Illustration (Swansea College of Art)

UCAS code: W220

Here's what University of Wales Trinity Saint David says about its Illustration (Swansea College of Art) course.

Our Illustration course at Swansea College of Art UWTSD will teach you real-world illustration skills and design sensibilities. It also provides knowledge and experience of the creative industries, helping you pursue a successful, sustainable career path. We encourage you to use both divergent and convergent thinking in your work, both independently and collaboratively, in a practice-based learning environment. This industry-focused course provides transferable skills and excellent employment prospects.

Entrepreneurial skills and enterprise are integrated into lectures and coursework to prepare you for industry. The course covers a range of industry-informed projects that tackle social, environmental, and political issues, addressing topics you will likely encounter professionally.

Links with business and industry are an essential ingredient to our programme and are maintained through ‘live’ projects, work placements, visiting professionals, and educational visits. These connections ensure our graduates are highly employable and well-prepared for work in the creative industries. Many of our graduates find success in freelance careers, while others secure jobs with design studios, publishing houses, advertising agencies, magazines, and newspapers. Some of our notable clients include Usborne Children’s Books, Moonpig, Lego, NHS Trust, Marks & Spencer, Tigerprint, The British Museum, and Lush cosmetics.

Throughout your creative journey, you will explore illustration practice using traditional and digital media. The course offers a dedicated studio space where you can experiment and refine your visual language. You will have opportunities to showcase your work in a final-year exhibition, giving you the experience needed to enter the professional world.

Our facilities are designed to support a broad range of materials and processes for both traditional and digital works. We have lively Illustration Studios, a Printmaking studio for Lino, Screenprint, Etching, and Collagraph, and a Letterpress studio with Adana letterpress machines and bookmaking equipment. We also offer Risograph Printing and a laser cutter. Our dedicated digital illustration suite includes iMacs, Wacom tablets, and Cintiq screens, equipped with key software packages such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and After Effects.

Our course aims to develop your professional practice through experimentation and exposure to both traditional and contemporary illustration techniques. You will work on children’s book illustration and other projects, developing skills that are vital for a successful career in illustration.

Year One – Level 4 (Cert HE, Dip HE & BA)

The first year is partially concerned with getting the basic skills in place and to bring all students up to speed with knowledge of relevant software.

• Contemporary Challenges: Making a Difference (20 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module) • Editorial Illustration (20 credits; compulsory) • Image-making & Communicating (20 credits; compulsory) • Learning in the Digital Era (20 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module) • Visual Studies 1 (10 credits; compulsory) • Visual Studies 2 (10 credits; compulsory) • Ways of Perceiving (10 credits; compulsory) • Ways of Thinking (10 credits; compulsory).

Year Two – Level 5 (Dip HE & BA)

The second year is broadly about the transition into becoming a professional illustrator.

• Changemakers: Building your Personal Brand for Sustainable Employment (20 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module) • Changemakers: Creativity and Value Creation (20 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module) • Illustration for Advertising (20 credits; compulsory) • Narrative Illustration (20 credits; compulsory) • Research in Context (10 credits; compulsory) • Research in Practice (10 credits; compulsory) • Visual Enquiry 1 (10 credits; compulsory) • Visual Enquiry 2 (10 credits; compulsory).

Year Three – Level 6 (BA)

Level 6 is partially student-led and the project brief content and formative deadlines are negotiated. This creates a self-directed responsibility where students create their final portfolio.

• Advanced Creative Enquiry (20 credits; compulsory) • Graduate Portfolio (60 credits; compulsory) • Independent Project (40 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module).

At the beginning of each module, we issue the ‘Assessment Specification’, which clearly describes in each assessment criteria what is required.

Weekly feedback sessions keep students focussed on the requirements, without hindering the freedom to work with expanding ideas.

Technical tuition is typically delivered via a demonstration lecture and then staff help each student individually as they progress though a challenge.

All modules have formative and summative feedback, both written and verbal. When the summative written feedback is released, students can book-in for ‘one to one’ tutorial to discuss their feedback further.

There are no written exams for this course.