
Illustration BA Honours
London, United Kingdom
DURATION
3 up to 4 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
18 Aug 2025
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 15,400 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international | UK: £9,535
Introduction
The Illustration BA aims to provide an intellectual and creative space for students to explore and build skills in a range of traditional, digital and emerging image-making technologies. Industry modules enable students to develop transferable professional skills that support creative agility, resilience and adaptability for rapidly evolving professional opportunities.
This course offers a flexible, interdisciplinary and multimedia approach to the study and practice of contemporary illustration and is developed through a range of industry-focused projects and self-defined contexts.
A supportive studio environment and learning community nurture your individual development and distinctive voice as both an illustrator and creative practitioner in the wider field of visual communication.
Studio-based projects, national and international competitions and live industry projects provide context and creative challenge, fostering experimentation and visual inquiry. You will have the creative space to explore and examine a range of processes and practices in both traditional and emerging technologies.
The course has a strong professional focus and, in conjunction with the University’s award-winning Westminster Enterprise Network, supports all aspects of employability, from training and professional practice to self-promotion and networking opportunities.
Students also benefit from the course membership of the Association of Illustrators and D&AD, which offer a range of additional professional events, support and prestigious showcase opportunities.
Digital arts modules and a wide range of optional modules support creative agility and enable you to be flexible, resilient and ready to adapt your practice to rapidly evolving employment opportunities within the creative sector. Optional modules include visual effects, augmented reality, games and interactive experience design.
You'll enjoy generous studio space and excellent facilities for drawing, printmaking, lens-based media, 3D, ceramics, and digital and emerging technologies.
Alumni and specialists from the industry contribute to the teaching programme alongside our dedicated course team of experienced professional creatives and researchers.
Based on the leafy campus of Harrow, a recognised creative hothouse for arts and media, you will be joining a diverse community of students studying subjects that include: fashion, film, fine art, photography, music, animation, and graphic design, journalism and advertising. The scale and scope of Westminster mean you’ll also have access to all central London campuses: Regent Street, Marylebone and Cavendish.
In your final year, there are opportunities to participate in student showcases in the outstanding galleries attached to the University, London Gallery West and Ambika P3 in central London.
Top reasons to study with us
- Supportive, inclusive and dedicated teaching staff
- Generous and well-equipped studios and creative facilities for analogue and digital practice
- Excellent opportunities for professional development and work experience
- Student-led learning
- Excellent libraries and facilities for research
- A creative community campus, a short train ride from London’s galleries, museums and cultural events
Why study this course?
- Professional insights
We regularly welcome industry professionals and members of our alumni community to talk to current students about their future careers and how to make the most of their time on the course. - Collaborative learning
Throughout the course, there are opportunities for collaboration with students from the film, fashion, music, fine art, photography and the rest of the University. - Excellent facilities
Harrow Campus boasts dedicated studio space and facilities, accommodating everything from large-scale work and traditional figure drawing to printmaking and camera rooms with green screens.
Career Opportunities
- Successful alumni
Our alumni include Jim Kay, illustrator of the most recent Harry Potter books for Bloomsbury, and Paul Vincett, a puppet maker whose credits include X-Men: First Class and Thor 2. - External Enterprise Projects
We offer external projects with companies such as the NHS, Artworks Illustration Agency, and Walker Books to help students gain an understanding of the workplace. - Employers around the world
The University’s Careers and Employability Service has built up a network of over 3,000 employers around the world, helping all our students explore and connect with exciting opportunities and careers.
Work experience opportunities
Opportunities to participate in internships, work experience, study abroad and initiatives that prepare you to seamlessly enter the world of work will start in your first year and build throughout the course.
The Creative Enterprise Centre assists you in setting up work internships and placements and provides a range of career-focused activities, including expert-led workshops, training, industry networking events and business guidance.
In the course, we encourage participation in industry-led initiatives through national and international student competitions and industry-led initiatives. Some of the organisations we have worked with include:
- BBC
- The Big Draw
- Hayward Gallery
- Landor Associates
- The NHS
- Transport for London
Industries
Our graduates are highly enterprising and have developed careers in a range of professions and enterprises as practitioners in the fields of illustration, graphic design, animation, fine art and film. Students graduating from this course also become managers, art directors, artists’ agents, and teachers - and they find employment within advertising, marketing, publishing, events management and the mass media.
The impact of new technologies has led more students and graduates to work as concept artists and designers for organisations that focus on visual effects, virtual and augmented reality for computer games, film and television, advertising, and training programmes for science and medicine.
Job roles
Many of our graduates operate independently as a 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)
Admissions
Program Tuition Fee
Scholarships and Funding
The University is dedicated to supporting ambitious and outstanding students and we offer a variety of scholarships to eligible students.