MA Illustration

Apply now:

September 2025

Currently reading: Course overview

Starts: Sept 2025
Duration: FT 1 year
Mode: Full-time
Fees: UK: £9,750 (2025-26) / INT: £18,000 (2025-26)

Ideal for...illustrators who want to diversify their professional practices through exploring narrative communication techniques

Bring knowledge to life.

Our Illustration master's degree course will help you to engagingly convey complex information to effectively tell stories. Experimenting with an array of storytelling and narrative methods, you will master the roles of illustration and how to take advantage of immersive technologies.

In a recent survey, our postgraduate courses scored 91% student satisfaction for creativity and design, and 93% satisfaction overall*

*Source: Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey, 2020

Student work

Colourful characters with speech bubbles. "If you eat all your broccoli you can have an ice cream".

hand drawn with words and phrases about sugar rush like "What goes up, must come down" and "sugar rush".

Drawings of fluff cats, clouds and stormy skies and winding string.

Sketches of characters and pages from a graphic novel.

Digital sketch and photomontage of a female figure. The photomontage has black bird wings and feathers for her hair with eyes in her clothes and the digital art is a lady held up by puppet strings.

16 colourful illustrations of nuns, churches, hills and driving in California.

A collection of sketches, figures posing and putting on lipstick.

Sketches of a landscape with mountains and trees.

Children's story book covers. titled, "The third little pig built a fortress" and "Goldilocks is a troublemaker".

Why study this Illustration master's degree?

Embrace the natural storyteller in you
Explore cutting-edge storytelling and narrative methods
Augment your understanding of immersive illustration technologies
Supercharge your illustration business
Tap into exceptional industry connections.

Throughout your MA Illustration course in London, you will explore the roles of illustration today and its wide-ranging professional applications moving forward. You will experiment across narrative and storytelling methods, which will enable you to present and reposition information in a strategic, accessible and engaging fashion.

You will examine complex knowledge, data and information and bring it to life with empathy, which will free you to tell stories that need to be told and ensure that no message is lost in translation.

Join the new MA Illustration course where creative minds prosper. By taking on consultancy and organisational roles, as well as developing your own illustration practice, this master's programme is designed to make you truly industry ready.

Teaching sessions for this course will take place Monday to Friday between 9am and 9pm. As such, the course may include some evening teaching.

I was drawn to Ravensbourne because it was clear that they value interdisciplinary practices and collaboration. I feel inspired and supported by their creative and innovative stance within the industry. The MA Illustration course has been a space to discover how I work and how I can bring intention to what I do.”

—

Sila Sobaci , MA Illustration student

Key study topics

How creative narrative and storytelling methods can be used to make complex information accessible
Expanded models of professional illustration, including collaborative, interdisciplinary, facilitation and commercial practices
The use of illustration to foster community, facilitate dialogue, witness and document human experience and knowledge
Illustration as a distinctive empathetic, intersubjective communication discipline operating with specific behaviours, mechanisms and principles
The expansive application of illustration to communicate and transfer knowledge across disciplines and professional fields, with an emphasis on social practice
How to develop your creative practice with exposure to different methods of traditional and digital illustration and physical production
Explore storytelling techniques using immersive technologies to engage mass audiences
Experiment with how narratives can be told across media and platforms in linear, nonlinear, interactive, participatory and immersive ways

Meet the tutors

Tony Branch

BA Hons, PGCE (Dist), MA (Dist)

José García Oliva

BA(Hons), MA (Distinction)

The specifics

Programme specification

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A lower second-class honours (a 2:2, or equivalent non-UK qualifications) or higher in a relevant subject, or an equivalent professional qualification in a related subject. You will also need to submit a copy of your Curriculum Vitae (CV)/Resume.

If you are applying directly from an undergraduate degree course without experience or professional practice, you must be able to demonstrate a good knowledge of your chosen subject area.

International

If you have international qualifications, please view our entry requirements per country. Along with your academic qualifications, you will also need to submit a copy of your Curriculum Vitae (CV)/Resume.

In order to be eligible for this course, you will need to be a competent speaker and writer of English. If you require a Student Visa you need to provide us with an IELTS or equivalent English language qualification, which demonstrates a minimum of 6.0 (with a minimum of 5.5 in each sub test) or CEFR Level B2 in each component. Please read the English Language requirements or contact [email protected] for more information.

