In the final stage of the programme, over the summer term, you will focus on your final Master’s project that gives you the freedom to take your practice in your own individual direction. This is the culmination of the course, and the opportunity for you to develop and exhibit an inquiry-based independent project, that evidences all of the practical, conceptual and professional learning throughout the year.   

You will lead the project, but you will be supported and facilitated throughout the journey, with regular group seminars, 1:1 tutorials and technical support, to help you realise your final outcomes that evidence the depth of your research and your professional skills and expertise.  

We encourage you to think about the dissemination of your work, building relationships with your audience or future customers, and developing your online presence or personal brand. You will also be supported in perfecting a professional portfolio that serves your ambitions for the future, whether that be applications for jobs in the creative industries, critical art practice, freelance design, exhibitions, grant or residency applications, further postgraduate study or an application to undertake research at PhD level.  

The MA culminates in a group showcase and catalogue, in which you will consider the professional and public presentation of your final projects, working together to design and promote a public event and publication that celebrate the end of your postgraduate studies, and which mark your next step towards your creative future.  

Past Independent Major Projects have included: authored visual publications; visual storybooks; graphic novels; diverse animations; children’s book and book illustration projects; digital campaigns; performances and experimental workshops; magazine concepts; participatory installations; social campaigns; interactive designs; charity campaigning; projects developed for augmented and virtual reality technologies; projects making use of artificial intelligence; experimental illustration and animation practices.  

The course provides you with a dedicated context to develop a bespoke strategy for your professional development, including applying for opportunities such as work experience, finding mentorships, residencies, or internships, helping you to develop industry contacts, build your CV, develop your creative portfolio, and to prepare you for work in a variety of roles in the cultural and creative industries, as well as establishing an independent creative practice.   

Our collaboration with industry partner, Hearst UK, is a distinctive feature of the second term of the course. Through an initial series of industry-related talks, curated by Hearst, and open to all students, Hearst employees provide invaluable perspectives on employment in the post-pandemic creative industries. Then, each year sees a different department at Hearst setting a competitive creative brief, resulting in an invitation to our MA students to pitch their creative responses to the brief in one of the boardrooms at House of Hearst, in Central London. A panel of Hearst creatives selects their favourite responses, and the shortlisted students then progress to a second stage of scheme, during which some time is spent at Hearst, working on a project. The final stage is the opportunity to apply for a paid internship at Hearst.  

Whilst the scheme is not a guarantee of further engagement with Hearst, previous students have gone on to further work experiences with Hearst across departments at Esquire, ELLE, Red, and ELLE Ukraine, Digital Spy, the Hearst Accreditation teams, as well as other departments. These experiences, and the perspectives arising from them, have helped previous students develop lasting professional contacts.  

Students may additionally identify their own limited period of work experience whilst on the course, during Study Block 2, which then forms the basis for the writing of a professional context report. This is also a means of developing working relationships with potential industry partners. For example, an MA student who recently developed a Professional Context report on the subject of NFTs and cryptocurrency used the experience to obtain a graphic design job at Wyre, a company providing crypto infrastructure for the New Economy.  

In addition, you will gain insight into industry through competitions, external projects and opportunity to engage in live briefs. Our art & design collaborations with the University of Cambridge provide unique opportunities for our students to engage with a range of opportunities to add this prestigious educational context to their CVs. Successful application to the Cambridge Creative Encounters scheme sees MA students receiving funding for developing art and design collaborations with University of Cambridge researchers. Our programme of Visiting Lecturers has included innovative professionals working across art and design, including Professor Timotheus Vermeulen; Futurologist Anne-Lise Kjaer; Inter-disciplinary fine artist, Alison Gibb; Elana Jeeaoo, Senior Visual Designer at Zoe; and Rifke Sadleir and Dan Baragwanath of DXR Zone, to name but a few. 

Your position as an emerging Illustrator and/or Animator will be strengthened through Creative Futures, in which you will work alongside other MA students to explore art and design in a social context, exploring the critical, technological, environmental, geopolitical and ethical issues that impact on contemporary creative practice—and the ways in which artists and designers today are responding to the challenges we face today, while speculating about what tomorrow may bring.  

As part of this module, you will have the opportunity apply for a period of work experience (including a competitive opportunity offered by our partner Hearst Magazines UK). Alternatively, you will identify a professional context relevant to your ambitions, designing a professional or industry-facing project around your own emerging creative practice. Through building on your engagement with the contemporary professional practice of your discipline and the exploratory projects you have completed, you will develop the confidence to finalise the development of a proposal for your final Master’s project, to be realised in Study Block 3.