Program Overview

Illustration BA(Hons) (Online)

Course Overview

Discover your unique illustrative voice and gain the professional practice and entrepreneurial skills needed to turn your talent into a successful career as an illustrator.

Why Study This Course at Falmouth?

• Join a global community of illustrators and build a diverse network of collaborators.
• Master visual problem-solving and refine your authentic visual language through working on industry-informed projects and briefs.
• Gain feedback on your work and build relationships with a wide range of professional practitioners.
• Explore multiple creative pathways to help prepare for a sustainable career.

Course Details

Course Study Options

• Accelerated online Illustration degree, with the opportunity to gain a BA(Hons) degree over two years full-time or three years part-time.

Stage One

• Explore the art of visual problem-solving, identifying a range of strategies for research and idea development.
• Discover and experiment with varying media and processes, using established and emerging technologies to explore your own visual language.
• Investigate the wider contextual, ethical, and professional environments of the industry, focusing on Editorial and Narrative applications.

Modules

• Innovate: Get under the skin of visual storytelling and discover a broad range of problem-solving strategies to help you produce innovative illustrative solutions.
• Apply: Investigate how editorial illustration operates within the industry and how it communicates with its corresponding audience.
• Explore: Experiment with a wide range of media, mark making techniques, and drawing styles to initiate a crucial exploration of visual language.
• Communicate: Focus on narrative illustration, exploring its different features alongside a variety of applications for publishing.

Stage Two

• Refine your practice and expand your industry knowledge through critical theory lectures, workshops in life drawing, digital skills, colour, and composition, and print-making.
• Embark on project briefs independently and in collaboration with your peers, investigating information illustration and then moving on to an advertising project.

Modules

• Shape: Make decisions about the future direction of your work through testing of skills developed earlier in the Illustration course, and through engaging in critical studies related to contemporary illustration practice.
• Evolve: Gain vital insights into a range of industry contexts, platforms, and applications, including information, design, product, and packaging; digital, printed, and site-specific platforms.
• Refine: Uncover and evolve your authentic illustrative voice through a series of workshops and lectures led by professional practitioners.
• Share: Work as part of a team on 'Challenge Briefs' that reflect the sort of assignments you could expect to be working on in industry.

Stage Three

• Continue to refine your creative practice and visual problem-solving skills through self-negotiated projects.
• Formulate a range of strategies to best communicate ideas to audiences in ambitious live projects, working with clients and/or your peers.

Modules

• Define: Design your own practice projects, tailored to your personal interests and skills within illustration.
• Reflect: Focus on professional practice, building reports and personal research into areas including self-promotion, marketing, industry working processes and procedures, self-publishing, collaborative and entrepreneurial opportunities, transferrable skills, and business management.
• Reach: Engage with an extended programme of research, leading to a written research report analysing a subject of your choice tailored to your personal interests and skills within illustration.
• Connect: Create a professional digital portfolio, equipping you to enter the visual communication industries with strong project management, analytical, and reflective skills.

Learning and Support

• How Online Study Works: Learn through a blend of lectures, webinars, guest talks, tasks, and discussion forums, which you'll access via our dedicated virtual learning environment.
• How Will I Be Supported?: Supported academically by Online Tutors, who will also deliver weekly webinars, facilitate the online forums, and provide one-to-one bookable feedback tutorials.
• What Will My Study Hours Be?: Based on the total learning time for the accelerated online courses, an average study week for full-time undergraduate students can be up to 50 hours, and for part-time students, can be up to 33 hours.

Assessment

• Assessment Strategies: Employ a variety of assessment strategies over the course of the year, including submission of portfolios, reviews and reports, pitches, reflective journals, competition analysis, and final projects.
• Formative and Summative Assessments: Formative assessments help ensure that you remain on track with your work, while summative assessments occur at the end of each module.

Resources and Support

• Dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE): Accessible online audio/visual content, a Student Advisor to support you throughout your studies, and access to our Student Support Services.
• Employability Service: Access to our Employability Service, 24/7 access to Falmouth's extensive online library of contextual books, journals, and resources, and access to online software tutorials at LinkedIn Learning.

Meet the Team

• Shefali Wardell: Course Leader, Illustration BA(Hons) (Online).
• Suzi Kemp: Lecturer and Module Leader, Illustration BA(Hons) (Online).
• Naomi Batts: Online Tutor.
• Verity Slade: Online Tutor, Illustration BA(Hons) (Online), Illustration MA (Online).
• Angela Chick: Online Tutor, Illustration BA(Hons) (Online).
• Connie Noble: Online Tutor, Illustration BA(Hons) (Online).
• Pete Williams: Module Tutor.

Careers

• Potential Career Paths: Freelance illustrator, illustrator within virtual reality, app design, television, film graphics, graphic design, set design, or animation, art director, illustration agent, educator in primary, secondary, further, or higher education.
• What Can You Do with an Art and Design Degree?: Explore various career options available to Art and Design graduates.

How to Apply

• Application Options: Apply via UCAS or directly with Falmouth University, depending on your education and experience.
• UCAS Codes: Apply for the September 2025 full-time route through UCAS using University code F33 and Course code W224.
• Application Advice and Interview Information: Go to Toolkit for more information on application advice and interview information.

Fees, Costs, and Funding

• Tuition Fees: £10,400 per year for full-time students and £6,935 per year for part-time students.
• Funding: Explore funding options for online study, including tuition fees and how you can fund your online study.
• Typical Course Costs: Essential materials, face-to-face events (optional), computer/laptop, Adobe Creative Cloud, and other equipment requirements.

Ask a Student

• Get Answers from Current Students: Ask current students about life at Falmouth University, including course details, academic support, and the social scene.