Illustration BA Honours

5th in London for overall student positivity (National Student Survey 2023)

Why choose an Illustration degree at Middlesex?

Our Illustration degree is studio based and you will be learning in your own workspace at our specialist state-of-the-art learning facility, The Grove. You will have access to facilities including print, ceramics, photography, film/audio, 3D and digital printing. The course will help you develop your skills as a professional illustrator and runs alongside our Graphic Design course in the curriculum group.

Our staff are practising illustrators and designers with extensive experience in their specialist fields and excellent links to the illustration industry. We have a number of illustrators, agents, publishers and designers who make themselves available to discuss your portfolios. Many of our students get the opportunity to participate in live projects and publish their work before they graduate.

Our north London campus is perfectly located for you to explore museums and galleries to gain inspiration. In previous years, illustration students have also visited Edinburgh, Venice and Lisbon to be inspired by new surroundings.

What you will gain

We will work with you to develop your skills as a professional illustrator and develop a distinctive voice and enter the creative industries with confidence. Built around drawing, you will explore both traditional and digital practices.

Regular discussions with your tutors and peers will help you discover exciting ideas and practices in critical thinking and image making. Workshops and drawing trips will expand your visual vocabulary and you will also develop a wide range of transferable skills and design process knowledge that is highly desirable to employers.

Many of our students go on to work in magazine publishing, narrative and children's books, editorial illustration, advertising and animation thanks to our strong links within the creative industries.

What you will learn

Alongside teaching students the most advanced digital programmes, the course also has a strong focus on traditional processes. You will be able to improve your drawing skills in life and observational drawing classes and have excellent access to our excellent print workshops each week throughout the three-year degree.

This studio-based course will develop your illustration skills for professional practice. You'll learn to challenge the boundaries of illustration and work in a creative environment with your peers.

Part-time study

Study at your own pace alongside work and other commitments and get the skills and knowledge you need to progress in your career.

When choosing a part-time course, you will study the same modules as the full-time course but over a longer period.

Find out more about the many benefits of studying part-time at Middlesex University.

About your course

What will you study on the Illustration degree course?

We will teach you creative skills such as animation, bookbinding, printmaking processes, relevant digital software and drawing both life and location.

The course concentrates on contemporary applications and traditional illustration processes, and the success of our graduates in both international competitions and employment in the creative industries is a testament to this approach.

Year 1

In your first year, projects and workshops are centred on exploration, interpretation, and communication. Core activities exploring areas such as narrative and graphic novels, editorial illustration, reportage and moving image are supported by sessions on printmaking, animation and observational and life drawing

Year 2

The second year is dedicated to exploration and experimentation, expanding your knowledge of illustration through tutored and personal projects. You will be well-placed to begin entering creative industry competitions, and developing an individual visual language.

Year 3

The final year's emphasis is on the consolidation of skills, analysis and a diagnostic approach to personal practice and the production of a professional portfolio.

To find out more about this course please download the BA Illustration Programme Specification.

The Grove

You'll study at our £80 million purpose-built Grove building in north London, using state-of-the-art facilities, studios and workshops. It's rightly recognised as one of the best campuses in the country. We have specialist workshops, digital media, equipment, software and library facilities on-site. You will have access to the latest technology and traditional processes, in order to explore, experiment and develop your skills.

We regularly use the printmaking workshop, digital media workshop, photographic studios, 3D and laser-cutting workshops for elements of the curriculum. You'll be able to explore and develop your work through an understanding of these applied processes.

Student support

We offer lots of support to help you while you're studying including financial advice, wellbeing, mental health, and disability support.

Additional needs

We'll support you if you have additional needs such as sensory impairment or dyslexia. And if you want to find out whether Middlesex is the right place for you before you apply, get in touch with our Disability and Dyslexia team.

Wellness

Our specialist teams will support your mental health. We have free individual counselling sessions, workshops, support groups and useful guides.

Work while you study

Our Middlesex Unitemps branch will help you find work that fits around uni and your other commitments. We have hundreds of student jobs on campus that pay the London Living Wage and above. Visit the Middlesex Unitemps page.

Financial support

You can apply for scholarships and bursaries and our MDX Student Starter Kit to help with up to £1,000 of goods, including a new laptop or iPad.

We have also reduced the costs of studying with free laptop loans, free learning resources and discounts to save money on everyday things. Check out our guide to student life on a budget.

Careers

How can the Illustration BA support your career?

The teaching on this course is structured to help you identify your specialist skills and equip you with the knowledge to set up studios, approach agents or produce websites in order to further your future career ambitions.

You will attend lectures around professional practice and learn from visiting illustrators, agents and publishers who will bring real-world experience of illustrative best practice and current creative challenges, such as AI.

The course supports your future career development through the attainment of professional practice skills and graduate competencies through:

• Communication, empathy and inclusion through participation in National and International industry relevant project briefs, such as Macmillan Children's Book competition, Design and Art Direction Awards, the Association of Illustration Awards, the Folio Society Awards, Creative Conscience Awards
• Collaborative innovation via attendance at professional speakers' events and presentations and the opportunity to work on briefs and collaborative events such as comic fairs, e.g London Book Fair,
• Problem solving and delivery by entering exhibitions such as the New Blood exhibition and the graduate degree show
• Technological agility via mentoring and advice on traditional portfolio preparation and the use of digital and online formats, social media and emerging technologies
• Encouraging entrepreneurship by providing information relating to freelance professional knowledge such as tax, copyright law and self-promotion, are provided in professional practice sessions throughout the 3rd year
• Recent graduates are given information and support to pursue progression on to our MA programme at Middlesex University and other HE institutions.

