As a Postsecondary Student who desires to enter the Multimedia Design field, there are some pieces of equipment that I strongly suggest you own for yourself. If you are serious about becoming a Multimedia Artist, you will really want to invest in yourself with a few things, which can be found on the Equipment Suggestions page.
Required equipment is just that… required. If you don’t have these items, you cannot possibly work in this field with any success.
Click the name of the required item to see a sample shopping search online.
SD Card
The student will be required to provide their own SD Card(s) to use with classroom computers and cameras. At a minimum, your SD card should be 16g of storage space, though I suggest having at least a few 32g. The brand of the card is up to you, but I have had great results buying SanDisk products.
USB 3.0 Card Reader
The PC’s have card readers on the tower, but you must provide your own card reader for media storage cards. The classroom cannot guarantee a working card reader for you. I suggest you buy a card reader that is a single unit, rather than one that has wires or cords, they are more durable and will last you much longer.
USB 3.0 Flash Drive
You will need at least a 16g USB Flash Drive, in order to quickly move small files from computer to computer, or to be able to turn in certain projects to the Instructor. The total storage of the flash drive is up to you, but I suggest you have at least 32g, 64g is even better.
USB 3.0 External Hard Drive
The external hard drive is where you will store all of your own artwork, downloads, fonts, files and whatever else you need for the course. The PC’s in the lab are frequently reformatted and updated, so data stored there cannot be guaranteed to be safe at any point. It is your responsibility to keep your own files safe and accessible at all times. The size & brand of the drive is up to you, but I suggest at least 1T or 2T of storage, and have always had great experiences with Western Digital external drives.
The Non-Designers Design Book (4e)
This book is required in the very first week of class, and therefore must be purchased BEFORE you start the course. It is available in the McFatter Campus Bookstore, as well as online in digital formats such as eBooks and PDFs. I would suggest that you own a digital copy, but that is just me.
Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription
If you cannot access the software while online, you will very likely not be able to keep up pace with the course, therefore I require all of my Postsecondary Students to have their own subscription to the design software. PLEASE NOTE that you are eligible to pay much less as a Student, so be sure to select the Student & Teacher version of the All Apps subscription.
Digital Media & Multimedia Design 