Dr Jake Abrams

I started my career in education as a peripatetic, working for a range of the leading art and design HE institutions as a visiting lecturer at postgraduate and undergraduate level (Glasgow School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, Birmingham Institute, Falmouth).

As a full-time member of staff at Kingston School of Art, I have brought an experimental approach to teaching students. This has resulted in a number of commendations nationally and internationally. I am one of the few in the UK who have achieved a National Fellowship in Art Design and Media (ADMHEA Fellowship). This was awarded to me for my innovations in Blended Learning in Art and Design contexts. I have achieved a Senior Fellowship of the HEA and a Kingston University Teaching Fellowship. I have lectured and taught extensively across the UK and the globe.

I am currently Chief External Examiner at Falmouth University and External Examiner for illustration at the University of Northampton. I have previously been engaged at Oxford Brookes University, Bath University, Plymouth School of Art, University of Northampton and DIT. As an external examiner, international coordinator and key member of staff with Kingston School of Art, my leadership roles have given me valuable insight into a wide range of L&T methodology. This has led me to continuously develop my areas of activity, core knowledge and professional values and bring valuable knowledge to my own courses.

Alongside my teaching practice, I have consistently maintained a professional practice in the subject areas that I teach. As an illustrator, artist and designer I work for a range of influential clients such as The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Spectator, The Observer, Creative Review, THES, TES, Penguin Books, Random House, Jonathan Cape, Vintage and Picador, to name just a few. This provides me with an up-to-date understanding of the creative industry, keeping me current with developments in this fast-changing discipline. This in turn informs my teaching practice and curriculum design, reflected in the high levels of employment on graduation.

Qualifications

• ADMHEA (Fellowship of the Art, Design & Media HEA)
• SFHEA (Senior Fellow of the HEA)
• Professional Doctorate in Fine Art (UEL)

Courses taught

• Illustration MA
• Illustration Animation BA (Hons)

My research encompasses several concurrent strands that interweave and co-depend on each other:

• Masculinity: my doctorate research, 'Uncertain Masculinities', was an auto-ethnographic investigation that appropriated the chair to examine notions of gender. As part of this ongoing study, I continue to create artworks using drawing, painting and sculpture. I'm particularly  interested how objects can hold particular potency in expressing these ideas.
• Visual communication to allay anxiety in paediatric patients. I have an ongoing interest in how visual communication can be a powerful medium  within clinical arenas. Working in tandem with clinicians at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, I have helped create a series of interventions to help young patients facing major surgery. The interactive books that have been authored are deceptively simple yet hold  important and increasingly quantifiable intent. Procedural anxiety is a major concern within hospitals, slowing down procedures and causing lasting mental health problems. These interventions are carefully designed to 'speak in the patient's language'.
• Ideas about Ideas. Through my work with objects I have become increasingly fascinated in how ideas are formulated and can be expressed.
• Humour and sardonicism and satire within illustration and animation contexts. My wide-ranging practice as an editorial illustrator has informed this ongoing research into historical and contemporary modes of illustration. This is augmented by an understanding of the subject as a wide-reaching democratic art form.
• Modes of observational drawing. Drawing practice and research are coalescent and ongoing concerns. The sketchbook as observational enquirer and idea former is of particular interest.

Qualifications

• Professional Doctorate in Fine Art (UEL)
• Masters in Communication Arts (Manchester Metropolitan University)
• Ideas about Ideas
• Paediatric Anxiety in hospital settings and how communication design can assist

Specialisms

• Expressions of masculinity
• Visual communication to allay anxiety in paediatric patients
• Humour and sardonicism and satire within illustration and animation contexts
• Modes of observational drawing
• Art and design pedagogy

Knowledge Transfer

Health Care

My work with Great Ormond Street Hospital in London has received a plethora of positive feedback as well as a D&AD Impact Award 2021. It has been written up in the BMJ and been part of a poster presentation at one of their conferences.

This work has led to other artistic and communication design collaborations. I have co-created a series of animated shorts (9) in collaboration with Dr Kate Oulton (Senior Research Fellow Great Ormond Street Hospital) to help educate clinicians in Children's hospital settings, on how best to work with children with learning difficulties, autism or additional needs, when accessing clinical services. The aim is to reach far beyond Great Ormond Street, to the wider paediatric care community.

