Course summary
Why study this course? Take the next step towards your career in visual communication with this illustration-focused MA. With an emphasis on research, experimentation and creative risk-taking, our Visual Communication: Illustration MA course will empower you to enter your field with a clear vision and sense of your role as a designer in today’s world. Whilst building strong industry connections through your tutors and placements, you’ll also become more flexible and independent in your learning. More about this course Our Visual Communication: Illustration MA course will enable you to pursue your ambitions to work as a visual communicator with specific expertise in illustration. Thanks to an interconnected approach to research and design, you’ll utilise both theory and practice to develop a portfolio of professional-level work that demonstrates your complex problem-solving capabilities, creativity and critical thinking. You’ll engage and develop your skills through collaborative, multi-disciplinary practices. Your core modules will promote critical thinking through design practices, enabling you to work both speculatively and on fully-realised outcomes. Through design research methods and design project development you will form and refine a project proposal, which you’ll go on to complete as your final major project. Throughout this course you’ll notice an emphasis on recurrent central elements such as socially-engaged design. You’ll be encouraged to explore the social, cultural, ethical and economic impacts of visual communication practice. The course is full of opportunities for growth:
- professional industry practice – work on live project briefs with industry partners (such as the public realm improvements scheme with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and The City of London Corporation)
- situating your practice – how to formulate a clear direction for your practice
- improving complex problem solving and critical thinking
- collaborative and multi-disciplinary working
- building knowledge through research and development
- the challenge of expertly communicating and presenting your thinking and outcomes
- opportunities for exhibition
Modules
The modules listed below represent the course modules at this time. Modules and module details (including, but not limited to, location and time) are subject to change over time. Design Research for Practice, core module (40 credits); Design Project Development, core module (40 credits); World Building, optional core module (20 credits); Experience and Environment, optional core module (20 credits); Democratising Luxury, optional core module (20 credits); Design for Change, optional core module (20 credits); Project as Professional Practice: Illustration, core module (60 credits)
Assessment method
You will be assessed via a portfolio of your written, visual and physical project work and research, all of which will directly relate to the specific practice requirements of visual communication. The conclusion to your MA will take the form of a final major project. This will see you select your own focus to carry out an exciting detailed study, allowing you to then formulate your own argument or theoretical position and produce an independent body of work. This project seeks to challenge and test your creative ambition in an area that interests you. Your work will be exhibited at the MA graduation show hosted at our central London campus.
Entry requirements
You will be required to have: a good lower second class honours degree (2.2) in a relevant field (eg graphic design, illustration, animation, branding, photography, architecture, marketing, 3D design, multimedia, interiors) or an equivalent EU/international qualification. You will also be expected to present a portfolio and provide a statement that outlines your reasons for studying at postgraduate level and which demonstrates their ambitions in the subject area. Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) If you don’t hold one of the qualifications outlined above you may be considered based on proven related academic or work experience, a strong personal statement and/or academic or professional reference.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
| England | £1170 | Module |
| Northern Ireland | £1170 | Module |
| Scotland | £1170 | Module |
| Wales | £1170 | Module |
| EU | £2020 | Module |
| International | £2020 | Module |
| Channel Islands | £2020 | Module |
| Republic of Ireland | £2020 | Module |
Additional fee information
Please note, in addition to the tuition fee there may be additional costs for things like equipment, materials, printing, textbooks, trips or professional body fees. Additionally, there may be other activities that are not formally part of your course and not required to complete your course, but which you may find helpful (for example, optional field trips). The costs of these are additional to your tuition fee and the fees set out above and will be notified when the activity is being arranged.
Provider information
London Metropolitan University
Admissions Office
166-220 Holloway Road
City of London
N7 8DB