Illustrators are visual storytellers. We create symbolic images, narrative scenes, and conceptual pieces that speak every language. Collaborating with creative directors, clients, authors, customers, designers, and editors we solve problems and aesthetically create alternate worlds for our viewers to live in, even if just for a moment.
Our illustration faculty are a diverse professional team who guide the students through a curriculum emphasizing strong concepts, powerful techniques, and visual storytelling. Every instructor is a working professional and submerged in their field. Our instructors attend national conferences and conventions to enhance their skills and knowledge and bring their learnings to the classroom. From our instructors’ experiences in children’s books to concept art to editorial illustrations to comics, we celebrate our range and variety, encompassing the students in the diversity. The Illustration department embraces all mediums, motivating each student to work both traditionally and digitally, each honing their skills and creating their own unique visual voices.
Participation in online community projects, engagement in professional jobs with outside clients, entering Illustration competitions, exceeding the required internships and mentorship program, and the creation of entrepreneur based projects are highly encouraged by the department and enthusiastically embraced by the students. Our student work has been celebrated in student competitions such as the Society of Illustrators, 3×3 magazine, and Spectrum. Our alumni have gone on to be sole proprietor entrepreneurs as well as full time working for numerous gaming and animation companies such as LAIKA.
Students who successfully complete the program will:
Demonstrate the ability to judge, adapt, and incorporate historical and/or contemporary influences and perspectives in their creative and intellectual processes.
Demonstrate a range of traditional and digital skills in the creation of illustrations that are an effective union of concept, medium, and craft.
Demonstrate deliberate and effective communication through an informed and influential visual and verbal language unique to the illustration industry and its related fields.
Engage in the business and practical realities of the illustration industry and its related fields while developing an influential body of work that adheres to appropriate trends and standards.
Teaching Philosophy: Much of what drives my teaching philosophy is derived from my experience in the field; knowing what works and what doesn’t. Being able to separate functional work from the non-functional is essential in today’s fast-paced business climate. Being able to parlay my real-world design experience into effective teaching in the classroom is something that I work continually on. I pride myself as an educator in being able to relay to the students current trends in the industry and how it relates to the educational material being presented.
• Owner of design & illustration studio, Wonderhead Collective
• Instructor, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design
• Produced work for Adidas, Subway, Nike, Wacom, and Intel