Jake Williams BA Hons Illustration graduate class of 2017

<title>Illustration Degree BA (Hons) January… | Arts University Plymouth</title>

Undergraduate

Full Time

Remote Learning

Communication

Content Creation

Design

Digital Media

Graphic Design

Illustration

Marketing

Media

Publishing

From indie publishing and children’s literature, through to comic books and commercial products - our BA (Hons) Illustration course will empower you to make your mark.

BA (Hons) Illustration (Jan 2024 Start)

Develop and extend your existing knowledge of processes and technologies associated with your field of study, through the exploration of associated methods and materials. You will be introduced to a range of practical methods, processes and techniques, and encouraged to think critically about your subject. 
In this unit, you’ll explore the materials and processes that cover the analogue and digital skills associated with interior design and styling. 
From learning to mix colours and putting together successful colour palettes, to understanding the importance of trend forecasting, you’ll develop a solid foundation in technical knowledge and safe working methods that will underpin your creative ideas and practice throughout your degree and beyond. 
Demonstrating your growing knowledge and experience of methods and materials, you will take an experimental approach to your new found technical skills and develop these to create final design solutions.

Focusing on the geographical offerings and potential of a site specific location (e.g. Plymouth or other location), and its surroundings, you will orientate your practice through considering immediate geographies and the relationship of the local to the global. You will develop ways for generating creative ideas in response to a brief, with a primary focus on creative problem solving, methods and materials.
In this unit, you will look at the places we inhabit, understanding our sensory experience as we move through them. 
Choosing an area of the city, you will learn to see how the seemingly unrelated is related; developing an awareness of the cause and effect of our design decisions. 
You will hone key observational skills used by designers, including drawing by hand, and you will be introduced to the role of ethics in design and begin to understand your own responsibilities as a designer. 
You will design your first full interior during this unit, and create a foundation understanding of what interior design involves from start to finish.

Engage with subject-specific ideas and applications, encouraging critical reflection on your individual creative practice and subject within the larger creative arts domain. You will be supported to undertake an imaginative approach to your subject that challenges historical and cultural assumptions.
In this unit there will be an opportunity for you to engage in a project brief set in a real site, and find solutions to real life issues. 
You will develop project management and communication skills with internal and external clients, and you’ll conduct client, user, market and product research, arriving at creative solutions for interior design &amp; styling outcomes. 
You will develop your approach to market trends and design thinking and test your theoretical, practical and technical skills. 
You will study historical and contemporary designers and design movements and relevant industrial models.

Focus on collaboration as a practice, way of working and experience. Share your skills in pursuit of creative problem solving through mutual interest and cooperative approaches, while being introduced to methodologies from other disciplines.
You will develop your understanding of professional contexts and gain the skills to communicate practical solutions to an audience. 
This unit focuses on the knowledge gained through team working, and the impact of individual contributions in collaborative projects.

Enhance your awareness of research-informed practice, the role of risk and failure, and the adoption of new or unfamiliar methodologies in developing creative practice. You will focus on the critical and practical processes used for idea generation, propositional and hypothetical creative outputs, rather than finished outcomes.
Each individual illustrator has a set of perceived strengths, interests, boundaries and limitations. 
Throughout the unit you will produce a body of research and exploratory creative work as you seek to uncover, challenge and change those boundaries. 
You will be given the opportunity to research and interpret given starting points and constraints through your own unique lens. 
Tasks will encourage new perspectives on existing knowledge of genres, applications and outputs for illustration, as well as introducing unfamiliar approaches and practices to your creative and critical development.

Think deeper about how creative solutions might help solve real-world challenges. Draw on expertise and ideas from the arts and sciences to provide alternative propositions for solution-focussed practical enquiry. 
As a creative practitioner, you belong to a global network of like minded individuals and groups for whom citizenship, social justice and the opportunities posed by creative learning and new technologies provide a rich seam for solution-based enquiry. 
This unit will support your creative development through the application of your specialist skills and knowledge, whilst also encouraging the adoption of new and/or unfamiliar methodologies or approaches.

Through the use of real-world scenarios (live or simulated), you will be encouraged to use the methods, knowledge and understanding gained in previous study to place your work in relevant professional and creative contexts in order to facilitate knowledge transfer into the public domain.
You will build on your knowledge of the relationship you have with your own messages, ideas, clients, and readers, expanding your understanding of what it means to practice as a professional illustrator, with a focus on industry awareness and self promotion. 
You will be encouraged to develop as an independent creative practitioner by critically analysing your own practice within the context of the broader creative industries. 
Alongside a series of lectures, seminars, and visits from professional practitioners, you will be encouraged to engage with projects of your own choosing - from live or simulated briefs and commissions set by external clients, to competitions or personal projects.

