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This is a four-year version of our popular BA (Hons) Illustration and Design course, with an integrated foundation year. Push the boundaries of illustration. Develop your own style and release your personal creativity. Enter the inspiring world of professional illustration.
Are you passionate about drawing? Full of creative ideas? Illustration and Design will cultivate your talents. We encourage you to push the boundaries of illustration, blending traditional techniques with computer technology, such as virtual reality and 3D design. You can also combine illustration with other areas, including animation, graphics, advertising, 3D illustration, and web design.
You’ll explore design principles, printmaking, and drawing in your first year, before pursuing a specialist study of illustration during your second and final year. You’ll perfect your craft alongside experienced academics who are all practising professionals at the cutting edge of their field, bringing their industry insights and experience directly into their teaching.
Throughout the course you’ll build and develop a creative, industry-ready portfolio that'll help launch your career as an illustrator or graphic designer, or any other role where these creative skills are needed.
In the first year – the foundation year – you'll study five modules. After completion of this foundation, you'll then move onto the Illustration and Design honours degree course.
Your second year introduces you to a range of different media and focuses on the fundamental skills of illustration including observational drawing, printmaking, animation, and digital drawing and painting. In your third and fourth year, you'll narrow your focus and develop your own personal style of illustration through open briefs based on real-world commercial projects.
You'll have the opportunity to exhibit your work at the end of year Degree Show. The show is open to the public and invited guests in order for you to showcase your portfolio and meet potential employers from the design sector.
Feedback is given regularly during teaching sessions and at the end of the semester in order for you to develop your work to the highest standard, and also to reflect on how you might have approached the project differently.
Teaching sessions are made up of a combination of personal one to one meetings with design tutors and group critiques designed to encourage team working and to create a community vibe among the year groups. This is supported by lectures, seminars, workshops, and independent learning. You'll have access to studio spaces outside of teaching time, which facilitates reflection on work and peer evaluation.
We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.
Entry requirements are provided for guidance only and we may offer you an entrance interview which will help us determine your eligibility for your chosen degree. This enables us to consider making you an offer if you're perhaps a mature student who's been out of education for a period of time, or you've gained significant knowledge and skills through employment rather than traditional education.
Eligible entry qualifications:
If you're unsure of whether you think you might be suitable for the course, please contact us.
**If you've studied for a GCSE which has a numerical grade, you'll need to achieve a grade 4 or above. Equivalent alternative qualifications are also accepted, such as Level 2 Key Skills in Communication and Application of Number.
If English isn't your first language, please see our English language requirements.
The annual fee for this course is £9,535 if you're from the UK/Ireland/EU settled/pre-settled.
Undergraduate fees are set according to rules from Government in line with forecast inflation. The fee for your first year of study for 2025/26 will be £9,535. You will pay tuition fees for every year of study. Fees may increase every year based on the Retail Price Index.
If you're a full-time UK/Irish/EU settled/EU pre-settled student, you may be eligible to receive financial support to cover your fees for the full four years. UK and EU settled students may also be eligible to receive a maintenance loan.
Please note, this course isn't available to international students.
Learn more about settled status, pre-settled status, special discounts, visa requirements, and Common Travel Area (CTA) agreements for the Republic of Ireland applicants in our Help and Advice article.
Take a look at the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.
This information was correct at the time of publication.
Throughout the course, you'll build a creative and industry-ready portfolio that'll help you launch a career as an illustrator or graphic designer, or take up any other roles where creative skills are important. You'll exhibit your work at our final year Degree Show, visited by industry professionals and creative employers, and may have the opportunity to take your work to London.
Our graduates have gone on to work in a variety of illustration and design roles, such as freelance illustrators for Oxford University Press, The Guardian newspaper, Hallmark cards, design studios at the Open University, and Virgin's design department. Other students have gone on to be employed in design companies throughout the UK and many choose to progress onto our MA Design course.
Our graduates go on to have diverse careers. One of our graduates works for a publishing house in Japan, dealing with the design and illustration of children's wildlife books. Another was offered a three-book contract at a New Designers Graduate Show and has subsequently won further contracts for illustrations.
Many graduates also operate as freelancers as part of a 'portfolio career' alongside other creative work. They create illustrations for advertising, packaging, and editorial purposes. Whatever route you choose, your course will put you on a fast track to getting work published and recognised.
You'll have opportunities to apply for internships and other live projects where you can work alongside professional illustrators and designers.
In addition, our academic team organises visits to art and design venues and companies in London and across the UK. This is to provide you with the opportunity to travel around London and visit illustration agencies, design studios, and experience private viewings of famous artwork at the British Museum.
We hold specific 'employability days' to help give you that essential cutting edge. We invite former graduates and employers to come into the University to look at student portfolios and give advice.
Through our connection with the Association of Illustrators and strong links with professional illustrators, we're able to attract a range of top names to give guest lectures. The input of these internationally-known speakers helps broaden your learning and provide fresh perspectives.
The course allows you complete freedom to explore the discipline fully, cultivating originality.
When I graduated I started working straight away as a graphic designer
