Who are we and what do we do? The MA Communication Design: Illustration course encourages the exploration and understanding of the methods and processes at work in contemporary visual communication. It aims to further develop the students’ personal practice and approach to the making of images. The course also provides a focus on individual research and inquiry and helps you to understand the significance of the wider cultural role of the visual designer and illustrator. In addition, it will introduce disciplinary and interdisciplinary models of thinking that will underpin your own focused study on the course.
Designing Research
Visual Storytelling: Narrative and Sequence
Designing Research lectures and seminars are designed to enable students to rationalise and focus on thematic approaches to problem finding and problem solving. This module will teach you to make practical use of your ideas, perceptions and discoveries; and work effectively and creatively in a wider inter-disciplinary and cultural context.
This module encourages you to look critically at the role of storytelling within the practice of communication design, in particular the relationship between narrative and sequential thinking using visual means. The module allows you to develop your individual practice whether you are focused on the creation of content as a key aspect of your making or whether you situate your practice in relation to the interpretation and adaptation of existing ‘texts’ and content in the act of storytelling. It is also the understanding of the history of visual storytelling and the diverse approaches to narrativity and seriality that are influenced by culture, language and technology.
Visual Grammar, Literacy and Intelligence This module explores the fundamental and underpinning aspects of communication design and the key skills related to visual thinking and is intended to introduce you to the expected ways of working whilst undertaking study on the course. The module places an emphasis on the nature of individual enquiry and the process of questioning. The focus during this first module is upon visual grammar and how the essential elements of visual communication are related to the relationships between objects, patterns, and processes: the manner in which things relate to each other and the viewer/user.
Creative Futures
The Major Project
This module builds on the notion that the best jobs and careers in the creative industries do not exist – and that they are created from individual creative ambitions and understanding. It explores how this can be approached in practical terms. The programme of study encourages you to develop a personal and critical approach to your future career and its relationship to the development of their individual major project.
The Major Project – the capstone project – consolidates the knowledge gained in earlier modules and is informed and supported by prior learning within both the Design School’s postgraduate interdisciplinary framework and course specific specialist study. The purpose of this module is to enable students to relate the work of the course to a practical solution and to demonstrate skills in defining, analysing and developing a substantial solution to an individually defined design related problem. It will demonstrate both in content and form the students advanced understanding of contemporary design practice.
You will learn about a range of practical methods that can help you create the foundations of a sustainable and successful design practice and career. Lectures, seminars and workshops will introduce and explore key issues that help you understand how to develop your own approach to professional career planning. You will also engage in a range of activities that include professional competitions, live project work, studio visits and professional practice lectures. This work will support and inform the development of your Major Project Proposal.
Three possible forms of Major Project submission are available to students: - The Practical Project| Practical (outcome supported by research, testing and developmental materials) 70% and The Project Report (3-5,000 words) 30%. -The Thesis| (12-15,000 words) 100%. -The Design Management Project Report| (10,000 words) 100%.
Kyoung mi Ahn Transfigured garden www.kyoungmiahn.com “In terms of formal aspects, I wanted to use various perspectives as previously mentioned, and in terms of content I wanted to illustrate solitary, bizarre, and romantic atmosphere, somewhat like ‘American Gothic’. But I did not want it to be overemotional.”
Daniela Viçoso Ferreira Infante http://danielavicoso.tumblr.com/ ‘O Infante’ is a one-shot graphic novel by Daniela Viçoso Ferreira. A young prince (the Infante, his noble title) is assigned a young squire around his age to protect and serve him as a child. The boys grow together, and despite their different status and backgrounds, end up falling in love with each other. ‘O Infante’ takes visual inspiration from Portuguese history, and evokes the Japanese ‘boy’s love’ genre. It’s a story that takes place between fantasy and reality, about things that are bigger than ourselves.
Berry Songmin Kim Fake Life www.berrykim.com In Gangnam (the city in South Korea) everything has lost its purity and nature. Everything exists for humans to show off with artificial beauty. From these points, I had a clear concept of one space, a ‘building’ and the situations within it. Pretentious cultures, shops and stores are housed in buildings in Gangnam; they symbolize many things and the inside of the building symbolizes a city as well. Through the setting of each floor and situation, I express the utopia and dystopia of a ‘fake life’. I believe ‘there is nothing more valuable than pure mind, clear self, passion, having dreams and individuality.’
Jessamy Hawke Drawn to the Land http://www.jessamyhawke.co.uk ‘Drawn to the Land’ is an illustrated journey into the English landscape, exploring our relationship with place. The project aims to connect poems about rural landscapes with their original locations, using walking to engage with each environment and drawing to capture each landscape’s sense of place, to connect the poet’s experience in the past with my experience as an illustrator in the present.
Minkung Shin Robot Labours A series of images devised as part of the narrative module using a trip around East London as a starting point. The story tells the tale of Automaton ‘K’ an ordinary labour robot who falls in love with a female street junk seller. Our protagonist discovers his robotic love interest dismembered and discarded down an allyway shortly after meeting her and vows to get revenge on her killer.
