1. Apply knowledge of professional contexts to produce a practical outcome relevant to visual storytelling. Knowledge and understanding

2. Solve simulated creative or industry-informed problems in illustration, selecting and justifying appropriate methods and innovative formats or digital platforms, while working independently and engaging with relevant professional, technical, or academic feedback. Application & Problem-Solving Critical Reasoning & Collaboration

3. Communicate your work to academic, professional, or non-specialist audiences. Communication

4. Reflect on how employability and enterprise concepts inform your developing practice in contemporary illustration. Personal Development & Entrepreneurship

Assessment 1: Portfolio

An individual portfolio of work comprising:
Research of concept and design development in the form of sketchbooks or digital journals that will provide evidence of your ability to work through the design process including:
- Visual research and reference to industry practitioners and sector practice
- Idea development and iterations
- Creative visual thinking and communication of an appropriate solution
- Final outcomes / artefact / prototype

Assessment 2: Reflection
Reflective commentary with critical analysis
- You will produce a verbal presentation, written or multimedia commentary that defines your project focus, aims and intended outcomes in relation to your creative brief.
- Informed by research, you should critically reflect on your solution, justifying design choices and understanding application

Option 1: Reflective Report (1,200 words)
Option 2: Reflective recorded or live presentation (5–6 minutes)

Formative Assessment:
Midway formative feedback will be embedded within practical sessions, providing structured opportunities for feedback on work-in-progress to support student development and progression.

A time to discover and explore the possibilities within Illustration and its context in the creative industry. You will undertake a series of Illustration briefs to introduce practices and methods of image making through experimentation.

- Continued experimental and explorative practice in image making.
- You will understand the practice of image making in visual problem solving within the broad field of visual communication, including conceptual illustration and visual storytelling.
- You will explore a range of media approaches in order to discover the ways in which different media carry different meanings and to express information in visually exciting and varied forms: medium as message.
- You will explore sequential image making to build a narrative.
- Art working and image making practices including composition, character development, colour theory, tone and pace for storytelling and the significance of iteration. This builds on communicating through pictures, visual metaphors, and cultural aspects of image making.
- This module is designed to build on knowledge and skills gained in previous modules by encouraging you to review, extend, develop and apply the use of creative visual thinking as a response to an illustration brief.
- You will explore animation principles to expand application of your visual language, including technical instruction and storyboarding, building on your visual storytelling practice.
- Drawing and image making in a variety of communication methods, working towards fresh and innovative solutions which utilise hybrid techniques between traditional and digital mediums.
- You will develop sustainable approaches to a proposed visual communication brief, (i) identify a problem, (ii) gather appropriate information, (iii) experiment with media in order to generate ideas and (iv) propose and evaluate potential solutions, refined to highly finished pieces and appropriately prepared for presentation.

How do images tell stories and communicate meaning across platforms?
In this module, you’ll build on your illustration practice by exploring visual storytelling and sequential image-making. Through experimental briefs, you’ll develop narrative, character, composition, colour, and pacing while working across traditional, digital, and hybrid media. You’ll explore how different media shape meaning, including animation principles and storyboarding, to expand your visual language. The module strengthens your creative thinking and problem-solving skills, supporting your progression in illustration and visual communication practice.

Project work will integrate practical (technical, aesthetic) and theoretical aspects of visual communication.

You will be required to participate in:
Introductory lectures
Seminars & Lectures
Technical workshops/ Academic workshops (formal technical instruction sessions and library, design collection and design museum/exhibition-based activities).
Group tutorials
Critique and feedback sessions
Group work
Formative assessments
Independent study in support of your practical work.

Booker, C. (2024) The seven basic plots. London: Bloomsbury Continuum.

Mateu-Mestre, M. (2010) Framed ink: Drawing and composition for visual storytellers. Pasadena, CA: Design Studio Press.

McCullen, S. (2022) Picturebook makers. London: Dpictus.

McCullen, S. (2025) Picturebook makers 2. London: Dpictus.

Wigan, M. (2018) Thinking visually for illustrators. 2nd edn. London: Bloomsbury.

Where older texts are included, they are retained as foundational texts within the discipline, remaining relevant where no more recent equivalent texts are available.

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University Library https://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/library
Library Creative

Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment will support this module where relevant
Specialist Spaces and studio workspace
Smart Zone
3D Workshops
CAD Labs & Digital Design workshops
Print Bureau & Experimental Print
Betty Smithers Design collection
Microsoft 360 and Teams platforms.