Illustration and Design with Integrated Foundation Year

Illustration and design is a creative discipline that spans communication, narrative, visual problem-solving, and the creation of images that inform, persuade, delight, and tell stories. Illustration applies drawing, painting, and digital tools to produce images for books, magazines, editorial contexts, advertising, animation, and a growing range of digital and product applications. Design, as a companion discipline, extends the creative vocabulary into graphic design, typography, visual identity, and the organisation of information for communication purposes.

Together they produce graduates with a broad creative range.

At Sunderland this four-year full-time programme includes an integrated foundation year, providing the creative and academic preparation needed before the main degree begins. The foundation year gives you an exploratory period to develop your foundational skills and to discover the approaches and areas of practice that most interest you, before you commit to the specialism of illustration and design. A year abroad is available within the programme, giving you the opportunity to study in a different cultural and creative environment and to develop an international perspective on visual communication.

Across the full programme you will develop your drawing, visual thinking, and digital skills alongside your understanding of how images and design communicate.

Illustration and design graduates work as illustrators for publishing, editorial, advertising, and digital media; as graphic designers in agencies, studios, and in-house design teams; as art directors and creative directors; and across the growing fields of digital illustration, character design, and motion graphics. The breadth of the combined programme opens multiple career paths across the visual communication industries. Many graduates also work as freelancers, building portfolios that serve multiple sectors.

Postgraduate study in illustration, graphic design, or visual communication is a natural route for those who wish to develop their practice or specialism.