Role
Rikus Ferreira is module leader for Year 1 BA(Hons) Illustration. He teaches on the Year 1, Year 2 and the MA Illustration courses.
Career overview
After completing his MA in Visual Art, Rikus Ferreira started his career as a graphic designer and part-time illustrator working in the industry for over 25 years. He worked in design and advertising as senior designer and head of design at world-renowned design and advertising industries, winning multiple international awards for his illustration and design work through the years. These include amongst others: D&AD’s, Oneshow Awards, American Clio Awards and SA Loerie Awards. He won the Type Directors Club in New York for Typographic Excellence in 1998. He was a top 10 finalist in the Absa Atelier Fine Art Awards in 2007. Rikus was also the overall winner of the 2023 Standard Bank Sikuvile Visual Journalism Award for his illustration work. In 2010 Rikus spent some time in Paris at the Cite International Des Arts on an artist residency. Rikus has been teaching at Universities in South Africa and the UK, with most recent being Middlesex University in London and De Montfort in Leicester.
Research areas
Rikus is a practicing illustrator and artist actively contributing to the field of illustration, and is mostly interested in the language of the visual narrative, and how image and text function together in especially graphic novels and artist books.
External activity
Rikus is a practicing illustrator that recently finished two graphic novels for Franklin Watts (Hachette) publishers. He regularly produces mostly editorial illustrations for a variety of publications. As academic Rikus has been invited to moderate, and act as external moderator, for universities internationally. As an artist and illustrator Rikus has had his work shown in more than 25 art exhibitions world-wide, with 4 of them being solo shows.
Publications
Ferreira, Rikus and Claybourne, Anna. 2025. A Comic Strip History of Planet Earth Part 2. Franklin Watts, Hachette, London. ISBN: 978 1 4451 9043 3
Ferreira, Rikus and Claybourne, Anna. 2025. A Comic Strip History of Planet Earth Part 1. Franklin Watts, Hachette, London. ISBN: 978 1 4451 9040 2
Ferreira, Rikus and Thomas, Iain S. 2020. What We Should Do When This Is Over. ISBN: 13 979-8641626123
Ferreira, Rikus. 2000. Brein Comics Issue 3. Brein Productions, Stellenbosch.
Ferreira, Rikus. 1999. Brein Comics Issue 2. Brein Productions, Stellenbosch.
Ferreira, Rikus, Ross Matt. 1998. Brein Comics Issue 1. Brein Productions, Stellenbosch.
Course(s) I teach on
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Undergraduate | Full-time / SandwichCOURSE
Illustration - BA (Hons)
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/art-and-design/ug/ba-hons-illustration
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Postgraduate taught | Full-timeCOURSE
Illustration - MA
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/art-and-design/pg/ma-illustration