BFA Illustration

Illustration student work will demonstrate:

• Disciplinary knowledge and skills:
  An understanding of illustration principles by producing work that effectively utilizes observational drawing, narrative and storytelling, color theory, and composition to create compelling images that respond to specific briefs or prompts.
• Proficiency in industry-standard skills, technologies, and processes:
  The ability to create professional-level illustration projects using current industry software and hardware tools, successfully execute production workflows across both physical and digital media, and demonstrate adaptability by mastering emerging technologies as they're introduced to the field.
• Cross-disciplinary awareness and practice:
  Interdisciplinary competence by successfully collaborating with others from diverse fields such as graphic design, film, 2D and 3D animation, sculpture, concept art, visual development, art direction and creative direction, incorporating client and audience feedback into their illustrations, and synthesizing knowledge from liberal arts coursework into comprehensive capstone projects. The ability to exchange ideas and skills with communities outside of the discipline.
• Audience-focused research, historical context and field-specific discourse:
  The ability to produce illustration artifacts that incorporate diverse research findings, addresses specific audience needs, and a critical awareness of historical precedents. Projects will showcase the ability to articulate how their work relates to its cultural context and contributes to contemporary cultural discourse, resulting in informed visual communications that extend beyond aesthetic considerations.
• Capacity to identify and solve creative problems:
  The ability to effectively articulate and make clear abstract ideas using the skills and techniques of the illustration discipline, and demonstrate iterative problem-solving through multiple refined compositions that respond to feedback and evolving requirements.

Illustration student work will demonstrate:

• Innovation
  The ability to create images that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, producing work that strategically integrates multiple mediums and media, and demonstrates original approaches to visual communication challenges that extend beyond conventional illustration practices.
• Experimentation and play
  An ability to implement original methodologies in their illustration practice, as evidenced by exploratory prototypes, unexpected visual solutions, and illustration artifacts that demonstrate creative innovation outside of established image-making formulas. 
• Challenge to the status quo
  Work that contributes new perspectives to the field, utilizing emerging technologies and innovative methods that advance their illustration practice, with projects that question established conventions and offer viable alternatives.
• Bravery in their work and their interactions with others
  The ability to effectively translate complex abstract concepts into compelling visual form, confidently present and defend their formal choices to diverse audiences, and demonstrate resilience when receiving critical feedback by responding thoughtfully while maintaining their creative vision.

Illustration student work will demonstrate:

• Self-awareness
  The ability to position their work within the historical and contemporary landscape of illustration, demonstrating through reflection on how their image-making approaches relate to established traditions while developing their unique visual voice.
• Capacity to communicate (orally, written, and/or visually) about their practice
  The ability to effectively articulate their formal decisions through presentations, written materials, and visual documentation that clearly convey complex ideas to diverse audiences, including both illustration professionals and to those outside the field.
• Capacity to seek, assemble, evaluate, and ethically apply information and ideas from diverse sources
  The ability to research, evaluate, and ethically integrate ideas, information, and feedback from diverse sources and stakeholders, demonstrating the ability to synthesize this content through the illustration process to create contextually relevant and informed work.
• Analysis of both ethical and aesthetic impacts of art and design
  An ability to critically evaluate and take responsibility for the ethical and aesthetic impacts of their decisions, producing work that demonstrates conscious consideration of social, cultural, and environmental implications, and articulating how their choices as illustrators influence various communities and contexts.

Illustration student work will demonstrate:

• Understanding of themselves as parts of a larger whole made up of human and non-human beings
  An awareness of ecological and systemic relationships, creating projects that visibly consider the impact on human and non-human entities, and documenting how their image-making choices address interconnectedness through material selection, production methods, and conceptual frameworks.
• Awareness of positionality – in the world, their field, their communities
  An ability to articulate how their illustration work relates to broader societal contexts, creating projects that demonstrate conscious consideration of their cultural positioning, historical influence, and responsibility to various communities, with evidence of how this awareness shapes their formal decisions.
• Ability to work well, collaborate, and build relationships across differences in identity, perspective, aesthetics and disciplines
  An ability to engage in projects with partners from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and perspectives, demonstrating effective communication strategies, mutual respect for differing viewpoints, and the ability to synthesize varied aesthetic approaches into cohesive solutions that benefit from these differences.
• Integration of skills, information, and concepts
  A practice which combines technical craft excellence, theoretical understanding, and research, producing work that responds to cultural shifts through documented iterative processes that show the evolution of their thinking and adaptability to changing contexts.

Illustration student work will demonstrate:

• Ability to define aspirations, future goals and their role within the creative economy
  The ability to develop a comprehensive strategy that identifies specific professional pathways in the illustration field, demonstrated through articulated short and long-term goals aligned with current industry demands and their personal creative strengths.
• Awareness of audience and ability to cultivate relationships with others in their chosen fields
  The ability to engage and establish sustained connections with practitioners in their chosen specialization, demonstrated through successful outreach, collaboration, and the creation of illustration work that resonates with contemporary professional illustration practices.
• Compelling presentation and exhibition skills, through Annual Exhibition, Capstone, and portfolios
  The ability to frame and present their work through multiple formats, creating cohesive narratives that effectively communicate their intent within the context of our Annual Exhibition, Capstone, and portfolio reviews that meet industry standards for professional presentation.
• Proficiency in budgeting, time and project management
  The ability to complete illustration projects within defined constraints, demonstrated through documented project plans that include timeline management and budgeting.
• Career readiness, as evidenced by strong interpersonal skills, self-advocacy, adaptation, autonomy, initiative, and willingness to both receive and offer feedback
  The ability to showcase and explain their practice to an external audience both within and outside the discipline of Illustration, including the ability to articulate their unique value proposition, respond constructively to critical feedback, initiate independent creative solutions, advocate for their formal decisions with evidence-based reasoning, and adapt their communication style to effectively engage with audiences within and external to the field.