Amy O’Hanlon The Robot Kid https://aeohanlon.carbonmade.com Sometimes, being sad isn’t tears with runny noses and blotchy faces. Sometimes, being sad doesn’t look or even feel like sadness. Sometimes, being sad is feeling lost, or alone. It’s being angry, or frustrated, or depressed. It’s feeling like you’re not normal, or that there’s something wrong with you. Sometimes, being sad feels like nothing. The Robot Kid by Amy O’Hanlon is an illustrated story about someone who is experiencing grief for the first time, and hopes to emulate and empathise with those who know loss.
Jimin Kim Hyde & Seek http://jiminkimpicturebook.com/ According to psychologist Jung, a human personality cannot be defined as a single image, which means that human personality is a cluster of multiple personalities. The theme of ‘Hyde and Seek’ is based on this idea. When it comes to the visual aspect, it builds on the idea that, throughout our lives, we can’t see ourselves as someone else sees us - we can only see ourselves through a mirror. The room of mirrors is a metaphor of a world, which surrounds us. In there, we can come across alter egos of us. Sometimes they are weird, strange and unfamiliar. I want to show a journey to meet these strangers in our mind through my work ‘Hyde and Seek’, as if exploring some kind of abandoned and desolated amusement park.
Yan Liu Who Kill The Girl? Female infanticide/foeticide is a long-term issue in China, and is the main reason for China’s high sex ratio, with negative consequences emerging in recent years. This project explores gender inequality, specifically female infanticide in China. By making these four double-sided illustrations, I want to visually present the results of my research to my audience. There are non-linear narratives across the four illustrations, each based on the same subject matter and individually depicting the typical treatment of a girl. Also, the front and back of each illustration presents the ideal life and reality respectively.
Hearim Kim The Inner ‘What do you look for in people? Are you sometimes curious to see what another person’s inner world looks like?’ My book is about one’s dream in a chronological order. I picked some of the more interesting dreams that my dear friend had from May to June of 2015. According to Carl Jung, one’s inner world is based on his or her experiences in the past. The past experiences that were re-analysed and processed in his unconscious mind are portrayed in my work. Let’s take a journey!
Mio Im Penguin Design Award 2015 http://cargocollective.com/MioIm As part of the Creative Futures module students were tasked with designing a book jacket for the Penguin Design Award. The project involved assessing the market to analyse the book’s demographic as well as current trends in book design. On studying the text the students then produced developed and came up with an entry into the competition.
Laura Haines Counterfactual Textbook www.laurahaines.com Unbuilt plans, discarded ideas, and the unexecuted offer an insight into a different history. The alternate can tell us a lot about the zeitgeist of an era, helping to clarify how events have shaped the present and how they might design the future. What would the world be like if we engineered our evolutionary path? Utilising the universal language of science this piece discusses how truth can be visually communicated through illustration. Although the contents of the counterfactual textbook ‘Genetic Revolution’ are fabricated, the reality is that controlling our DNA, growing organs, and selecting genetic traits are all closer to becoming science fact rather than science fiction.
Soo Cho Being http://chosooillustration.com The starting point of this project was the curiosity provoked by hidden faces and emotions behind masks. We occasionally wear social masks to adjust to the society and maintain a good relationship with others. However, there is a danger that masks can be mistaken by ourselves as our true faces, then we could lose our real self. The picture book ‘Being’ is about a person who loses his face after wearing social masks and struggles to find his real face.
Hila Zwergel The Imaginers www.zwergimix.com The Imaginers is a digital bok which focuses on histories most inspiring female heroes. Heroic imagery has long adorned canvas and poster for reasons as varied as patriotism and paernalism, power and ego. The heroic image has considerable sway over public perception. By presenting a human side for these women I was hoping to show a fresh way to look at heroes and hopefully to facilitate a discussion about or society’s value.
Patrick Murphy Penguin Design Award 2015 http://www.patrickmurphydesign.com “This was my entry for the 2015 Penguin competition. I was tasked to redesign a book cover for Carrie’s war, a story which involved two children and their journey amongst the backdrop of World War Two and Operation Pied Piper.”
Nata Joh When They Are Gone http://natajoh.com A young little girl, Fei-Fei, lives with a small friend in a town where people have depended heavily upon creatures. These little creatures are everywhere, so people don’t mind using them for anything and everything they need. That is, until they all suddenly disappear one day, and no one knows how or why. Fei-Fei’s little friend is the only creature who remains in the town. When people start to covet the only creature left, Fei-Fei runs away with her little friend. Nature is everywhere, but that doesn’t mean that all is eternal. This is the story about the relationship between nature and people.
Awards Association of Illustration Nata Joh: AOI New Talent Award Winner 2015 Hila Zwergel: AOI New Talent Shortlisted 2015 Kyung Lee: A OI New Talent Shortlisted 2015 Cheltenham Illustration Awards Hila Zwergel: Shortlisted Penguin Design Award Mio Im: Carries War Shortlisted 2015 YCN Student Awards Cindy Wei-Ying Chen: Commendation 2015 AmadoraBD comic festival Daniela Ferreira: First Prize
Course Contact p.postle@kingston.ac.uk http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduatecourse/communication-design-illustration-ma/ Design by Laura Haines