Why choose this course?

MA Illustration at Kingston School of Art takes a critical and research-led approach to image production and visual storytelling. Visual storytelling is understood in the broadest possible terms; making connections and building relationships between images, words, situations, objects, people and places. We are interested in the potential of research-led approaches to image production to generate knowledge, and we embrace process as a mode of meaning making. Students are supported to craft thoughtful, provoking and illuminating visual stories through a carefully curated programme of study that examines discipline specific notions of rigour, innovation, positioning and inclusivity.

The diverse positions and experiences our students bring to the course are integral to our key aim of examining and challenging existing illustrative practices by fostering knowledge and generating debate in relation to the challenges, ethics, and impact of visual representation globally across professional and public territories.

We align ourselves to SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) a collective name for social sciences, humanities, and the arts, developed by the British Academy as a tool to tell the story of these subjects as a 'powerful and inclusive way to inform, illustrate and inspire people about the value of understanding our human world'.

What you will study

Through tutorials, field trips, lectures, seminars, workshops and research projects, you will gain the technical skills, critical tools, knowledge and confidence needed to contribute to the development of the subject and its practice. You will be asked to examine your own practice and identify existing practice-based research methods, which will then be developed by introducing discipline specific notions of rigour, originality, ethics, positioning and inclusivity.

Modules have been designed and aligned to ensure that students are able to make intellectual links between practice, critical theory and real-world scenarios. In doing so, this programme prioritises the development of an individual practitioner and their creative work.

Teaching and assessment

Students will benefit from a variety of different learning and teaching approaches including brief-led project work, workshops that encourage creative experimentation and individual critical reflection. We take a dialogic and discursive approach to learning and teaching, through peer-led learning, discussion groups and seminars as well as opportunities to co-construct the curriculum. An elective range of assessment strategies and methods allows students to take responsibility for their own learning.

Kingston School of Art has an established an ethos of Thinking Through Making, underpinned by a policy that supports equal access for all students to the 2D and 3D workshops. Students are encouraged to explore new and unfamiliar processes and techniques and use these to experiment and innovate within their own disciplines and individual creative practices.