Illustration

Illustration is a discipline that uses image-making to communicate, narrate and interpret. From picture books and editorial illustration to information graphics, motion design and visual storytelling for digital platforms, illustrators work across an enormous range of contexts. What distinguishes the discipline is a particular kind of visual thinking: the ability to translate ideas, emotions and information into images that resonate with an audience in ways that words alone cannot.

At Sheffield Hallam University, this three-year full-time programme combines creative practice with professional preparation, and includes a foundation year, a sandwich year and a work placement. The foundation year builds your foundational skills and confidence before you progress to the main degree. The sandwich placement gives you structured professional experience, working within the industry and developing the commercial awareness and practical competence that employers look for.

The programme is progressive and technologically enhanced, integrating digital and traditional methods across a range of applied creative projects.

You will experiment with different techniques, media and approaches, developing a personal visual language and the critical awareness to understand what you are doing and why. Real-world briefs and applied projects run through the curriculum, connecting your practice to professional contexts from the outset and building the resilience and adaptability that a creative career demands. Critical and contextual studies develop your ability to situate your own work within the history and theory of illustration and visual culture.

Graduates go into careers as professional illustrators working in publishing, editorial, advertising, animation, game design, surface design and educational publishing, as well as in wider creative and design roles. Some go on to postgraduate study in illustration, animation, graphic design or related disciplines. The visual communication and creative problem-solving skills developed through the programme are valued across many areas of the creative industries.