Visual Communication
The Library welcomes recommendations from staff and students, provided they are current editions and support the learning, teaching and research interests of the University. Make your request through the Collection Recommendation Service.
- Adbusters
Adbusters is now available online through Flipster, each issue is on a different theme. The latest issue tackles the question of how great nations, organizations, movements, ideas, and historical eras live and thrive — and how they fizzle out and die. - Creative Review
Creative Review is available online, with copies going back to 1980. It comes out bi-monthly, the latest issue is the Annual, which looks back across the best developments in advertising, design and digital from the past year. - 3x3
3x3 is an American contemporary illustration magazine, it features interviews and articles with prominent illustrators.
New Reading List: a reading list of texts on LGBTQA+ has been created by staff in the library, the list has material available in the library on LGBTQ+ in society as well as texts that are more specific to subject areas at UCA.
Graphic Design / Illustration / Animation
| Subject | Shelf Number |
| Advertising | 659.1 |
| Printing / Books | 686 |
| Type & Typography | 686.224 |
| Bookbinding | 686.3 |
| Artists' Books | 702.81 |
| Artists' Drawings | 741.092 |
| Drawing Technique | 741.2 |
| Comics / Graphic Novels | 741.5 |
| Comic Strips / Cartoons | 741.569 |
| Cartoon Animation | 741.58 |
| Graphic Novels | 741.59 |
| Graphic Design | 741.6092 |
| Portfolios/Self-promotion | 741.60688 |
| Illustration | 741.64 |
| Children's Books | 741.642 |
| Posters | 741.674 |
| Animation Techniques | 777.7 |
| Animated Films | 791.4334 |
Journals provide up to date research in your area of study, they may be available in print or electronic format and can be found using LibrarySearch. A list of all current journals can be found using the Journals A-Z, the most relevant are -
- 3x3: the Magazine of Contemporary Illustration
Magazine of Contemporary Illustration - annual featuring work of artists from over 45 countries. - Adbusters
Adbusters magazine is concerned with the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces. Included are incisive philosophical articles and activist commentary, coupled with impact design that seeks to unbound the traditional magazine format - Animation Magazine (Flipster)
covering the animation industry and education, as well as visual effects - Applied Arts Magazine
Applied Arts magazine is the creative industry's look book showcasing innovative creatives around the world. - Communication Arts
Communication Arts is an industry magazine for those working in graphic design, advertising, photography, illustration, typography and interactive multimedia. Each issue is filled with articles and images that take the reader inside the most creative minds of our time. - Creative Review
Focuses on commercial creativity, covering design, advertising, photography, branding, digital products, film and gaming - Edge (Flipster)
The authority on videogame art, design and play - Eye Magazine
Graphic design and visual culture - Journal of Illustration
Cultural, political, philosophical, and contemporary aspects of illustration
Databases bring together specialist collections of articles, images and electronic books. A list of all current databases can be found using the Databases A-Z, the most relevant are -
- Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
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Indexes and provides the full text of journal articles on art, design, advertising, architecture, crafts, interior design, photography, textiles, television and video.
- DAAI - Design and Applied Arts Index This link opens in a new window
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DAAI is the leading source of abstracts and bibliographic records for articles, news items, and reviews published in design and applied arts periodicals. 1973 to present.
- Stash This link opens in a new window
Stash is an online video library of animation, visual effects and motion design from around the world. The site is produced by Stash Media, a Canadian-based company.
- WARC This link opens in a new window
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The World Advertising Research Center is a premier provider of information to the global marketing, advertising, media and research industries. Provides over 45,000 papers, case studies, research reports and statistics and full text access to leading industry publications.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
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Google Scholar is a freely available search tool that helps you to find academic articles and books on the web. It searches publishers’ websites, university research repositories and other kinds of scholarly sites. It provides a broad and interdisciplinary search and includes the ability to track the number of times an article has been cited by other authors as well as direct links to UCA online collections. For more information see - Using Google Scholar.
- Adforum This link opens in a new window
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The AdForum Creative Network is a comprehensive library of over 150,000 award-winning advertisements produced worldwide. Watch, listen and read through the catalogue of television, web radio, and print ads, as well as individual case studies. Ads are sourced from the 36 leading international award shows and over 20,000 agencies worldwide.
- Creative Commons This link opens in a new window
CC Search is a search tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone - providing access to over 3 million images.
