If your first language is not English, you will need an IELTS of 6.0 overall, with 5.5 in each component.
This course offers a flexible and multimedia approach to the study and practice of contemporary illustration and visual communication arts.
The ethos of the course is to nurture individual creativity, through a programme of study and practice that encourages an open and speculative approach through visual inquiry and diagnostic experimentation across a wide range of image media practices and contexts.
This breadth of approach is designed to support creative agility and flexibility, enabling you to be mobile in your future employment with key skills in visual communication, inventiveness and being able to reify imaginative thought into new and surprising visual forms and images.
Our course is located on the leafy campus of Harrow, which serves as the hub for many of the creative courses at Westminster. You will have ample studio space in which to make ambitious work as well as dedicated facilities for drawing, print-making, digital arts (VR, AR and effects), lens-based media, performance and installation, photography, animation, 3D, ceramics and craftwork.
The course has a strong professional focus as well as a creative one, providing opportunities for work experience, internships and the development of professional skills through the Creative Enterprise Centre at Harrow.
Successful alumni contribute to the teaching programme along with our dedicated course team of professional practitioners. With membership of the Association of Illustrators and Design & Art Direction, we are further able to offer students a range of professional and industry-led initiatives including participation in the New Blood festival at Truman Brewery as part of D&AD.
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Year 1
Subjects of study include:
Animation, time-based media and story-boarding
Computer-generated imagery and software training
Digital art and technologies
Figure Drawing
Location study and field trips
Printmaking and surface design
Visual and graphic communication
Visual Culture and image media
Workshops in Adobe software, ceramics, 3D, photography
Credit Level 4
Year 2
Subjects of study include:
Contextualised practice (exploring and expanding upon the range and diversity of contexts and ideas in which illustration and visual arts can be developed)
Critical enquiry furthers topics within visual culture today leading to preparation for writing a dissertation in your final year.
Drawing systems (course practice option examines drawing approaches and processes)
Designing Narrative Experiences
In the second semester, you can choose to work in illustration within a commercial and applied context or explore interdisciplinary practice in digital technologies.
Option modules in graphic explorations and drawing complement and expand knowledge laterally.
There are also opportunities for collaboration and a greater sense of ownership and authorship of your work leading into your final year.
Credit Level 5
Year 3
Subjects of study include:
Participation in field trips/exhibition visits and events such as gallery visits and promotional activities including more extensive internships.
Self-directed practice, study and research culminating in the writing of a Dissertation and the production of a significant Major Project.
Workshops and talks from practitioners and professionals in the field
Credit Level 6
Job roles
Many of our graduates operate independently as freelance, self-employed practitioners or work collaboratively in small business cooperatives, often with students they met during their course.
Students have progressed on to job roles including:
Animator
Art director
Art therapist (requiring further training)
Company manager
Event manager
Gallerist
Graphic designer
Illustrator – editorial illustration/ decorative merchandising and interiors, branding and promotion, visual effects, concept art
Teacher (requiring further training)
Insurance – Single: 300 GBP per year
