find your perfect postgrad program
Search our Database of 30,000 Courses
Liverpool John Moores University: Illustration
| Institution | Liverpool John Moores University View institution profile |
|---|---|
| Department | Liverpool School of Art and Creative Industries |
| Web | https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/ |
| courses@ljmu.ac.uk | |
| Telephone | 0151 231 5090 |
| Study type | Taught |
Summary
MA Illustration is a place where you can develop, test and discuss your work within a community of dedicated staff and a highly motivated and diverse community of practitioners, and with the support of state-of-the-art technical facilities, space to work amongst like-minded, creative people.
MA Illustration encourages active participation in a wide range of creative practices.
The course modules and project briefs are designed to test and develop each student’s own distinct visual methodology leading towards a viable, sustainable professional practice. We explore and develop our visual work through practice, discussion and workshops that provide an entertaining, challenging and supportive sociable working environment.
Practice is supported utilising traditional and / or digital methods of making.
These include:
-
drawing and printmaking
-
using lens and time-based media
-
3D and 2D working with ideas and concepts that might finally be realised through exhibition, publication or any number of exciting new hybrid forms
Illustration is considered to be a function of an image making practice and as such can be viewed as a means to intervene in a wide range of conversations and subjects.
The process of disseminating or publishing your work is as important to us as the means of production. Audience and reception and the management of this is also a formative part of the wider circle of illustration practice. We recognise an expanded understanding of contemporary illustration through the exploration of relationships between illustrator as author, audience and context and the responsibility of being public actors engaging in social and cultural production.
The course encourages students to engage imaginatively with their practice in relation to an evolving academic subject and to define their own area of expertise. Students studying on the course come from a wide range of diverse backgrounds including illustration, graphic design, creative writing, printmaking, drawing, animation, photography and painting. Others come from outside of art and design, having had experience across other subject disciplines, but who demonstrate a passion for illustration.
Students are encouraged to dismantle and deconstruct their own creative assumptions through re-visiting the fundamentals of the subject. This can be through craft, print and drawing, the invention of storyworlds and characters, animation, gif and meme culture, 3D modelling, participatory practices, reportage and fieldwork, children’s story books, picture books, ‘zines and graphic novels and includes many other forms. MA Illustration students may be critically engaged, political activists, want to beautifully articulate a personal story, or simply make someone smile.
MA Illustration encourages the questioning of the nature of illustration practice and its professional context and the position of each individual relative to the creative industries. Practice will be considered in a global context, challenging colonial aesthetic hegemony with an awareness of the emergence of new and innovative approaches to creative practice that redefine the discipline and the profession.
Students will be challenged to develop a skillset that is future-focused and sustainable in terms of the wider ecological and environmental crisis, the social context of precarious employment, technological threats and the economic fallout of late capitalist politics in the UK. Students on the MA will be introduced to, and engage with, new areas of knowledge and experience, and broadens and deepens existing knowledge that will be combined with their own established practice. We aim to cultivate a visual literacy whereby students develop confidence in understanding and critically reflecting on the representational, technological and cultural significance of illustration, images and visual culture more broadly.
MA
| Level | RQF Level 7 |
|---|---|
| Entry requirements | Undergraduate Requirements: In exceptional circumstances applications by mature graphic designers, illustrators and artists without sufficient academic qualifications but with the requisite aptitude and focus will be considered. Interview required: Extra Requirements We ask you to submit a simple PDF file with your most recent or relevant work. You can include short captions or titles but the work should be allowed to show itself. Make sure that you have compressed the file before uploading. The digital PDF portfolio should include some or most of the following; + a range of work that may include including undergraduate work, self-directed work, commissions, work in progress, experimental work. + evidence of problem solving and idea development + evidence of your personal practice and some direction for future practice + visual literacy, professionalism and technical ability + research and preparatory work + sketchbooks showing drawing, collecting, lists, ideas, starts, sketches, interesting things. + evidence of wider practice, research projects or other stuff that may be relevant. + show you have thought about the ordering and presentation of the work. On the whole the digital portfolio should in part be evidence that you have the aptitude to succeed on the course, but also that you are willing to learn and develop. It should be enough to trigger a conversation at the interview, and it should be interesting to you and give you lots of things to talk about. If you submit a URL make sure that it is public domain and accessible to the interviewer. RPL International Requirements: |
| Location | Liverpool John Moores University Student Recruitment and Admissions Exchange Station Tithebarn Street Liverpool L2 2QP |
Fees
| England | 8965 GBP for Whole course |
|---|---|
| Northern Ireland | 8965 GBP for Whole course |
| Scotland | 8965 GBP for Whole course |
| Wales | 8965 GBP for Whole course |
| International | 17750 GBP for Whole course |
| Level | RQF Level 7 |
|---|---|
| Entry requirements | Undergraduate Requirements: In exceptional circumstances applications by mature graphic designers, illustrators and artists without sufficient academic qualifications but with the requisite aptitude and focus will be considered. Interview required: Extra Requirements We ask you to submit a simple PDF file with your most recent or relevant work. You can include short captions or titles but the work should be allowed to show itself. Make sure that you have compressed the file before uploading. The digital PDF portfolio should include some or most of the following; + a range of work that may include including undergraduate work, self-directed work, commissions, work in progress, experimental work. + evidence of problem solving and idea development + evidence of your personal practice and some direction for future practice + visual literacy, professionalism and technical ability + research and preparatory work + sketchbooks showing drawing, collecting, lists, ideas, starts, sketches, interesting things. + evidence of wider practice, research projects or other stuff that may be relevant. + show you have thought about the ordering and presentation of the work. On the whole the digital portfolio should in part be evidence that you have the aptitude to succeed on the course, but also that you are willing to learn and develop. It should be enough to trigger a conversation at the interview, and it should be interesting to you and give you lots of things to talk about. If you submit a URL make sure that it is public domain and accessible to the interviewer. RPL International Requirements: |
| Location | Liverpool John Moores University Student Recruitment and Admissions Exchange Station Tithebarn Street Liverpool L2 2QP |
Fees
| England | 49 GBP for Credit |
|---|---|
| Northern Ireland | 49 GBP for Credit |
| Scotland | 49 GBP for Credit |
| Wales | 49 GBP for Credit |
Reach new heights in your career with a master’s qualification
LJMU delivers innovative, research-led, employability-focused programmes supported by world-class academics and state-of-the-art facilities. Our thriving postgraduate community encourages students to contribute to our ground-breaking work, developing the skills and knowledge required to take them to the top of their chosen career ladder.
We are ranked amongst the top 800 higher education institutions in the world (The World University Ranking 2025) and 97% of our postgraduates are in work or further study 15 months after graduation (Graduate Outcomes Survey, published 2024)
Postgraduate students at LJMU benefit from …
View ProfileNot what you are looking for?
Browse other courses in Illustration, Design or Media studies, or search our comprehensive database of postgrad programs.Postgraduate Bursary Opportunity with Postgrad.com
Are you studying as a PG student at the moment or have you recently been accepted on a postgraduate program? Apply now for one of our £2000 PGS bursaries.
Click here