Develop individual authorship in your creative practice, and ownership of your learning through a self-initiated project. You will be introduced to methods for managing and producing an independent creative project, developing skills in project articulation and management to include consideration for project scope, time and resources management.
So, what’s your story? 
As an Illustrator, you have to conceptually adapt the content of your work depending on the brief, but what remains is a constant connection with your personal visual language. 
As an artist you will be recognised for your skills, alongside the unique way of thinking and working that you have developed. 
Demand for your work is essential to sustain a career, and a strong voice is an essential element in the formula for a sustainable professional career. 
You will develop a new body of work through a self-negotiated project that is directly related to yourself. This can be abstract, direct experience, memory or fantasy.

Arts University Plymouth offers a year long sandwich year option. Framed within the institution’s innovative Common Unit Framework, the sandwich year experience is offered as a unit that contributes to your BA (Hons) Degree.
The sandwich year can take the form of an internship or work placement, and can take place in the UK or abroad. It is intended to give you the possibility of gaining experience in art and design practice in a ‘real life’ industry setting, before you return to complete the final year of your degree. You will be able to build your CV and, if you choose to take on your sandwich year outside of the UK, enhance your experience of international creative practice.
Sandwich year placements will be selected by each student who wishes to take one, assisted by Course staff within AUP. Opportunities may also come through corporate approaches to AUP or through links built by your course tutors. Each placement opportunity will be reviewed by the University before being approved to ensure its suitability to be part of your course. During the Sandwich Year you remain enrolled at AUP with access to IT and your email accounts, online library and learning support.
Once approved, the sandwich year will count towards your overall degree and completion of it will be acknowledged on your degree certificate.
<a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/sandwich-year" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here to read more about the Sandwich Year at Arts University Plymouth.</a>
Queries regarding the Arts University Plymouth Sandwich Year placement or internship option can be sent to <a href="mailto:registry@aup.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">registry@aup.ac.uk</a>.

You will be encouraged to further refine your aims and ambitions for your final year of study, by formulating and testing out ideas for your Final Project. You will present a creative pitch that outlines the key concepts and methods behind your project and demonstrates knowledge and understanding of appropriate contextual and professional frameworks.

You will produce a research-informed critical text that contextualises your research interests and demonstrates sustained critical engagement with your subject. This could be an extended critical essay or industry report; or an original publication (text &amp; image) and accompanying critical essay.

This unit will extend your understanding and consideration of appropriate audiences, end-users and markets for your work, and raise your awareness of industry-relevant technologies, techniques and innovations. Your learning will support the articulation of your personal career ambitions, informed by an awareness of professional contexts and graduate opportunities for creative practice.

The culmination of your undergraduate study providing a focussed period of consolidation and creativity, you will have the opportunity to realise a final major project to demonstrate your specialist knowledge and skills. At the end of the unit, you will have the opportunity to present this project to the public within the context of the annual AUP Summer Shows.
Please note unit details listed above are correct at time of publication and indicative content only. If you have any questions about course content and structure please email<a href="mailto:liaison@aup.ac.uk"> liaison@aup.ac.uk</a>.

Study with us and you’ll expand your critical approach alongside developing skills in research and analysis. Our creative programmes encourage diversity in thinking and making - from practical applications through to reflective, analytical writing.
We provide a dynamic, stimulating learning environment from which to test new models of practice while investing in the rich relationship between practice and theory - based on the potential in material and visual exploration, collaborative working, cross-fertilisation of ideas and the exploration of histories and contemporary contexts. 
For more detailed information, including the content of each unit, assessment criteria and reading lists, take a look at the full course information within our <a href="https://pca.objects.frb.io/production/files/courses/2023/UG-Course-Specification-Forms-and-Unit-Specification-Forms-2324/BA-Hons-Illustration-Unit-Specification-Forms.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Unit Specification Form</a> and our <a href="https://pca.objects.frb.io/production/files/courses/2023/UG-Course-Specification-Forms-and-Unit-Specification-Forms-2324/BA-Hons-Illustration-Course-Specification-Form-2023-24.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Course Specification Form</a> documents.