This course offers an expansive understanding of contemporary illustration through an inquisitive and explorative programme of study into authorial storytelling. On this course, student will explore multidisciplinary methods of working which extend the concepts of communication, sequential narrative and visualisation through research, practice and discursive critique.

The course allows students a stimulating space for exploring the boundaries of illustration and the graphic novel. It will offer the opportunity to unpick the specialist mechanisms related to both authorial practice, graphic novel construction, as well as other book forms and publishing approaches such as picturebooks, zines, visual diaries and other illustrative story play. Student will explore both works of fiction and non-fiction, reportage and graphic journalism as well as stories for adults and children. The course will encourage them to consider co-designed and collaborative methods of narrative practice, as well as autobiographical, autofiction and other approaches derived from the ‘lived experience’.