Illustration

Illustrations are like words - visual words. They are pictorial translations of thought. Whether created out of paint, pencil or pixels, they too make us think, perhaps in a more immediate way than the written word. As a visual language illustration can be used to depict or represent just about anything. And as with the spoken word, it is constantly evolving and adapting to changes in society, whether they be cultural or technological. An illustrator informs, narrates and comments in much the same way as a writer does through the written word; but the illustrator does it through a rich language of figurative and symbolic forms created through drawing and paintings. These representation structures become what is known as the illustrator’s ‘iconography’, a personal visual language which clearly communicates ideas and information to others.

To assist students in the development of their own visual language - their personal iconography - our curriculum has been developed over a number of years to challenge and engage the thinking of our students. Assignments also develop the technical, applied skills to bring ideas to life. Each project requires innovative creative solutions, whether it is in the form of a sequential narrative with characters and scenes or in a more immediate holistic way through the use of metaphoric language in a single picture.

First Year Students across the BFA (Hons) and BDes (Hons) share a core suite of papers in their first year.

Second Year: The illustration 1 paper offers a broad sweep of what illustration is. It focuses on the development of visual language through analogy and metaphor and also looks at how narratives can be effectively told through the creation of characters and clever compositions.

Third Year: You will learn to engage with socially driven topics and develop your narrative ‘voice’. Traditional and digital media are experimented with and you are encouraged to develop your own stylistic approach to a design problem.

Fourth Year: The fourth year curriculum spans a wide continuum between vocation driven projects and more theoretically positioned assignments. In the ‘Studio Practice’ paper, you work with real clients on real assignments. This is counter-balanced by Major Project which is an applied design response to a theoretical, social or design-centred problem.