BA (Hons) Illustration

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BA (Hons) Illustration

Building your creative and professional skills in a variety of techniques and approaches to illustration is at the heart of our well-regarded course at Norwich University of the Arts

Our BA (Hons) Illustration degree course has a reputation for challenging conventional thinking. We will help you to develop your personal style as your expertise grows in drawing, print, collage and multi-media.

You will explore visual storytelling and both digital and analogue image-making: from the page to the screen, to installations and interactive experiences.

Step towards an illustration career

Live projects, competitions and collaborations will offer work opportunities to prepare you for a successful career in illustration.

You will develop your own way of thinking about illustration, storytelling and the connection of images to text or the spoken word.

We will help with advice about working in the creative industries, including freelance careers, employment and entrepreneurship, and practical tips on handling commissions and negotiating with clients.

Awards and accolades

Student accolades include the RSA Student Design Award, D&AD New Blood, Penguin Design Awards, Carmelite Prize for Children’s Picture Books, YCN Awards and New Designers Best in Show.

Typical career paths include:

Freelance illustrator
Self-publisher
Printmaker
Designer
Picture book designer
Public artist
Artist in residence
Book publisher
Animator
Filmmaker
Curator
Director
Editorial publisher
Gallery assistant
Illustration agent

You’ll also get specialist creative careers advice from our Business and Employability Team to help support you as you plan your career.

Course information

Institution code: N39
Course 3 Year UCAS code: W220
Course 4 Year UCAS code: W221
Course length: 3 or 4 year options
Sandwich courses: Creative Professional Development (1 year, Level 5 diploma), or Creative Computing (1 year, Level 5 diploma), available between years 2 & 3

All courses run as a blend of on-campus and digital teaching and learning, and follow current UK government safety advice. Applicants and students will be notified directly if any changes need to be made.

Course specifications
Three year degree
Four year degree
Course related costs

Book an open day

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Course content

Year 1
Develop and explore methods of researching
Examine storytelling through visual narrative and sequential design
Explore analogue and digital image making
Develop an understanding of visual communication, informed by design principles and cultural ideas
Understand drawing languages, observational drawing, mark-making, print, collage and multi-media processes

Year 2
Develop and apply experimental approaches to Factual and Fictional ideas
Initiate and manage illustration projects in collaboration with students from other courses and external partners from outside of the University
Apply research and creative skills across a range of commercial and experimental narrative illustration applications
Take the opportunity to enter a variety of competitions, stage exhibitions and present work to peers and industry panels to broaden your professional profile
Illustrate Fictional and Factual stories (written and un-written)
Identify research and practice subject matter and illustration specialism for final year study.

Year 3
Apply specialist skills and employ advanced research methodologies (e.g. field trips, site visits, archived-based research)
Complete a Research Report that provides a broad contextualisation of your illustration practice
Focus on your promoting your individual creative direction to target appropriate professional roles and opportunities
Engage in professional practice and 'live' experiences, and channel your specialist illustration knowledge towards the creation of final degree show and graduate portfolio.

Student work

Tap to expand

Christain Harrop - Yellow illustration of a rocket ship

William Black - Illustration of a reindeer with mossy antlers

Charlotte Johnson - Minimal illustrations of plants hung from a ply wall

Mitch Forsyth, Stevie Burton - Black and grey illustration of pylons and powerlines in a rural setting

Jordan Cook - Illustration on vanilla paper shows figures hunched in a black pool

Katie Jones-Barlow - Figure of a human with detachable limbs layed out on parcel paper

Agne Kusaite - Illustration on black background of a bust with red veil holding a rose

Steve Appleton - Abstract illustration of figures with high collars with bicycles

Sophie Clouston - A plushie figure with abstract proportions

Anthony Stephenson - Abstract image which could be an aerial scan of an archaeological site, or something under a microscope

Rosie Lom - glitch effect illustrations in a grid of six

Paige Lyons - A student working on a collage

Kate Aspen - plants growing around a figure who lays on their back in a forest

Chloe Dennis - A figure in a dark room reading a broadsheet head in hands

Alec Hawkins - A narrow wooden structure of a building with steep staircases

Chloe Dennis - Illustrated comic strip of someone picking a photo album from a shelf

Chloe Dominique-Allen - Illustration of eerie figure with long limbs in a grey dress

Laurel Pettit - A large animal stands above a colourful cityscape

Katie Scott - A large model of a pink octopus in a shop window

Tom Abbiss-Smith - illustration of a saxophone on a shelf

Mollie Helliwell - Illustration with a face in old diving helmet looking through seaweed at fish

Helen Naish - A shovel in negative space over a background of black building with rocky grounds in front. text reads 'my house of secrets'

Katie Jones-Barlow - disjointed figure painting walls

Sophie Clouston - small felt puppets of unusual animals

Tom Abbiss-Smith - A colourful graphic layout with text in the middle and block printing on either side

Mollie Helliwell - The head of a mythical creature, tongue out, laying in a meadow

Polly Fern-Sargent - Wooden shapes with blue embellishment layed out

Mollie Helliwell - text reads 'you cant count' image shows book cover layout, with a potted plant on each cover

Joshua Windsor - prototype book cover with minimal landscape illustration in two tone print of blue and red

Jordan Cook - black and grey illustration of a derelict cottage

Oliver Elliot - Abstract illustration with furniture and rooms of a house

Connor Perry - Illustration with white outlines of people dancing in a crowd over a background of a DJ deck

Visit the Degree Show website

Entry requirements
Portfolio guidance
Fees & funding
Level 5 Diplomas
Four year degree

Typical UK offers

A / AS Levels – GCE
GCE A/AS Levels 3 A-level qualifications at grades BBB. Where candidates are not taking 3 A-levels, NUA will consider combinations of A-level/AS-level and other Level 3 qualifications.

BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit, Merit in an art, design or media related subject

BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction*, Distinction* in an art, design or media related subject

T Levels
A T Level in any subject with overall grade Merit or above

UAL Extended Diploma
Merit

UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Merit

UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass

Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Merit

Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass

International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 27 points

NUA welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio, responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.

If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.

If the qualification that you are studying is not shown, do not worry as we are able to accept other pre-entry qualifications as well as combinations of different qualifications. Please do contact our Student Recruitment Team if you have any queries.

International applications

We accept qualifications from all over the world. To find our entry requirements from a specific country, please check our dedicated international pages.

Most international students are required to hold an English language qualification. Applicants are required to have a minimum UKVI approved IELTS exam score of 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each section. Equivalent English language qualifications are acceptable such as, IB English language syllabus A or B/English Literature (Grade 4).

We also accept some alternative English qualifications. Learn more about our English entry requirements.

You can email us on international@nua.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss your application individually.

BA (Hons) Illustration degree portfolio guidance

We are calling the traditional portfolio a ‘development portfolio’. This is to emphasise that what we would like to see is where you are now in your creative journey. You don’t need to spend a long time making the perfect work, as we can assess your potential from your work in progress. Your development is the most important part of your learning.

Your development portfolio should be relevant to this course, but you can include a wide range of work that shows your creativity, technical competence and understanding of storytelling.

You may wish to include some of the following:

Drawings, painting or illustrations that demonstrate your skills, including life drawings, still life and images drawn from observing people and landscapes or from your imagination
Collages and mixed media
Experimental workbooks
Animations
Work created using Adobe Creative Suite or other appropriate design software package
Photography and photo-montage
Sequential art including graphic novels/comic strips and story boards
Examples of experiments with print making processes
Illustrated stories or comics

Further portfolio advice and tips

Get more advice on presentation formats, layouts and when to submit your development portfolio in the application process.

2023/24 University fees for new entrants

NUA will assess students’ tuition fee status using the guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs

Students from the UK or Ireland and EU students with ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status will be charged ‘Home’ fees if they meet the relevant residency requirements. They will usually be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the UK government, meaning that they won’t have to pay NUA’s tuition fees upfront.

Students who do not meet the necessary residency requirements will usually be charged ‘Overseas’ fees and will not be eligible for the UK government tuition fee loan. Since 2021/22, this includes new entrants from the EU, EEA, and Switzerland who do not have ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status, because the UK has now formally left the EU.

Fee status	Course	Annual fee
Home	Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree)	£9,250
Overseas	Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree)	£18,000

For Home undergraduate students starting in 2023, inflation may be applied to your fees in later years, if the UK government were to increase the fee cap beyond the current limit of £9,250 per year. If such an increase were to apply, we would confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we would limit the increase to the maximum allowed by the Office for Students.

For Overseas undergraduate students starting in 2023, inflation will be applied to your fees in later years. We will confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we will limit the increase to no more than the Office for Students’ recommended inflationary measure, which is RPI-X. RPI-X is calculated by the Office for Budget Responsibility. In setting fees for the following year, we will use the Office for Budget Responsibility’s RPI-X forecast for quarter 3 of the relevant year.

See our Fees and Funding page for further information which is also available in a downloadable format.

Financial support for UK students in 2023

Tuition fee loans and loans for living costs are usually available to UK and some EU students, as well as non-repayable NUA bursaries based on family income. Find out more about applying for funding.

All students have an opportunity to spend a year, between the second and third year of their course, enhancing their employability options through a Level 5 Diploma.

These courses are offered in Creative Professional Development; a structured programme of input sessions and work-based learning, and Creative Computing; designed to build the foundation skills in coding and software design that are in high demand in the digital and creative industries.

Four year degree

Our innovative four year degrees are exactly the same as our three year degrees but include an extra year of study at the beginning – Year 0.

Year 0 is all about developing the skills and knowledge you need to successfully complete your degree course. Building on your experience from A Level or equivalent courses, the Year 0 curriculum allows extra time to develop the practical, technical and creative skills that are critical to successfully completing an undergraduate degree at NUA.

While studying Year 0 BA (Hons) Illustration you’ll develop visual research strategies through studio-based workshops, considering narrative, and illustration as a mode of communication.

Within the first project you will explore the potential for ‘story-telling’ and sequence. You’ll explore a range approaches to image making, building upon this as you move through the second project, which is focused on specific environments; their past and their present.

As you negotiate the unit you will begin to develop you own visual language, and greater degrees of independence. Projects will be led by course tutors and as part of the Illustration course you will join all years for guest lectures and course events.

Typical UK offers and entry requirements for Year 0 entry

GCE A/AS Levels
2 A-level qualifications at grades CC or higher.

BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Merit, Merit, Pass in an art, design or media related subject

BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit in an art, design or media related subject

T Levels
Pass (D or E on the core)

UAL Extended Diploma
An overall Pass

UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
An overall Pass

Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass

Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass

International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 24 points

If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.

Find out more

Related Courses

Students

Tom Abbiss Smith

"What I always find exciting about NUA’s Illustration Degree Shows is the variation of work and how the students push the boundaries of what Illustration can be."

BA (Hons) Illustration

Kaelin O’Hare

"I have the freedom to explore and develop my practice, with the University’s resources, guidance from course staff, and a creative community to support me and to learn from."

BA (Hons) Illustration

Interview with Kaelin