Illustrations communicate in a unique visual language. Emerging media greatly expands your career options.
Illustrations add an incredible amount of information and style to any project — in print, digital, interactive and motion environments. They expand and enhance visual storytelling. Illustrations provide visual respite from written language, and they put art into action in the real world, not only inside gaming consoles.
With a rapid uptick of emerging media on top of existing ones, a variety of professions and industries need more illustrations than ever.
At Tyler, you learn foundational illustration skills from rough sketch to refined final images. You also experiment with expanding your creativity through visual problem solving as well as digital tools, techniques and emerging applications — including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
Clearly, professional illustrators need a wide array of knowledge and skills. Tyler fosters a community where all 3 Design and Illustration Department majors share required and elective classes. Being together makes everyone better.
Tyler is unique for creating these cohorts of classmates. Your professors — all established, working creatives — want your coursework to match what happens in creative careers. By working as a professional now, you graduate with a level of maturity that makes you more competitive (and successful) as an independent artist and/or illustration entrepreneur.
Your illustration and emerging media degree offers a lot of flexibility to find and develop skills (and passions) you may not even know you have. We don’t box you in and make you choose a strict path forward. Instead, Tyler’s amazing faculty and advisors help you chart your own road.
In the end, we empower you to build a career that connects your personal artistic voice to public audiences. You develop ideas and skills as the foundation for a vibrant, satisfying professional and creative life — with art at the center.
The Tyler School of Art and Architecture features its own admissions team, who can provide you with the information you need to make the best decision for your educational and career goals.
The BFA in Illustration and Emerging Media at Tyler is STEM designated and combines traditional drawing skills with illustration’s newest uses in digital storytelling. Throughout your coursework and studio practice, you study timeless illustration practices and how to leverage your skills for today’s digital and multimedia environments, including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
Your faculty-mentors teach you to build upon foundational drawing skills while exploring what’s possible with new media. At the same time, you gain confidence and skills in crafting engaging narratives across diverse digital platforms.
Also, you discover and cultivate your unique creative voice. You learn to use your voice and skills in your work and career.
Tyler’s illustration and emerging media degree program encourages both creative exploration and technical proficiency.
Before graduation, you host a portfolio event to showcase your work. Huge plus! Industry professionals and leading companies attend these events, providing opportunities to transition into professional practice.
Tyler teaches you all this so that you graduate prepared for your illustration career or to get into a top-tier graduate degree program.
Tyler gives undergraduates from a variety of majors the opportunity to enhance their education and career options through the exploration of visual storytelling and contemporary media. You study foundational skills in illustration, digital media and narrative techniques. It’s especially popular with students majoring in fine arts, communications, journalism or film, who want to integrate the power of illustration into their work.
When you earn your minor in illustration and emerging media, you boost your resumé and career competitiveness in fields spanning art, design, education, marketing and more. Few people know how to tell compelling stories through imagery. Plus, emerging media is increasingly valuable in today’s hyper-visual world.
Tyler requires illustration and emerging media students to buy and use specific laptops that best run the latest software and better adapt to the ever-changing professional environment.
Creative-thinkers like you collaborate with partners and clients in a variety of professions and industries — not just the creative ones that easily come to mind.
As entrepreneurs and independent artists, our alumni work on fun and rewarding projects like these.
Illustrators expand what’s possible via visual storytelling and communication. They add drama, emotion and action into various narratives across print, digital and motion platforms.
“I think teamwork, adaptability and exploration are at the heart of what we do. We empower students to experiment, push their limits and cultivate the skills necessary to thrive in a dynamic creative environment. By fostering open conversations and providing hands-on experiences with emerging media and technology, I think our program bridges students’ artistic passions with real-world opportunities, equipping them to shape the future of design and illustration.”
"Our program provides a unique, rigorous, and nurturing environment where strong design skills intersect with the art of visual storytelling. Through both traditional and digital media, we guide students in refining their creative voice to craft impactful images that engage with both personal and universal themes, driven by creativity and purpose."
"The creative dexterity of a Tyler student is second to none. Curiosity, talent, and hard work make any experiment an adventure."
"llustrators work with designers out there in the “real world” and so a critical component of the IEM experience at Tyler is the curricular, physical, creative and ideological space it shares with Design. It’s right there in the name."
Tyler’s faculty features professional illustrators and other design pros. Rely on them to guide your coursework, creative development and curiosity in ways that prep you for what comes next.
Tyler highly recommends building your professional skills and gaining work experience through internships.
We host workshops that show you how to find internships via our vast network of alumni and other local connections and to prepare for taking on an internship role. Your future classmates have completed internships at places like these.
Hear from our alumni and current students what they love about Tyler, what they learned, how they grew professionally, and why they remain thankful for the opportunity to study here.
"Coming from a tiny town in Western PA, my time at Tyler was truly transformative."
"Tyler was the 1st school where I felt I truly belonged. I never worked harder in my life and was pushed to be a better designer and illustrator by the amazing teachers and students."
"I was encouraged to create work by hand and that helped hone my skills in lettering and illustration. My sketches were always better than when I tried to work in the computer. I was able to let go of what I thought graphic design was supposed to look like and be myself."
Get a glimpse at the creative minds of your future illustration degree classmates. This gallery of their work showcases the variety of ways to use your skills and the latest technology.
Marcella Macalaga Student
Student
Brenna West Student
Alessander Rojas Student
Naomi Urey Student
Naomi Urey Student
Student
Caroline Duvivier Student
April Finfrock Alumni
Dive deeper into the innovative projects and diverse talents of our students. Discover a wider range of creative work, from cutting-edge designs to thought-provoking concepts, and see how our Tyler creative's are shaping the world around them.
In addition to Tyler’s in-house admissions team, you can contact these illustration and emerging media program leaders.
Program Head of Design + Illustration and Professor
kholohan@temple.edu
Chair of Design + Illustration and Associate Professor
dermot@temple.edu
