As a creative discipline, Illustration at RISD is first defined by communicative purpose, not by media or technique. While illustrators employ the same tools used in painting, photography, film, graphic design and other disciplines, they convey specific meaning and messages through imagery, beyond learning how to handle paint, pixels and pencils.

In our department we’re concerned with the poetic relationship between ideas and images—we try to encourage the most eloquent and incisive pictorial solutions to visual communication problems. Since the tools and media that illustrators use constantly evolve, our objective is to offer a broad-based curriculum that coaxes from our students very dynamic and evocative message-making.

Learn more about the Illustration Department