of skills and techniques which allowed me to extensively explore graphic design, illustration and animation practices, pushing both digital and physical methods and outcomes. It also gave me the opportunity to specialise in my chosen field of illustration, whilst also allowing me to push it beyond traditional methods, exploring a range of media and processes. I also developed a specialist research area which started at University when writing my dissertation and setting my own self-initiated projects; this has continued to develop at MA level and through my own personal practice and design work. I have further developed my research methodologies and hope to undertake a residency next year. I have completed an MA at the Royal College of Art since graduating from Bucks, and work regularly for clients such as Penguin Random House. My course at Bucks encouraged extensive idea development and testing new media and
processes. This pushed my experimentation and the methods I would use in my illustration and design work, embracing the use of mixed media which is still evident in my illustration practice. We were able to work on a variety of live briefs, and the D&AD New Blood show upon graduating gave great exposure to new clients. My most valuable lesson was to enjoy what I was making and doing, and to make work that I enjoyed and felt passionately about, which in my case focused on social and political issues, more specifically feminist and gender commentary. The best part of my experience at Bucks were the great tutors and their constructive feedback which helped push projects and my art practice. At Bucks, I was surrounded by enthusiastic peers and the opportunity to critique and also get feedback. The large studio space had easy access to most facilities, meaning you could push your practice and working methods. It was a real opportunity to experiment and adopt new ways of working, with inspiration from a great variety of guest speakers.
Jenny Tang
Studied BA (Hons) Illustration Currently working as a digital marketer and freelance illustrator. Bucks New University has, without a doubt, provided me with the background and skills necessary to get to where I am now. One key aspect that attracted me to the course was the variety. At the time I was uncertain whether I wanted to become a graphic designer or an illustrator, so it was good to experience projects that allowed me to explore both. I learnt about grids, typography and white space which helped immensely with my design skills and although I wouldn’t say I was taught technical illustration skills, the feedback and projects helped me develop my style to what it is now. Whilst nowadays I much prefer illustration, having learnt the design skills is still important, especially when presenting your work to clients and understanding how your illustration will be used in context. I also organised a few exhibitions, which was both immensely
stressful and enjoyable, and these experiences gave me the skills and confidence to start out on my own! I’ve definitely refined my style since graduating from university. The thing that I’ve mostly improved is my workflow and experimenting with line texture in my illustrations. I have quite a few big projects coming up, including four large scale murals for a new building development - which is easily my highest paid job yet. I’ve also been accepted to be a part of Toronto Comics and Arts Festival, so I will be a blatant tourist, eating poutine next to Niagara Falls in the near future. Finally, I’m organising an illustration exhibition in East London called On This Planet which will be raising funds for a charity I support, World Land Trust (onthisplanet.co.uk). I had thought that you had to either learn illustration or graphic design, but actually through my course at Bucks, I learnt how to utilise both. The feedback sessions and seeing other people’s projects also continually challenged my thinking and the way my own project was heading.
The most valuable thing the course taught me was to finish what I started. It sounds obvious, but for the first year and a half during university (and even prior to this) I had a really hard time just finishing a project. I’d start well, get into the research, but then I’d either be too ambitious, or lack confidence in my skills and lose direction to see it through. What resulted were thoughtful concepts but half-finished outcomes, like a booklet with next-to-nothing copy or an illustrated zine filled with sketches as opposed to fully realised illustrations. When I finally did finish an outcome there were lots of potential improvements and plenty of mistakes were made, however everything was there, and I finally had an outcome that had finalised content. It gave me the confidence to accept that I won’t know how to do everything and the only way to learn is try your best and just do it. When it’s in a finished state, even if it’s not perfect, you can put closure on it, say what worked and what didn’t. Then you can take what you learnt into the next project, as opposed always speculating what could have been with an unfinished project.
My course did provide me with further opportunities to develop my skills and experience. My tutor connected me with an art director at Quarto Publishing which led to an internship. Even though it made me realise I didn’t want to be in publishing, it was a really good experience and I have a lot of fond memories from my time there. At university, I loved being able to have an open studio and being able to talk to the other year groups. Since the groups were small, you got generous tutor time; you also got to know everyone, including the tutors which a great way to develop your practice and bounce ideas. I loved organising exhibitions and appreciated having the support but also the independence to create a group exhibition at the end of every year. However, perhaps the overall best experience was the trip to New York - it was wild!
Alexander Tait
Currently working as a freelance illustrator.
became enthused through contact with tutors, and an introduction into the industry. It taught me to explore and push myself outside of my comfort zone.
During my time at Bucks there was a variety of tutors working within different fields, all of which brought an in-depth knowledge of the different industries we were looking to work within. Throughout the course we were able to explore these different fields, with frequent visits from industry professionals.
Throughout my time on the course we worked on many industry briefs and were introduced to many industry professionals who worked with us on idea development and outcomes. It gave us a good insight as to how certain fields worked and began to prepare us for the reality of what working in the industry would entail.
Since graduating I have been able to work with numerous brands such as Apple, Samsung and Levi’s as well as creating a giant inflatable modelled off of my characters and having illustrations in publications such as The Daily Telegraph.
The most valuable thing I learned on my course is that a big part of achieving something is perseverance and patience. For me, the best part of my experience at Bucks was being shown the options available to me and having tutors whose enthusiasm for the course matched that of myself and other students.
Studied BA (Hons) Illustration
I entered the course at Bucks with no real idea of what the end game would be, but quickly
High Wycombe Campus Queen Alexandra Road High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP11 2JZ Telephone: 0330 123 2023 Email: advice@bucks.ac.uk
BucksNewUni @BucksNewUni BucksNewUni BucksNewUni BucksNewUniversity
bucks.ac.uk This publication was produced by Buckinghamshire New University in February 2019, and is accurate at the time of going to press. We reserve the right to amend information without prior notice. Š Buckinghamshire New University