Visual Communication: Illustration & Animation

MA Visual Communication: Illustration & Animation is a broad-based interdisciplinary studio programme that offers you the freedom to cultivate your own visual language, developing confidence in storytelling, worldbuilding and character design, alongside the conceptual awareness and technical skills that underpin ambitions within the expanding fields of illustration and animation.   

Delivered in partnership with Hearst Magazines, our proven track record in outstanding teaching credentials, makes this a particularly exciting course for all our students.

Over our 12-month programme you will develop a strong grounding in research and enquiry as you advance your specialist knowledge within an interdisciplinary environment. You will be encouraged to experiment with new techniques, media and technologies, responding to applications, platforms and spaces in which contemporary illustration and animation are produced and experienced today. Complex times require new stories, and this course will help you to develop the skills and perspectives with which to tell them. This programme offers outstanding specialist tuition combined with small class sizes for a more tailored experience and studio access 7 days a week. Students also have the opportunity to take part in collaborative projects with the University of Cambridge and Hearst Magazine, amongst others.

Please click the following link to find out more about this course: https://www.csvpa.com/course/ma-visual-communication-illustration-animation/

Modules Study Block 1 Your first semester will help you build your knowledge of the essential skills in your chosen area of art or design. You will be assigned a series of imaginative briefs designed to stimulate your creativity, to deepen your understanding of research methods for creative inquiry and examine the values that motivate you. Participation in a series of technical and conceptual Labs will help drive your creativity through the freedom to experiment. There will be additional opportunities to exhibit your work, engage cross-course collaborations and external live briefs. You will also begin to outline a self-directed project proposal, which will ultimately develop into your Independent Major Project. 

Study Block 2 As you continue to develop your own creative practice, exhibiting your work in a work-in-progress showcase, you will also begin to address how artists and designers need to be engaged in forging the future of their respective fields. You will explore your own ideas through interactions with students on other MA courses through collaborative projects.

A partnership with Hearst UK affords unique insights into working in the creative industries, as well as the chance to compete for further work-based opportunities in the organisation. Visiting practitioners bring their own expertise and unique perspectives into the Graduate School.

Study Block 3 During this semester, all your attention turns to the research, development, and production of your Independent Major Project. The year ends with an exhibition showcase of your projects and the co-creation of an exhibition catalogue, both of which celebrate the end of an intensive period of creative, conceptual, critical, and professional development.