Students majoring in illustration at AAC have many opportunities to incorporate design, digital media, painting, print media, drawing, 3-D arts, and/ or photography, creating a body of work that reflects their personal vision. AAC’s program requires a rigorous studio thesis and professional-practice experience both inside and outside the classroom. Students who graduate with a major in illustration can compete for work in such industries as book and magazine publishing, video games, packaging, corporate branding, retail merchandising, motion graphics, advertising, social advocacy, and entertainment.

A sequence of six successive courses defines the illustration core curriculum. A three-semester immersion in digital, interactive and new media technology compliment these offerings and bring illustration majors up to speed with an ever-changing profession. Each illustration course builds on the skills and knowledge developed in its predecessor.

After completing their foundation year, illustration majors begin a specialized study of the basics. Emphasis is placed on improving drawing skills and exploring a variety of traditional and digital media. Process is stressed and students are challenged to find creative solutions to problems involving space, medium and content.

Advanced, digital and applied illustration courses encourage students to experiment in many disciplines and to become innovators with their own art making. They explore the connections between illustration and graphic design, typography and printmaking, painting and photography, and personal expression.

A studio practicum, internship opportunities, and a course in professional practice augment the curriculum. Combined with liberal arts coursework in illustration history, art history, aesthetics, math, humanities, and the natural and social sciences, these courses anticipate a final year capstone experience that includes a demanding studio and seminar thesis and professional portfolio development.

Students can customize advanced course content and the capstone experience to reflect their interest in a variety of creative mediums, among others, that include cartooning and character development, graphic novels, merchandising, animation, and editorial, publication, and book illustration.

Interior designers shape human experience and enhance quality of life by creating environments that are sustainable, meaningful, innovative, and functional.

RMCAD’s interior design graduates create spaces that are as aesthetically pleasing as they are healthy and resource efficient.

The BFA in interior design is a first-professional degree that provides students with the educational qualifications to enter the design profession and gain the necessary experience to successfully complete the NCIDQ examination. www.ncidq.org

Interior design is both an art and a science. At RMCAD, we approach it as an extension of the arts while being grounded in the social and natural sciences of psychology, sociology, anthropology, ecology, and biology.

When you graduate from our program, you will be prepared to work as skilled, ethical, environmentally responsible professional designers committed to improving the health, safety and welfare of the public while embracing your own vision and creativity.

“The Interior Design faculty at RMCAD is truly special. Known on a first name basis, there have been numerous times when I have seen them give up their weekends to help us with projects, personally recognize students for great work, or just be a friend when you need someone to talk to, and even host brunch for a meeting.”
–Anna Alcorn, ID student

You will learn the theories and skills necessary for professional practice from faculty who are practicing design professionals and educators. Our program is accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) and is rigorous yet highly rewarding. www.accredit-id.org

See our Accreditation Page for more information.
Green Design Area of Emphasis

RMCAD offers a unique program of study through our Green Design Area of Emphasis. The Green Design Area of Emphasis provides an in-depth exploration of the methods, processes and principles of green design and sustainability. www.rmcad.edu/interior-design/green-design

“I had no idea what Green design was before coming to this school, and now it is a huge passion for me and was my area of emphasis.”
–Bethany Strothman, recent graduate

For information and discussions on green design and sustainability, please visit our green design blog, Thoughts on Sustainability >>

Submit a portfolio of your current work with a minimum of 20 pieces. These should include examples of graphic design, typography, conceptual visualization (drawing as examples of conceptual thinking) and your level of experience with technology. These examples may range from class assignments and self-initiated projects to professional work. In your artist’s statement, we recommend that you specifically address your interest and knowledge of graphic design as a professional practice.

MFA applicants

Submit a portfolio of your current design work with a minimum of 20 pieces. Additional materials may be included if they further demonstrate your conceptual abilities. Your artist’s statement should concisely address your objectives and goals as a designer in the context of current issues in design practice, as well as how they serve as a basis for graduate-level study. Candidates who have passed the preliminary selection process will be notified by mail in mid-February. At this time, candidates will be invited to visit CalArts in March for an interview and to meet faculty and students. The interview is an all-day event and an important component of the final selection process.

You will explore how meaning is conveyed through all visual images. The use of media is wide ranging with the opportunity to specialise in year 2 in printmaking, type and image, digital technology, animation, book arts, and mixed media. For the most part, it is drawing in all its forms that will inform your experience on this course. It is the wide-ranging nature of the experience offered, together with an emphasis on the understanding of the critical and contextual dimensions of illustration, which will challenge you to develop your own personal style and working method. This, together with a strong emphasis on professional practice, will provide you with a sound basis on which you can draw throughout your career and in response to ever-changing professional environments.

