Illustration Animation BA (Hons)

No. 1 in London and Top 5 in the UK for Graphic Design* in the Guardian University Guide 2025 (*covers Graphic Design and Illustration Animation).

The Illustration Animation BA (Hons) - the UK's first degree in Illustration Animation - at Kingston School of Art combines narrative and time-based subjects to give the undergraduate complete creative freedom to engage in visual thinking, expression and communication.

Illustration has expanded from the traditional printed page to explore many forms of visual media including digital objects and interaction, spaces and environments. Animation as a time-based medium allows exploration from traditional to hybrid domains like film and television, and virtual and augmented reality.

We celebrate the cross-pollination of ideas and skills through the hybrid nature of the course. You'll benefit from dedicated studio spaces and the opportunity for collaboration between illustration and animation.

Built around drawing, the course is carefully structured to develop your individual voice, applying content to image communication to reach an audience.

We encourage learning through making and you will have access to all workshops to test and prototype using any process from etching to ceramics, arc welding to laser cutting, and 3D printing or large-scale textile printing.

The course includes self-initiated and group work assignments and presentations encouraged through self-reflective and critical discourse, individual practice is built and tested by peer group interaction. This breadth ensures students develop the range of skills essential to contemporary practice in all forms of applied image making.

Projects with industry, cultural and social institutions test and shape student understanding in real-world situations. Staff practitioners and alumni networks offer insight and contacts with international creative practice, including studio visits and placements.

The course has an excellent reputation for nurturing graduates who go on to be leading practitioners in illustration and animation, as well as design, direction and a broad range of creative careers.

After you graduate

Careers and progression 

Our graduates are employed worldwide in roles such as freelance illustration and image makers for magazines and newspapers; book publishers; film and TV production companies; and by advertising and design groups.

Some pursue careers in animation, games, multimedia, special effects and design for film and TV; others pursue postgraduate study in the UK or overseas.

Exceptional achievements by Kingston School of Art students mean our students enjoy a reputation for innovation and creativity. Achievements include awards from BAFTA, Design and Art Direction Student Awards, the Macmillan Prize, the Penguin Student Design Award, the World Illustration Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards.

Examples of recent graduate destinations 

Illustration Animation graduates have gone on to the following roles:

• 3D artist 
• Advertising art director 
• Animator 
• Artist 
• Artist freelance 
• Advertising campaign planner 
• Design manager 
• Gallery coordinator 
• Graphic designer 
• Illustrator 
• Landscape artist 
• Marketer 
• Printmaker 
• Production assistant 
• Publishing assistant 
• Visual artist  
• Employers 

Illustration Animation graduates have been employed by the following organisations:

• Accessorize 
• BBC
• Central Academy of Fine Arts
• Disney UK
• Financial Times
• Foster + Partners 
• GMTV
• Haymarket Media Group UK
• London Print Studio
• Media.com 
• OKIDO magazine 
• Oxford Press 
• Paul Holland 
• Sony Computer Entertainment Europe 
• The Walt Disney Company Ltd 
• Tussauds Studios
• Wimbledon School of Art