Graduate job roles

Our students have gone on to have successful careers in many areas including writing and illustrating children's books, magazine publishing, editorial illustration, advertising and design.

Middlesex has strong links with art and design employers and many of our students gain work during or soon after graduating, they have published books and gained full time employment working within the creative industry as graphic designers, in-house illustrators, magazine, games and web designers.

Work placements

Due to the nature of illustration as a profession, formal placements are not part of the course however, there are opportunities for students to seek suitable work placements at year two.

You will be encouraged to find appropriate opportunities and short-term work experience offered by outside organizations.

The suitability and benefits of the employment opportunity is discussed and agreed by programme staff. There are opportunities to create illustrations for live projects. Including the Macmillan Prize for Children's Book Illustration, D&AD Student Design Awards, and the Association of Illustrators' World Illustration Awards.

MDXworks

Our Careers and Employability Service, MDXworks will launch you into the world of work from the beginning of your course, with placements, projects and networking opportunities through our 1000+ links with industry and big-name employers in London and globally.

Our dedicated lifetime career support, like our business start-up support programme and funding for entrepreneurs, has put us in the top 20 UK universities for business leaders and entrepreneurs; Business Money 2023 and a top 10 university for producing CEOs (Novuana, 2023).

Global network

You'll study with students from 122 countries who'll hopefully become part of your global network. And after you graduate, we'll still support you through our alumni network to help you progress in your chosen career.

Student Testimonials

"I chose Middlesex University mainly because of the quality of the course. The degree programme seemed to be exactly what I was looking for compared to what other Universities were offering as most courses just seemed to focus on the fine art aspect while Middlesex was very much about illustration and how to actually draw.

The course taught me the practical skills that I have today. All of the tutors were actual illustrators so they really knew what they were talking about. The number one aspect of the course for me was the life drawing lessons. That was where I learned the most, particularly because we had such a great life drawing lecturer."

Winning the Cape award would be my highlight to date. The key to success, I think, was that it was the fourth time I'd entered, so it came down to sheer persistence. If you have persistence you can do anything! It's hard to get yourself out there but it is incredibly enjoyable if you are into it.

Currently I am really focusing on publishing my debut graphic novel Breaker's End. I have illustrated for magazines and I also get a lot of personal commissions, often from people looking for fan art. I have had a lot of interest from publishers who want to work with me but I just need to hone what I am producing to make it more 'sellable'. I'm also doing short comics for a couple of clients."

Corban Wilkin

Illustration BA graduate

"I had a look round the Illustration department during an open day and was blown away by the quality of the work on show. It was clear that the students had been given the chance to develop their own voices. I really enjoyed how closely knit the course felt. Everyone had their own desk space and we were encouraged to work in the studio every day. It was a supportive environment where you could always bounce off your peers.

Recently, I've been producing flyers and banners for Rumpus. They organise bi-monthly parties that are like mini, pop-up festivals and for their last party I produced background pieces for their main stage. I also helped organise an exhibition celebrating the life and works of Lewis Carroll and have more shows planned.

I honestly think that applying for the course was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I honed my own practice and had the opportunity to learn how to animate, screen and lino print, etch, use programs such as illustrator and build a website. I also got to visit New York, Rome and Antwerp on the annual drawing trips. If you're prepared to give it your all, there's so much to get out of it in return"

Alex Moore

Illustration BA graduate

"It felt like a family away from home in many ways. I made friends with both staff and students alike, and still keep in touch, almost 3 years after graduation!

It allowed me to spread my wings artistically, and discover new techniques and experiment with subjects I would've never considered before.

Plus, I got a lot of exposure out of uni - each year there were many projects and competitions announced by the tutors, that you could be a part of, so I already had some great projects and known clients on my CV the second I graduated!"

Wiktoria Radkiewicz

Illustration BA graduate

Fees

Collaborative projects

RAF Collaboration

To mark the Centenary of WWI, Illustration staff and students worked for two years on a collaborative project with the RAF Museum in Hendon. The students worked extremely hard to tell the stories in an exiting but challenging format and in a way that made them relevant to today's audience whilst maintaining historical accuracy. The resulting work is an online 'animated' graphic novel telling the history of the RAF aerodrome, from its earliest days to the present day, told through 9 illustrated stories from different periods of time and an illustrated landing page.

They cover a story about young women in 1919 loosing their important wartime jobs as men return from the front. There is a story about the WAAF stationed at the base in 1943 and another about young men invalided out of the RAF re-applying for flying jobs at the base in 1946.

The RAF museum received lottery funding as part of a very large regeneration project and this project was identified as an important part of the outreach programme. Please visit the RAF museum website to view this project in its completion and have a look at our gallery of student work.

High Spec

In February 2018, the Walthamstow Village Window Gallery hosted "High Spec", an exhibition showcasing a selection of innovative, award winning work by some of our recent graduates. They all have their own visual language but are joined by a love of storytelling.

Chloe Smith’s beautiful and lurid images tell the tale of how Antwerp got its name, Nakim Brown unfolds the history of the universe in a glowing graphic novel, and Summer Du Plessis unpicks Bowie’s Star Man in luminous print. Awarded a D&AD prize for best show at New Blood, the exhibition includes risographs, drawings, screen prints, linocuts and digital paintings.

Find out more

Visit our MDX Visual Arts Blog and see the stellar work created by our students.

Follow us on Twitter #MDXIllustration and Instagram #MdxIllustration for regular updates.

Download our Visual Arts Alumni document featuring excellent examples of our graduates' real-world work and success stories.

We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.

Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.

Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.

At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.