Illustration

Illustration is a discipline that sits at the intersection of visual thinking, storytelling, and communication, using image-making to convey ideas, emotions, and narratives across a remarkable range of contexts. From editorial and publishing illustration to animation, graphic novels, children's books, games, fashion, and social commentary, the field rewards both technical skill and a distinctive personal voice. At Teesside University, this three-year full-time programme develops your ability to produce work across a range of media while also building the professional skills needed to sustain a career as an illustrator.

You will develop your drawing and image-making practice across traditional and digital tools, learning to respond creatively to briefs and to develop a coherent body of work that reflects your own visual identity. The programme emphasises real-world professional skills including teamworking, communication, project management, and negotiation. You will collaborate with other students to produce small-scale creative projects in response to subject-specific briefs, simulating the kind of commissioned work you will encounter throughout your career.

The sandwich year and work placement opportunities give you the chance to spend extended time in a professional creative environment, building your portfolio, your contacts, and your understanding of how the illustration industry works.

Illustration graduates work across an impressively wide range of fields. Publishing, advertising, editorial media, animation studios, games companies, fashion, product design, and cultural institutions all employ illustrators. Many graduates build independent practices combining commissioned work with personal projects.

The skills you develop in the programme, visual problem-solving, client communication, project delivery, and self-directed practice, also support careers in graphic design, art direction, and visual development for screen.