You will have access to research and information resources at the University of Brighton.
Syllabus

Year 1
Drawing
Ideas Generation and Development
Graphic Narration
Animation
Specialist Practice
Personal and Professional Development
Culture, Context and Meaning

Year 2
Concepts and Ideologies into Practice
Specialist Pathway
Presentation project
Professional Practice
Culture, Context and Meaning

Career and progression opportunities

Opportunities for illustrators are generally on a freelance basis whether within editorial, book publishing or advertising. In addition, illustrators may exhibit their artwork and develop a range of creative ideas and applications from which they develop their own markets. Students have successfully undertaken work placements at Coley Porter Bell, London; understudied leading illustrators within the work place in Hastings and Brighton; organised an illustration event entitled Alternative Fashion using paper clothing; and produced window displays for environmentally focused shops in Hastings as well as an exhibition at the Rye Gallery.

Aiming to inform and enable you to create photographs for news reportage, documentary and photoessays, our degree will give you the skills you need to become an adaptable and confident photographer.

The course blends practice, critical analysis, theoretical studies and self-reflection to develop your professionalism and an informed appreciation of photography.

Creating photographs to tell stories about our world, everyday life and the unusual, you’ll learn how to communicate effectively through images and master the power of photography to provide insight. You’ll also learn about the business of photography, such as how to promote and protect your photographs.

You will explore professional practice through valuable work experience opportunities and be encouraged to develop your own individual style. At the end of the course you will be able to work independently, utilising film and digital technology appropriately, and should be well placed to meet the challenge of working in this exciting area of photography and the media.

The HND Photography course is a vocationally focused course that encourages students to explore and refine their practical skills within a professional and supportive environment. Unlike a degree course it follows a structured format of assignment, practical/vocational application and assessment throughout the two stages.
Special course features
Supportive staff and learning environment
Vocational ‘real-world’ assignments
Opportunity for individual specialism within the course
Cross discipline experience and collaboration
Course content

The HND course differs in structure from a degree course in its make-up and delivery. It will be centred on a structured series of assignments, which will form the basis of the students studies. In completing these assignments, students are introduced to practical and vocational scenarios which require them to research and put into practice workshop-based guidance and instruction from the assignment tutors, together with their own research. The course is very much practically based, strongly underpinned with academic research and reading, as students learn, research, develop and apply skills and techniques appropriate to contemporary practical scenarios. The course will prepare the student to enter a broad range of photo-related fields from professional practice through to internet and virtual design. This should enable students to progress their career in a direction of their own choosing.
Stage one

The first stage of study is broadly exploratory in nature, offering students guidance and instruction in a wide range of practical situations from studio and location lighting, darkroom techniques in colour and monochrome to digital imaging and design. This learning is underpinned throughout by contextual and historical study that ultimately places the students’ own work within contemporary and historical practice.
Stage two

The second stage offers students further opportunity to produce work that reflects the individual student’s interests and specialist areas. The aim of this stage is that in completing the assignments, the student graduates with a portfolio of work and a range of knowledge that will take them forward, academically and/or professionally, along their chosen career path.
Typical modules include
Advertising photography
Colour darkroom practice
Curating and participating in exhibitions
Digital Media
Fashion photography
Location photography
Location techniques
Monochrome Darkroom Practice
Press and photojournalism
Studio techniques
Career opportunities

Destinations may include seeking commercial commissions as a photographer in editorial, press, advertising or fashion related fields. Other options are working as a photographic assistant, professional involvement in digital or virtual visual/photographic environments, picture/design agencies or photo libraries. Students may continue in higher education, ‘topping-up’ their HND to an honours degree through a further period of study on a BA (Hons) degree course.

Photography in Europe students will select where they would like to study and prepare by researching and helping to arrange your own exchange (placement officers and course tutors help and advise in this aspect).

The University’s foreign language learning facilities will be available to help students develop their language skills as appropriate.

Year Two
Students will get the chance to try new kinds of photography, extend and develop their skills and begin to identify their line of interest.

The overall focus is on developing individual interest and working towards the degree of choice.

Whether in the UK or abroad, most students undertake some short work experience during this year; recent examples of employers include The Sunday Times, Rankin and Mark George.

Photography in Europe students spend a minimum of 15 weeks studying overseas.

Year Three
Students research and write a topic of choice for dissertation, usually linked to photographic practice and put together a final year degree show.

Graphic Design subjects include digital technology and design, desktop publishing and typology, digital design, design for industry, experimental design, advertising, and competitive design and professional practice work.

Students also undertake a sequence of contextual subjects in history and theory.
Graduation requirements

To graduate, students must satisfactorily complete 240 points (27 subjects) in order to meet the requirements of each of the constituent degrees. Upon completion of the program, students graduate with two awards, the Bachelor of Arts (Photography) and the Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design).