Selection criteria

We welcome suitably-qualified applicants who are able to demonstrate a good level of skills in areas associated with this subject. To get a holistic view of your ability and aptitude to succeed on the course, we will also consider your enthusiasm and interest in the subject area, how you manage the creative process, previous study and your professional skill-set.

Applications are welcome from a wide range of backgrounds and experience including from students who may not necessarily possess formal academic qualifications. It is important that applicants can demonstrate an aptitude for learning and continued professional development through a research-led approach.

Whether you are a UK resident or an international applicant, you will need to apply directly to Ravensbourne via our Online Applicant Portal. Each course and mode option has a unique link to apply.

Simply select and click your chosen start date and mode via the 'Apply now' drop down at the top of this page, and you will be directed to the appropriate page inside the portal.

Learn more: how to apply for a postgraduate course

We want to know why you chose the UK as your study destination, what attracted you to Ravensbourne and the course, and how it relates to or fits in with your plans for the future. We love to hear people's motivations and aspirations, so please make your personal statement, 'personal'.

Using a minimum of 500 words, please use your personal statement to explain:

Why you chose the UK as your study destination (if you are an international student)
What attracted you to Ravensbourne University London and the specific course you are applying for
Your experiences and interests
What you hope to gain from the course
What you hope to do after graduating
Any relevant work experience

To prepare for your academic interview, please make sure you review your portfolio, CV, and personal statement. It is important that you know why you would like to study the course / programme and how this course can benefit you in the future. It is also worth doing researching a current industry that inspired you to do this course. Lastly, you should think about your aims or your area for research in both theory and practice if accepted on the Master's course. This is also a good opportunity for you to ask questions that you may have about the course.

Your portfolio can be accepted as a PDF uploaded to the applicant portal, or as a weblink. This should be a portfolio of work containing 6-8 final design solutions with accompanying research materials / sketches. We are looking for applicants that can demonstrate their creative thinking and problem-solving abilities as well as their technical skillsets within their work. Your portfolio must include only work that you have created and where any group projects are submitted you should identify your role in the project. Your portfolio should be a reflection of your journey thus far and also demonstrate your interests and your enthusiasm for your discipline.

You can’t learn in a vacuum, which is why industry connection is ingrained into everything we do. Ravensbourne University London will equip you for success in the creative and digital industries. Our tutors are respected academics and practitioners with substantial experience and industry links, while our suite of postgraduate courses has been designed with industry, for industry.

You will be part of a diverse community of creatives, working collaboratively to explore new professional practices. Ravensbourne have strong industry links with a range of high-profile companies, including: Apple, Barclays, the BBC, European Space Agency, Marks & Spencer, Museum of London, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Samsung and many more.

EventsHub

The EventsHub is a flexible space designed to house various industry-facing lectures, presentations, events, launches, promotions, showcases, exhibitions and short courses for Ravensbourne, the local community and across the Design District.

The Workshop

Ravensbourne’s prototyping facilities are designed to enable and support experimentation and exploration of materials and making through hi-tech, lo-tech and no-tech facilities. This includes 3D printing, large-format digital print, laser cutting and vacuum forming, Arduino and Raspberry Pi coding and workshop hand-tools.

CreativeLab

CreativeLab is Ravensbourne’s own in-house design and media production studio. Working across creative commercial projects, not-for-profit third-sector briefs and internal design and content requirements, CreativeLab combines professional design expertise with employment opportunities on projects for our students and graduates.

We very much welcome applicants from outside the UK. For information on study routes, visa requirements, studying in England, language and entry requirements, application requirements and access to international agents, please visit our international student section.

Quick links:

19 January 2021

Ravensbourne celebrates illustration book launch

Commercial • 6 August 2020

Ravensbourne named one of the best universities for postgraduate study

"I have the chance to share ideas with inspiring people from around the world. Being guided towards a deeper comprehension of my own methodology as an illustrator has helped me to understand how I perceive, think and illustrate. It has been about exploring what I can do and growing in a more unique way.””

—

Sila Sobaci , MA Illustration student

In the media

Article cover. Emma Cheesman’s Shortlisted Artwork 'Summer Days' to the left of the Article. Two colourful figures in the forefront are eating and drinking. The London Skyline features in the background.

Interested?

Apply now