Illustration and Book Arts MA
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Master
In Cambridge
Description
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Type
Master
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Location
Cambridge
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Duration
12 Months
Design and carry out your own visual projects, exploring the relationships between word and image, as you prepare for a career as a visual artist in a growing creative industry.
Whatever your artistic background, our Master's course will develop your visual practice in areas that are important for illustrators and book artists, such as visual sequencing and visual text. It will challenge you to cross the divide between fine art and applied art found on many undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, making it a unique course for the UK.
Studying in our purpose-built studios at Cambridge School of Art, much of your work will be practice-based. You’ll propose and undertake self-directed projects, attending group critiques and tutorials that will help you develop your creative skills.
You'll also attend a series of integrated lectures and seminars. These serve two purposes. You’ll explore aspects of illustration and book art, such as the relationships between word and image, narratology and visual language. And you'll receive guidance on research methods and critical writing - which you'll put to immediate use on the course, as well as in your future career.
Facilities
Location
Start date
Start date
About this course
Our course will prepare you for a career as a freelance illustrator or freelance book artist. In recent years these roles have been increasingly in demand thanks to the growth of interest in artists' books, graphic novels, self-publishing, e-books and an awareness of small, batch publishing. You’ll also gain skills that will be useful in many other fields, such as bookbinding or teaching. You might even find a way to combine it with your current career, as did Dr Katy Shorttle, whose artwork on health issues was recently featured by The Guardian. Or you might decide to move on to a research degree, like our PhD Fine Art.
Throughout the course, you’ll collaborate and discuss your work with staff, visiting professionals and fellow students, giving you an invaluable opportunity to see how others respond to it. All of our teaching team are practising artists, so you’ll hear about the latest news and issues in the industry, and have access to sound careers advice.
Reviews
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I adore this uni the general population here are well disposed and the addresses are great
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Course rating
Recommended
Centre rating
B.
This centre's achievements
All courses are up to date
The average rating is higher than 3.7
More than 50 reviews in the last 12 months
This centre has featured on Emagister for 14 years
Subjects
- Word
- Design
- Creative techniques
- Photoshop
- Graphics
- Illustration
- Art design
- Art
- Image
- Typography
- Project
- Book Publishing
- Visualisation
- Ms Word
- Book illustration
- Book layout and design
- Visual Text
Course programme
- Process and Practice as ResearchYou will engage with the relationship between research and production. In particular you will explore the process of designing a research project for Art and Design students at Masters level. Lectures and seminars will introduce you to methodology, ethics and exemplars of research methods from a broad range of art and design disciplines.
- Visual TextThrough self-directed visual projects you will explore the relationships between text and image, words, authorship and the artist's voice. In lectures and seminars you will look at the role of text and typographic identity in the generation of meaning, and text and image relationships.
- Sequence and SeriesOn this studio-based module, you will develop your personal visual language visual work through a consideration of series and sequential imagery. In lectures and seminars you will explore contemporary theory and practice in relation to visual language, narratology, composition, structure and editing of sequential and serial visual work.
- Master's Dissertation Art and DesignThis module forms the major written element of the MA programme. On it, you will be invited to choose a topic related to your area of study, as the basis for a research essay of up to 8,000 words.
- Master's Project: Art and DesignThe Masters Project represents the culmination of your learning on the programme, and giving you the opportunity to develop and resolve a major area of enquiry. This is a self-directed visual project negotiated with the staff team and peers.
You’ll show your progress through your self-directed visual projects, which will include written project proposals, developmental and final visual work, and a reflective commentary. On the Master's Dissertation module, you’ll submit a 6,000-word essay. Finally, the Master's Project will allow you to build on all previous modules to design a visual project which shows mastery of your subject.
Additional information
Teaching times: 9am-5pm Tuesdays and Wednesdays (full-time); 9am-5pm Wednesdays in Year 1, Tuesdays in Year 2 (part-time).
Course fees:UK & EU students, 2016/17 (per year) £7,100
UK & EU students, 2016/17 (per year part time) £3,550
International students, 2016/17 (per year) £11,900
Illustration and Book Arts MA