Graphic Design and Illustration BA (Hons)

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Graphic Design supports your development as a graphic designer with the flexibility to work in today's contexts, from print to web to multimedia design. Your creative ideas and approaches will grow alongside your use of computer technology and your critical understanding of design and visual theory.

You will develop your team working skills and your understanding of how to respond to professional briefs, building your knowledge and experience of the current market. There are plenty of opportunities to work on 'live briefs' set by real clients from a variety of contexts, including businesses, museums, local authorities and charities. You will be encouraged to develop work for entry into national and international competitions and increasingly to follow your own interests, whether those involve a passion for typography or a preoccupation with motion graphics. Throughout, you will be introduced to the multitude of professional possibilities that are open to graphic designers, and there are plenty of opportunities to visit design studios and meet industry clients.

Illustration aims to cover the complete range of illustration genres and forms, including children's books, editorial and magazine illustration, the graphic novel, reportage, authorial illustration and advertising.

With its comprehensive foundation in drawing during students' first year, it will support development of your work across a wide range of applications encompassing traditional techniques and digital realisation. Cross media projects are encouraged and, in your final year, there is increasing emphasis on growing your knowledge of, and interaction with, professional contexts of illustration. You are taught by lecturers who, themselves, are also professional, published illustrators.

For more information about teaching, learning and assessment on this course, please see the single honours course pages for Graphic Design BA (Hons) and Illustration BA (Hons).

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest Graphic Design programme specification and Illustration programme specification documents.

Employability

Illustrators are in increasing demand as the media industries expand. Options for the professional illustrator include newspapers and magazines, books, advertising, exhibiting independent work, television and the internet. All these fields are potential showcases for graduates' work. Our interdisciplinary approach gives flexibility and a wider view of the world that is attractive to employers. Graduates will find career opportunities not only in illustration but also television motion graphics, graphic design, story writing, studio management and advertising.

Graduates from this course have gone on to work in sectors such as publishing, graphic design, web design, media and arts administration, or are self-employed. This course also provides an excellent basis for further studies. Its interdisciplinary nature means that students develop skills that are attractive to employers. In a Destinations Survey carried out by the University of Worcester Careers Service, 94% of Graphic Design students had found work or had gone on to further study within six months of graduating.