Course summary

Our Foundation course will focus on your personal and creative development based around a broad exploration of visual disciplines, leading directly to a BA course in the School of Art or the School of Visual Communication within the Art, Design and Media Faculty at BCU. Working in a lively and energetic environment you will be given the freedom to expand your knowledge in conceptual development, practical skills and creative exploration underpinned by broad critical understanding and emerging theoretical principles. You will work individually and collaboratively to develop a stimulating visual portfolio of work that evidences your enthusiasm for further study within a specific subject area. Teaching staff from across both schools will work with you throughout the course and you will have full access to all the University facilities. Our BA (Hons) Illustration course aims to give those with a passion for image making and illustration the skills they need to capture and communicate ideas through pictures. We celebrate the challenge of finding your individual visual voice through experimenting, risk taking and critical reflection. You will also explore how your work can be applied across a wide range of contexts, from commercial work to personally-driven projects. This course provides an opportunity to development a wide range of transferable skills and design process knowledge that is highly desirable to employers. What's covered in the course? Our challenging and exciting Illustration course will help you develop new skills and different ways of thinking, enabling you to find your own individual, visual voice and prepare you for the ever-changing creative industry. You will examine the new ideas, technologies and issues that affect today’s developing illustrators, as well as exploring more unfamiliar territories. The course celebrates the synthesis between illustration and all the other visual communication subject disciplines, leading to the development of strong student collaborations that again aims to reflect industry practice. We support a lively creative community, encouraging the value of peer learning. This learning is supplemented by an integrated workshop programme that provides the opportunity to work alongside, and be informed by, industry experts from a wide range of disciplines. Why Choose Us? You will engage with live project briefs, ranging from local to international, and your tutors are enthusiastic about their specialisms, fostering an invaluable knowledge transfer within the programme. Furthermore, 93% of students are satisfied with this course (National Student Survey 2022). We run exciting trips to provide stimuli for your creative briefs, with cultural trips to a range of locations, including London, Venice, Berlin and New York, which include visits to exhibitions, museums and studios. There will be opportunities to exhibit at high-profile London graduate shows, including New Designers. You will receive industry insight from significant practitioners, with professional practice and core business skills workshops being delivered by outside agencies.

Course details