How much will this Graphic Design Diploma cost me?

September 24, 2010 By Paul Yeatman

Not withstanding any personal costs etc…what’s the financial hit for partaking in furthur study?

Okay, given the Government is loaning me the course fees, what else requires an outlay?

Well, plenty it would seem.

I need to purchase a graphic arts kit for $300 from my college, Adobe CS5 design suite (I found design master student version for about $314 from an online vendor, no pirated software for this little alien). My current laptop is a bit old – 2G of RAM, no dedicated display card and a bit heavy to lug around (it’s a Toshiba M63-809). I’ll probably replace it in the next month with a speedier rig that has at least 4G of RAM. Seems the widescreen glut has made finding a 15″ with a decent screen resolution a little tricky. Budgeting her for about $1000, new or second hand.

I’m also toying with the idea of getting an el flasho printer, such as the Canon Pixma Pro9500, just because I find it drool worthy (that’ll set me back another $1000 or so).

Tagsbudget CATC Commercial Arts Training College graphic design visual communication

About The Author

Paul Yeatman

Microbiologist with >15 years in the pharmaceutical industry with such responsibilities as trainer, team leader, auditor, technical writer, validator, quality assurance and control, viable environmental monitoring and more. I've dabbled with computers since the 80's and am fairly IT savvy, acting as a help desk for my immediate and extended family. After toying with visual design since high school, I qualified as a graphic designer in 2012. For leisure I ride and race my many bicycles, create websites, mange my cycling club's social media and am passionate about increasing everyone's knowledge.