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Illustration at Liverpool John Moores University - UCAS

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2025 - 2026
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There are other course options available which may have a different vacancy status or entry requirements – view the full list of options

Course summary

MA Illustration is a place where you can develop, test and discuss your work within a community of dedicated staff and a highly motivated and diverse community of practitioners, and with the support of state-of-the-art technical facilities, space to work amongst like-minded, creative people. MA Illustration encourages active participation in a wide range of creative practices. The course modules and project briefs are designed to test and develop each student’s own distinct visual methodology leading towards a viable, sustainable professional practice. We explore and develop our visual work through practice, discussion and workshops that provide an entertaining, challenging and supportive sociable working environment. Practice is supported utilising traditional and / or digital methods of making. These include:

  • drawing and printmaking
  • using lens and time-based media
  • 3D and 2D working with ideas and concepts that might finally be realised through exhibition, publication or any number of exciting new hybrid forms
Illustration is considered to be a function of an image making practice and as such can be viewed as a means to intervene in a wide range of conversations and subjects. The process of disseminating or publishing your work is as important to us as the means of production. Audience and reception and the management of this is also a formative part of the wider circle of illustration practice. We recognise an expanded understanding of contemporary illustration through the exploration of relationships between illustrator as author, audience and context and the responsibility of being public actors engaging in social and cultural production. The course encourages students to engage imaginatively with their practice in relation to an evolving academic subject and to define their own area of expertise. Students studying on the course come from a wide range of diverse backgrounds including illustration, graphic design, creative writing, printmaking, drawing, animation, photography and painting. Others come from outside of art and design, having had experience across other subject disciplines, but who demonstrate a passion for illustration. Students are encouraged to dismantle and deconstruct their own creative assumptions through re-visiting the fundamentals of the subject. This can be through craft, print and drawing, the invention of storyworlds and characters, animation, gif and meme culture, 3D modelling, participatory practices, reportage and fieldwork, children’s story books, picture books, ‘zines and graphic novels and includes many other forms. MA Illustration students may be critically engaged, political activists, want to beautifully articulate a personal story, or simply make someone smile. MA Illustration encourages the questioning of the nature of illustration practice and its professional context and the position of each individual relative to the creative industries. Practice will be considered in a global context, challenging colonial aesthetic hegemony with an awareness of the emergence of new and innovative approaches to creative practice that redefine the discipline and the profession. Students will be challenged to develop a skillset that is future-focused and sustainable in terms of the wider ecological and environmental crisis, the social context of precarious employment, technological threats and the economic fallout of late capitalist politics in the UK. Students on the MA will be introduced to, and engage with, new areas of knowledge and experience, and broadens and deepens existing knowledge that will be combined with their own established practice. We aim to cultivate a visual literacy whereby students develop confidence in understanding and critically reflecting on the representational, technological and cultural significance of illustration, images and visual culture more broadly.

Assessment method

To cater for the wide-ranging content of our courses and the varied learning preferences of our students, we offer a range of assessment methods on each programme. Assessment is by portfolio and presentation of work, with a written critical reflection submitted usually after the presentation and submission. The core of teaching will be studio based with tutorials, seminars, supporting lectures and workshops. Seminars provide the opportunity for discussion and the development of communication / verbal skills.

Entry requirements

Undergraduate Requirements: We require candidates to have a 2:1 degree Illustration or a related discipline. In exceptional circumstances applications by mature graphic designers, illustrators and artists without sufficient academic qualifications but with the requisite aptitude and focus will be considered. Interview required: All applicants who meet the portfolio requirements (see below) will be invited to attend an interview. Extra Requirements Digital Portfolio / web URL We ask you to submit a simple PDF file with your most recent or relevant work. You can include short captions or titles but the work should be allowed to show itself. Make sure that you have compressed the file before uploading. The digital PDF portfolio should include some or most of the following; + a range of work that may include including undergraduate work, self-directed work, commissions, work in progress, experimental work. + evidence of problem solving and idea development + evidence of your personal practice and some direction for future practice + visual literacy, professionalism and technical ability + research and preparatory work + sketchbooks showing drawing, collecting, lists, ideas, starts, sketches, interesting things. + evidence of wider practice, research projects or other stuff that may be relevant. + show you have thought about the ordering and presentation of the work. On the whole the digital portfolio should in part be evidence that you have the aptitude to succeed on the course, but also that you are willing to learn and develop. It should be enough to trigger a conversation at the interview, and it should be interesting to you and give you lots of things to talk about. If you submit a URL make sure that it is public domain and accessible to the interviewer. RPL RPL is accepted on this programme International Requirements: IELTS English language requirement: 6.5 (minimum 5.5 in each component)

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

England £8965 Whole course
Northern Ireland £8965 Whole course
Scotland £8965 Whole course
Wales £8965 Whole course
International £17750 Whole course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

No additional fees or cost information has been supplied for this course, please contact the provider directly.
Illustration at Liverpool John Moores University - UCAS