- Underground and Independent Comics This link opens in a new window
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The first scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels. 1943 to present.
- Screen Studies This link opens in a new window
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Exceptional collection of award-winning screenplays, critical and contextual books on film from the late nineteenth century to the present, and an interactive timeline of cinema history.
- Gnomon Workshop This link opens in a new window
Online tutorials providing professional-level instruction in design, drawing, sculpting, painting, modeling, lighting, rendering, texturing, rigging, storyboarding, animation, and other areas related to visual effects.
- BoB This link opens in a new window
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BoB is on demand TV and radio service for education which allows staff and students to record programmes from over 75 free-to-air channels; and search our archive of over 2.2 million broadcasts. See - Using BoB to learn more about how to setup and use BoB.
- BFI Player This link opens in a new window
The BFI video on-demand streaming service, showing critically acclaimed classic, cult and archive films.
To create or reactivate an account go to the Academic Subscription Page
See the FAQ for further instructions on creating an account. - Kanopy This link opens in a new window
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Kanopy is a video streaming service with a Netflix-style interface which can be accessed via the link above or using the Kanopy mobile app for Android and iOS.
Login required off campus to watch films (log in with your UCA details to create a Kanopy login). - Stash This link opens in a new window
Stash is an online video library of animation, visual effects and motion design from around the world. The site is produced by Stash Media, a Canadian-based company.
- Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive listing of UK television and radio broadcasts. Selected programmes of value to higher and further education are reviewed. Click the login button and select the University for the Creative Arts from the dropdown - you will then be taken to a login page.
- Creative Boom
This podcast talks with new and established artists, designers, illustrators and photographers about their careers. - Illustration Department Podcast
Giuseppe Castellano talks to folks in illustration, graphic design, publishing, animation, and other creative fields about the ups and downs of their careers. - Nicer Tuesdays
It's Nice That hold a monthly talk with speakers from the creative industries, the podcast series has the recordings from the talks.
- Britannica ImageQuest This link opens in a new window
Over 2.5 million rights-cleared and high quality images from 46 of the world's leading collections.
- Bridgeman Education This link opens in a new window
Bridgeman Education is a complete visual resource offering over 800,000 digital images of art, history and culture from global museums, galleries, private collections and contemporary artists all copyright cleared for educational use.
Archives offer access to rare and unique insight into the work of artists and creators, and often include original letters and artwork. Details of all the collections can be found in the ArchiveSearch, the most relevant for graphic design are -
Artists Books
Are works of art in a book, or book-like form. The appearance and production of the work is determined by the artist as a limited edition.
Digitised front covers can be viewed in ResourceBank
Bob Godfrey Archive
Internationally celebrated animator who founded the Animation programme at UCA Farnham – we hold his scripts, storyboards, correspondence, and animation cels.
A selection of of animations are available on ResourceBank
Business Card Collection
A unique private collection – 240,000 business cards from across the world dating from the mid-nineteenth century demonstrating the development of the business calling card as a medium of advertising.
Foundry Types
Freda Sack and David Quay, the creators of Foundry Types, eight concept designs of NatWest fonts produced pre 2001, showing work in progress and different types of typography.
Kristian Andrews
Animators storyboards and ink drawings from 'Rabbit Punch', an autobiographical film on his life growing up.
A selection of animations are available on ResourceBank
Stuart Hilton
Artwork of an experimental documentary for '6 Weeks in June', 1996. A road animation of 11000 miles around the USA in six weeks in the back of a van with a band, a pen, and a stack of paper.
Tandem Film Daniel Greaves Studios
Animations produced by Tandem Films including ‘Flatworld’ (1997) and ‘Manipulation’ (1991) - this collection consists storyboards, scripts, and artworks.
A selection of animations are available on ResourceBank
Typographic Circle
Poster collection (2008 - 2015). Founded by Maggie Lewis in 1976, Typographic Circle brought together people with an interest in typography and type.
Working Press Archive
Books by and about working class artists and other marginalised groups of artist. Collected by Stefan Szczelkun,1986-1996 - contains correspondence, conference material, publicity, published book collection, pamphlets and zines.
Zines
Are a unique form of self-expression “do it yourself“ magazines. They cover any subject, common themes include feminism, music, politics, activism, literature, personal, crafts, art and design, and travel. Available at Canterbury, Epsom, and Farnham.
Digitised front covers can be viewed in ResourceBank
