Illustration

Our studios and workshops are second to none, and you’ll spend lots of time working there. As well as practising and experimenting with your drawing and observation skills, you’ll get the chance to explore related areas such as storytelling, editorials, animation, printmaking, text and image, and moving illustrations.

But you won’t be restricted to the studio: you’ll also go on gallery visits, local drawing trips, and our annual overseas visit to cities such as Porto and Seville, and take part in live briefs for partner organisations. Our students have recently worked with Cambridge University Botanic Garden, producing designs for their educational resources; Cambridge Gateway From India, researching and creating an information board to accompany the new Gateway Stones on Mill Road; and Cambridgeshire Constabulary, creating and exhibiting artworks for their KNOW Violence Against Women project.

There’s even the chance to study abroad for a semester, in the Netherlands or Poland – with funding on offer to help cover the costs.

We know that your future career is important and you want to build your CV. So we’ll encourage you to grab every opportunity for real-world experience – entering national and international competitions, working on live industry briefs, and taking up internships.

As an illustrator, a world of possibilities awaits you. You could illustrate books, become a graphic artist, design stage sets or product labels, and even work on animated films.

One of the highlights of our students‘ academic year is the annual drawing trip to Lisbon. Each year our our second and third year students have the opportunity to join a course drawing trip to Lisbon, Portugal.

Let us show you where your talents can take you:

• Graduating student Claire Lavelle was selected by the Association of Illustrators as one of their top ten inspiring up-and-coming illustrators for 2024.
• Student Scarlett Thomas made the longlist of the AOI's prestigious World Illustration Awards 2024
• 2024 graduate Amy Hann won the Cheltenham Illustration Awards student section
• Tess Duffin now works for a children's book publisher. As a student she made the longlist of the AOI World Illustration Awards 2023 in the Exploration category for her book Ewe Lamb.
• Graduating student Klara Gryglicka has secured an agent and has been doing editorial work for Breathe magazine. She picked up The Association of Illustrators Spotlight Award for her work at New Designers 2023, winning a one-year complimentary Illustrator + Folio Membership with the AOI for her efforts. Klara was also featured in the AOI’s “10 UK Illustration Graduates to Watch in 2023” list.
• Student Leah Risby won the 2023 Stratford Literary Festival Design a Book Jacket Competition with her cover for the festival’s Young Poets Collection (pictured in the carousel below), earning a cash prize and a commission with publisher Little Toller Press.
• 2021 Illustration graduate Olivia Daw's first book was published by the Folio Society in 2023. The first ever illustrated edition of Agatha Christie classic The Pale Horse, the book includes seven of Olivia's illustrations.
• Graduating student Tabitha Wall won the ‘New Talent’ category at the hugely prestigious and international World Illustration Awards 2021. You can see her winning posters in the carousel below.
• Bethan Woollvin was awarded the 2022 Book of the Year Prize by Books for Topics, as well as the 2014 Macmillan Prize, The New York Times’ Best Illustrated Children’s Book 2016, and the 2017 World Illustration Awards' 'new talent' category.
• Melissa Castrillon is now a full-time freelance illustrator who has won the Society of Illustrators’ Gold Medal and designed covers for Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
• Lizzie Knott was commissioned by TKMaxx to design a range of t-shirts for Comic Relief.

In 2021, Illustration Course Leader Chris, graduating student Guoste and alumnus Lizzie talked to New Designers about what illustration is, whether it’s the course for you, and how to apply. Watch the video on the New Designers Futures Programme website.

Take a look at some of our BA (Hons) Illustration students' work.

Course Leader: Chris Draper