BA (Hons) Illustration.
UCAS Code W220
Fred Bates 0113 202 8000 fred.bates@leeds-art.ac.uk
BA (Hons.) Illustration.
This is a brand-new and exciting course for 2013 which has developed out of the extremely successful illustration stream within our Graphic Design degree. You will not only develop your strengths as an illustrator but also learn to build your own practice when you graduate. You’ll have exposure to a wide range of applications for illustration (from packaging, editorial and publishing to storyboarding, character design and comic strips), using both traditional and new media to explore your creative ambitions. You’ll take advantage of excellent links with industry and professional illustrators, and on graduation will have the choice of a wide range of career options.
Course validated by the Open University.
The emphasis is on developing your practice as an illustrator rather than teaching you to draw. This is a hard-working and challenging programme, offering fantastic opportunities for you to develop into a sought after practising professional. You’ll work as part of a small year-group of approximately 25, in a studio environment which closely mirrors what you’d find in industry. You’ll have access to excellent facilities including traditional processes and cutting-edge Mac suites featuring all the software you could need. We will consider how illustration can respond to and solve real issues. You’ll have opportunities to exercise your skills by applying them to a range of media including packaging, products, storyboarding for animation, comics, editorial and publishing, caricatures and graphic novels. Although this is a new course, the illustration aspect of our Graphic Design degree means we already have excellent industry links for placements, visiting professionals and studio visits. There are many opportunities for collaboration with other courses, particularly Graphic Design and Animation. A great deal of attention is paid to helping you build your own practice. You’ll learn to generate your own networking, collaboration and exhibition opportunities, and how to find work and clients when you graduate.
This is a hard-working and challenging programme, offering fantastic opportunities for you to develop into a sought after practicing professional.
Course Structure. Year One. You’ll explore a range of approaches to communication ideas, concepts and messages through image, media and visual language. You’ll develop your practical and research skills through studios and resource-based workshops, considering a broad range of historical, contextual and theoretical aspects of contemporary illustration.
Placements. Students are helped to negotiate their own placements, industrial research and studio visits to suit their particular interests or specialisms.
Fred Bates Programme Leader
Year Two. You’ll develop your own practice though briefs and self-directed projects, identifying your areas of specialist interest as you learn the professional demands of the creative industries. You’ll apply your work to industrially relevant contexts and products while studying the theory behind your practice. You’ll also learn essential business skills.
Future Careers. Graduates will work as freelance or employed illustrators, concept artists, storyboard artists, information visualisers, character/caricature artists, technical illustrators and commercial artists. They may also work for illustration agencies.
Year Three. You’ll focus on your own ambitions and your strategy for becoming a professional illustrator. You’ll negotiate your own creative content— including competitions, live briefs, studio visits, industrial research and placements, building a portfolio which reflects your focus. You could collaborate with other students, leaning to respond to the demands of many creative industries.