Children's Book Illustration MA

The MA in Children’s Book Illustration (with optional Professional Placement) is perfect for practicing professional illustrators, artists and designers wishing to develop new ideas and techniques aimed at the children’s market. This taught, studio course is also suitable for recent design graduates who wish to focus and refine their ideas at a more advanced level.

Although primarily a visual course for artists and illustrators, authorial control over content is also hugely important in the children's book field, so the ability to write creatively and to fuse written and visual content is an important component in the practice of children’s book illustration.

The emphasis of the course is on the practice of illustration for children’s picture books and story books. At postgraduate level you will be encouraged to pursue an original line of enquiry within your chosen area of children’s book illustration and design.

Why study with us

• Learn to generate ideas and visually problem solve to a deadline whilst forging your own visual vocabulary.
• At the end of the course you will have a body of work produced to a professional and publishable standard.
• Our students have won several national children’s book awards and our alumni have illustrated over 70 published titles so far.

Future careers

Most children’s illustrators work as freelancers, often developing their own book ideas, or working as illustrators for hire for UK and International publishing houses.

Some specialise purely in children’s work whereas others work as character and toy designers, animators or as general illustrators working across design and advertising disciplines, as well as in the publishing industry.