Illustration Research is a network of academics and practitioners with the purpose of promoting the cultural significance of illustration, and to create opportunities to share research into and through illustration.
Our sister publication is the peer reviewed Journal of Illustration. Each year we collaborate with cultural and educational institutions to organise a symposium and exhibition. Selected papers and practice-led presentations are published in the journal.

Principal Editor

Dr. Nanette Hoogslag

Anglia Ruskin University

nanette.hoogslag@aru.ac.uk

ISSN: 20520204

Online ISSN: 20520212

First published in 2014

2 issues per volume

Illustration is a rapidly evolving field with an excitingly broad scope. Despite its cultural significance and rich history, illustration has rarely been subject to deep academic scrutiny.


The Journal of Illustration provides an international forum for scholarly research and investigation of a range of cultural, political, philosophical, historical, and contemporary issues, in relation to illustration.


The journal encourages new critical writing on illustration, associated visual communication, and the role of the illustrator as visualiser, thinker, and facilitator, within a wide variety of disciplines and professional contexts.
The aims of the journal are:
To work towards a definition of illustration, and its place in culture and history.
To look at the subject as a form of authorial practice as well as commercially driven profession.
To locate and describe histories of the subject within a wide variety of cultural contexts.
To develop a critical discourse and taxonomies of the subject.
To review current practice through case studies and interviews.
To locate and describe histories of the subject within a wide variety of cultural contexts.
To analyse the cognitive and developmental processes illustrated material stimulates in children and adults.
To explore the issues surrounding illustration as a visual text when it a translation or adaptation from other texts.
o investigate the evolving potential of illustration within new media landscapes.
To explore theoretically and discursively the conjunction of illustration and the ‘literary’.
To investigate the potential for metaphor, iconology and poetics in illustration.
To provide a platform for visual thinking.
Abstracting and Indexing
Design and Applied Art Index (DAAI); European Reference Index for Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS)

All articles are double-blind peer-reviewed in order to maintain the highest standards of scholastic integrity.
Steering Committee
  • Ilgım Veryeri Alaca
    Koç University, Turkey
  • Dr Stephanie Black
    University of Plymouth, UK
  • Dr Sheena Calvert
    University of the Arts London, UK
  • Dr Ari Chand
    University of South Australia, AUS
  • Cecilia Flume
    Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Sweden
  • Dr Jaleen Grove
    Rhode Island School of Design, USA
  • As Prof Rachel Gannon
    Kingston University, UK
  • Adrian Holme
    Camberwell College of Arts, UAL, UK
  • Ksenia Kopalova
    Arts University Bournemouth, UK
  • Desdemona McCannon
    University of Worcester, UK
  • Prof Robyn Phillips-Pendleton
    University of Delaware, USA
  • Dr Carolyn Shapiro
    Falmouth College of Art, University College Falmouth, UK
  • Dr Rachel Emily Taylor
    University of the Arts London, UK
  • Dr Luise Vormittag
    University of the Arts London, UK
  • Jim Walker
    University for the Creative Arts, UK
Contact us
If you have an idea for a collaboration in mind, if you would like to contribute to the website or work together with us, send us an email:
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