Illustration

Illustration is a discipline that communicates ideas, stories, and information through image-making, with applications across publishing, editorial media, animation, advertising, games, design, and the full range of visual culture. It is both a craft and a critical practice, requiring the development of a distinctive visual voice alongside the technical skills and professional adaptability to work across a wide range of briefs and contexts. Contemporary illustration encompasses drawing, painting, and printmaking alongside digital image-making, and practitioners move fluently between traditional and digital methods to serve the demands of different projects and clients.

At the University of the Arts London, this three-year programme at Camberwell College of Arts develops your illustration practice at one of the UK's most distinguished art and design institutions. You will develop your technical range and visual thinking across a variety of approaches and contexts, working on narrative, editorial, commercial, and experimental briefs and building a portfolio that demonstrates both the depth of your practice and its versatility. UAL's emphasis on creative risk-taking and professional ambition means you will be encouraged to develop a genuinely distinctive approach rather than simply reproducing existing conventions.

The programme includes a placement year, giving you direct professional experience in the illustration field or in related creative industries, developing your professional skills, networks, and understanding of how the sector works in practice.

Graduates from illustration programmes work as book and editorial illustrators, animators, character designers, surface pattern designers, art directors, and in a wide range of roles in the creative industries where visual thinking and image-making skills are valued. Many graduates work as freelancers, building careers across multiple clients and contexts. Postgraduate study in illustration, animation, or visual arts is available for those who wish to develop their practice or pursue research.