BA(Hons) in Illustration

Learn in a creative and supportive studio environment with professional-standard facilities and a focus on helping you gain real-world skills for the workplace.

Why study illustration?

Studying illustration opens the door to diverse careers in the creative industries.

You will respond to ideas, explore narratives and work across a range of media, including 2D, 3D and moving images.

Self-directed projects could range from editorial to narrative, 3D model-making to film, and animation to artists' books, providing excellent preparation for the commercial world.

Why UWE Bristol?

BA(Hons) Illustration encourages you to create and develop your own personal visual language. Problem-solving through drawing and making is core.

You'll be based at Bower Ashton Studios, part of the City Campus. Exceptional facilities and resources include industry-standard digital media studios and production and fabrication workshops.

Explore a range of media and deepen your awareness of the ideas, concepts and contexts of illustration through theoretical studies. Build an awareness of the professional world and develop core skills through individual experimentation.

Innovation and individualism are celebrated. Investigate potential contexts and audiences for your work and test yourself against industry expectations through live briefs, and national and international competitions.

City Campus is a creative powerhouse that spans the city of Bristol and is made up of Bower Ashton, Spike Island, Arnolfini and Watershed.

Our strong industry links with the thriving city of Bristol ensure input from illustrators and creatives. Visits from respected practitioners will keep you up to date with contemporary illustration practices.

Attend lectures and seminars at the Arnolfini and Watershed and work in our production and fabrication workshops, equipped with traditional tools and the latest technology.

Showcase your work to talent scouts and potential employers at the final year Creative Industries Degree Show and D&AD New Blood, London.

Focusing on the avenues that interest you, you'll graduate with an impressive portfolio of work, ready to make your mark as an illustrator.

Where can it take me?

This course prepares you for a sustainable and flexible career in illustration.

Alongside established freelance illustration career paths, our graduates work as film directors, set designers, art/creative directors, illustration agents, visualisers, designers, model-makers, animators, storyboard artists, puppeteers and theatrical/film costume and prop designers.

At UWE Bristol we empower you to make a choice. To choose a university that challenges itself as much as you. To choose a passion that gives you purpose. To choose a community that leads the way, encouraging you to question everything, and to become the best you can be.

Change the world

At UWE Bristol, we’re focused on solving future global challenges through outstanding learning, world-leading research and a culture of enterprise.

Here, we empower our students to make a choice. To choose a university that pushes itself as much as it pushes them. To choose a community of original thinkers - breaking new boundaries and leading the way.

From our enterprise support programmes to industry masterclasses. Professional mentoring to business incubators. World-leading research facilities to work experience opportunities across the globe. We give our students the tools they need to act on their ideas and make them happen.

Each of our pioneering courses has been created in partnership with industry professionals. And over 150 come with professional accreditation from industry bodies. Coupled with world-class teaching, they’re designed to equip students with the most in-demand skills, and the kind of mindset that employers want and need. So that when you graduate from UWE Bristol, you’re ready to take on the world.

Our mindset

We believe that it’s only when you ask 'what if?' that you discover 'why not?'. That’s why we’re not afraid to ask difficult questions – and tackle the big issues head-on. It’s our way of continuing to make a real difference in the way we learn, analyse and contribute to the world we live in.

Our values

Ambitious

We’re not afraid to shape, challenge and tackle the big issues, to take the initiative and pave the way.

Inclusive

We make UWE Bristol a supportive and inspiring place to learn and work – somewhere where diversity of experience and perspective is encouraged, and learning and research are shared and accessible.

Innovative

We create new opportunities for the people who work and study with us. We embrace different ideas and pioneer new and sustainable ways of doing things.

Collaborative

We have strong connections locally and globally. We help people and organisations be the best they can, building trust throughout our university community and beyond.

Enterprising

We instil a thirst for new knowledge, its creation and application, empowering our students and staff to demonstrate a creative questioning approach, a 'can-do' confidence, and the ability to navigate uncertainty.