BA Hons Illustration or Graphic Design?

[Undies1990]

I'd be grateful for any advice on choosing between Illustration or Graphic Design for the best employment prospects. DD is currently doing a UAL Foundation year which should help her choose her direction, but it hasn't so far!

Also, any recommendations for Uni choices for both of these courses? Falmouth is too far away and my DD doesn't particularly like the big party-orientated lifestyle, if that makes any difference!

Any advice would be welcome - so many choices to make! College wants them to choose their UCAS course and Uni's by end of November!

@Undies1990 , there are lots of threads about this on The Student Room - www.thestudentroom.co.uk . But off the top of my head:
University of Hertfordshire
Bournemouth University
Arts University Bournemouth
Leeds Arts University
Norwich University of the Arts
Brighton
UCA - University for the Creative Arts
UCC - London College of Communication, which is part of UAL
Ravensbourne
Possibly Bath Spa
Camberwell College of Art - part of UAL
Central Saint Martins
Leeds University

Illustrators tend to work freelance and most have another regular job they do alongside their illustration work. A graphic design degree is more flexible and your DD could specialise further at MA level. I did graphic design at Camberwell and many went onto either MA in illustration or graphic design at the Royal College. Others from my course went into film and tv work. I went into magazines and newspapers but switched to digital design when my broadsheet design job got axed at the start of the recession. My old tutor is a course director now at Ravensbourne.

CSM, Camberwell, Ravensbourne all good. Bournemouth good media courses I’ve heard. Good luck to her.

Thank you both for your advice which is incredibly helpful.

If anyone else has any thoughts or advice please do let me know

https://www.worcester.ac.uk/courses/graphic-design-advertising-marketing-ba-hons

Something like this ^^

My Dd1 is doing Communication Design at Glasgow School of Art. It's 1/3 illustration, 1/3 graphic design and 1/3 photography. GSA is a great place and she's really been developing as an artist. It's part of Glasgow Uni but it has its own UCAS code.

Ds is doing his portfolio course just now and hopes very much to get in there. He's also looking at Edinburgh and Dundee.

What A level grades does she have, as this will influence her choice?

DS had offers for Graphic Design from Leeds, Loughorough and Reading. which all have good reputations. Kingston also good.

Have a look at Discover Uni which is a database run by the office of students. The most recent student satisfaction data for academic year 2019-20 has recently been added. The survey window included the early part of the first lockdown so you would expect that to have some impact on responses, but the range of scores for art and design courses between different courses is very striking.

discoveruni.gov.uk/. Here's a link

I personally would combine graphic design and digital media - because that appears to be the way it's going in terms of future career prospects

https://medium.com/swlh/the-death-of-graphic-design-4e830958d8af

I’ve worked in management in digital advertising for 10 years.
Employment wise I would go with Graphic Design. It’s broader and more flexible. She could then specialise in illustration a bit further down the line if she wanted, as a previous poster suggested.

In my experience, a lot of the good permanent and freelance designers I’ve worked with have a couple of strings to their bows eg a digital designer who also does illustration or animation or photography.

Thank you all for your contributions! I thought I would follow up with DD's 5 UCAS choices and thanks to advice on here she's looked for courses covering a broad range of areas such as graphic design, illustration, visual communications, animation etc.

Graphic Design (illustration) at De Montford
Illustration and Visual Communication at UAL
Graphic Communication at Bath Spa
Illustration at Falmouth
Illustration at Bournemouth

Her career path is uncertain but she wants to keep options open as much as possible for opportunities in a creative profession.

If anyone has any experience of the above 5 courses or indeed Uni's, we'd love to hear from you. It's been difficult choosing Uni's without being allowed to go Open Days in person! Thanks again.

@CornflakeMum

What A level grades does she have, as this will influence her choice?

DS had offers for Graphic Design from Leeds, Loughorough and Reading. which all have good reputations. Kingston also good.

A Levels were Modern History, Psychology and Fine Art. Results were BCB.

For GCSE she got A* for Art, otherwise 7's and 8's for core subjects.

She is currently doing a UAL Art foundation year.