During the pandemic I created health campaigns for children's hospitals across the UK: 'Pause for Paws' and 'I'm keeping 2 metres apart' (Nottingham, Liverpool, Southampton, London).

Publishing

I have created a series of collaborations with preeminent publishers during my time at Kingston. I devised an ongoing creative link and 'real world' project with Vintage Books, where collaborative teams of Illustration Animation students work with top authors and senior staff at Penguin Random House to devise animated 'shorts' to accompany the release of key pieces of literature.

International

Art and design is all too often studied, researched and understood through myopic lenses. I have a  passionate interest in trying to ensure a much wider understanding and have worked hard to internationalise our subjects. I have lectured and run projects in India, Botswana, Japan, Norway, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and the USA and have been instrumental in making our courses at Kingston much more international and outward-facing.

Qualifications and Professional expertise

• D&AD Impact Winner 2021
• British Medical Journal 2020
• Publishing Links - Penguin Random House/ Picador/ Bloomsbury Publishing
• D&AD 'Impact' Bursary Award 2022

Areas of interest

• Communications in Healthcare
• Interactive Health Books for Children
• Training Clinical Staff in Hospitals

Industry links

• Great Ormond Street Hospital
• Penguin Random House

Professional illustration commissions (selection)

• 2019 – The Largesse of the Sea Maiden (Denis Johnson, Penguin)
• 2014 – Weekly illustration ‘My Week' for Waitrose Weekend'.
• 2012-2017 – Editorial illustrations for The Times newspaper.
• 2010 – ‘Bull-fighting' – book cover illustration (Roddy Doyle, Vintage).
• 2009 – ‘The Average Life of the Average Person' cover and inside illustrations (Tadg Farrington, Square Peg).
• 2009 – ‘Flaubert's Parrot' cover illustration (Julian Barnes, Vintage)
• 2009 – FT Magazine – illustrations.
• 2009 – The Guardian. Newspaper illustrations.
• 2008-9 – Spectator magazine – series of front cover illustrations and articles.

Other editorial commissions

• Director Magazine; Times Educational Supplement, CNN Traveller Magazine,
• The Independent. Sunday Business, The Financial Times, The Times, Classic CD, Evo, BBC Top Gear,
• Creative Review. monthly ‘Brief Lives' strip for the back page.
• Blueprint – a monthly illustration ‘Awful Corner' commenting on Architecture and Design.
• The New Statesman, Spectator, Men's Health, The Oldie, Observer, GQ, Punch, Design Week and Deign Review

Children's book

• My Operation (2022), My SDR Operation(2020), My New Heart ( 2020), My New Kidney (2019) Kick-Back Cover and inside Illustrations for Children's novel by Vivian French

Adult book covers

• Hodder, Penguin, Carcenet,  Picador, Macmillan and Random House.

Design/Advertising

• Amnesty International Smile Bank, Waterstone's and The Royal Mail. Aids Malawi, Holsten Pils.

Exhibitions

• 2017 – Uncertain Masculinities. UEL Doctorate Exhibition. London.
• 2016 – Chaired By.. Solo exhibition Platform Gallery, Kingston London.
• 2015 – ArtMasters group Exhibition. Truman Gallery, London.
• 2015 – Make Create QEST Griffin Group Exhibition, London Craft Week, Collaborative group exhibition working with Margaret Jones.
• 2012 – Human Face Exhibition- Seoul, South Korea at the Wooduk Gallery. 2011     
• 2009 – The Expanded Communication of Illustration, Group exhibition, Gallery Wooduk, Seoul, South Korea.
• 2009 – Solo exhibitions, The Southbank Centre, Kings Cross/St Pancras, London Sinfonietta
• 2006 – Z-A Exhibition Galleri Breneriet, Oslo. Solo exhibition of original biographical prints
• 1996 – Cat & Dog Jake Abrams and David Hughes' Illustration at the Beint & Beint Gallery

Qualifications and expertise

• MA Communication Arts (Manchester Metropolitan University)
• D&AD Impact Award Winner 2021
• Professional Doctorate in Fine Art (UEL)