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Illustration BA and Illustration (Top-Up) BA Welcome Pack

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Welcome to Illustration BA and Illustration (Top-Up) BA – September 2026.

​​​Hello, and a warm welcome!

​We’re excited to meet you in person during Welcome Week, which begins on Monday, 21 September at 10am.

You’re joining a vibrant course at a supportive, future-focused University that’s committed to helping you develop the skills needed to thrive professionally.

We’ve recently refined the course to better reflect the evolving expectations of the creative industries, ensuring your degree is both relevant and highly valued by employers. You’ll also benefit from shared learning experiences with Graphic Design students, giving you a broad creative foundation and the chance to work in a dynamic, cross-disciplinary environment – just like in real-world design studios.

​Our graduating students this year have already had some great successes including shortlisting for the Penguin Cover Design Award and international client commissions as part of their Portfolio work!

​Our Illustration course takes an expanded approach, placing storytelling at the heart of what we do. Over the next three years, you’ll explore diverse ways of engaging through imagery – whether to inform, persuade, entertain, or inspire. Through research, experimentation, and purposeful play, you’ll develop your own distinct creative voice. You’ll also gain hands-on experience with a wide range of media, software, and workshop tools to support your individual approach to problem-solving and image-making.

We’re passionate about providing rich, real-world experiences and meaningful challenges. Working alongside fellow students, lecturers, and industry professionals in our studio spaces, you’ll grow your creativity, collaborate on exciting projects, and explore what illustration means to you. We can’t wait to see what you’ll create!

​During Welcome Week you’ll spend a few days in the studios getting to know your tutors and peers. You’ll learn more about your course, the support available at the university and what it means to be studying here. We’ll familiarise you with the wider campus and resource areas and can help with any settling in issues. It should be a fun week!​​

Your Course Leader

Zoe Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Illustration

Zoe Taylor

Senior Lecturer in Illustration

zoe.taylor@northampton.ac.uk 

 

If you have any questions at all or want to meet online to have a chat, please do not hesitate to contact me at  Zoe.Taylor@northampton.ac.uk 

Additional staff

  • Louise Bird, Senior Lecturer BA Illustration
  • Chris Gibbs, Senior Lecturer BA Illustration
  • Jamie Sutcliffe, Visiting Lecturer, Critical Studies
  • Mengxia Liu, Visiting Lecturer, BA Illustration
  • Daniel Chehade, Visiting Lecturer, Professional Studies
  • Paul Hill, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader BA Graphic Design
  • James Smith, Senior Lecturer BA Graphic Design
  • Emily Marlow, Studio Technician
  • AJ Jackson, Studio Technician
  • Alex Taylor, Head of School
  • Lorraine-Marie James, Academic Librarian for Illustration

Welcome and Induction sessions

This is your induction timetable with an in-person studio session starting on Monday 21 September. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Zoe on Zoe.Taylor@northampton.ac.uk

Monday 21 September 2026

Session: Campus tour for new students, meet the team and studio/programme introduction. You will be with us all day in our studio CH102, with an afternoon workshop.

  • Time: 10am – 4pm (BST)
  • Location: CH102, First Floor, Creative Hub, Waterside campus
Bring an image or artefact that inspires you (e.g. book, record cover or printed image.

Tuesday 22 September

Session: Transition to University, personal tutorials, social

  • Time: 10am – 4pm (BST)
  • Location: CH102, First Floor, Creative Hub, Waterside campus

Studio discussion and tutorials AM. Local trip or picnic in the afternoon, weather permitting. Tutorial times will be confirmed in the introduction session on Monday 22 September.

Wednesday, 23 September 2026

Session: Studio & Library Induction

  • Time: 10am (BST) onwards
  • Location: CH103, First Floor, Creative Hub, Waterside campus

Studio and library inductions. Exact times and where to meet for these inductions to be confirmed in the Welcome session on campus on Monday 21 September. Personal tutorials continued.

All activates and dates are subject to change and any changes will be communicated to you asap.

Preparation and Pre-arrival tasks

On 21 September, we’d love for you to bring along a printed image that inspires you or represents your favourite example of illustration. This could be anything visual – an illustration, artwork, graphic design, photograph, or even an object or artifact – just something that really speaks to you creatively.

Equipment

We will talk through what equipment you will need more during the face-to-face session on 22 September, but to get you going you will need:

  • SD card for using Digital cameras – needed for photo inductions
  • Memory Stick, External Hard Drive or cloud storage
  • A3 or A4 sketchbook – not wirebound, black or brown paper
  • Note pad
  • Stationery – Pencils, fine liners etc
  • A core kit of art materials; paints, range of soft drawing pencils (e.g 8b, 6b,3b) and additional materials appropriate to your chosen ways of working e.g. coloured pencils, oil pastels…
  • Brush pen in black
  • Swann scalpel and blades
  • Scissors
  • Laptops and power cable (if you have one – don’t worry if not, we have MacBooks you can borrow when in our studio). If you are looking to get a computer, we teach on and use Apple MacBooks – this tends to be the industry standard, although Windows based laptops are fine too.
  • If you are considering buying a device of your own a Wacom Cintiq or equivalent is a better option than an iPad and similar price. They are also compatible with Adobe software that you will be using on the course (iPads aren’t).
Reading lists