All CIA students are required to have a laptop. At a minimum, this laptop should support Adobe Creative Cloud*. Specifications for laptops suitable for Adobe Creative Cloud can be found in the table below.
The majority of first-year digital work is centered around Adobe Creative Cloud*. Once students enter their sophomore year, they are expected to own a laptop which meets major-specific requirements, outlined in the table below.
| Minimum Specs |
Majors |
- 13” HD Display (SPECIFIC DISPLAY SIZE NO LONGER REQUIRED)
- 16GB RAM
- 256GB Drive or More (solid state recommended)
- 3-year warranty
|
Ceramics (macOS or Windows)
Craft + Design (macOS or Windows)
Drawing (macOS preferred)
Graphic Design (macOS preferred)
Glass (macOS or Windows)
Illustration (macOS or Windows)
Interior Architecture (macOS or Windows)
Jewelry + Metals (macOS or Windows)
Painting (macOS or Windows)
Printmaking (macOS preferred) |
- 14.2" HD Display (SPECIFIC DISPLAY SIZE NO LONGER REQUIRED)
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB Drive or More (solid state recommended)
- 3-year warranty
|
Photography + Video (macOS preferred) |
- 15" HD Display (SPECIFIC DISPLAY SIZE NO LONGER REQUIRED)
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB Drive or More (solid state recommended)
- 3-year warranty
|
Life Sciences Illustration Acceptable Configuration (macOS or Windows)
Sculpture + Expanded Media (macOS or Windows, 1TB Drive preferred) |
- 15” HD Display (UHD recommended) (SPECIFIC DISPLAY SIZE NO LONGER REQUIRED)
- I7 processor or Ryzen 7 CPU
- Mac: 10-Core CPU
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB-1TB Drive or More (solid state recommended)
- Recommended Graphics Card: RTX 2060
- Minimum Graphics Card: GTX 1070
- Mac Graphics: 16-core GPU
- 3-year warranty
|
Animation (Windows)
Game Design (Windows)
Industrial Design/Product Design Track (macOS or Windows)
Industrial Design/Transportation Design Track (Windows)
Life Sciences Illustration Preferred Configuration (Windows)
|
*If you use macOS, you will be able to accomplish much of what you need in Industrial Design. However, there are certain Windows-based applications that you will use in your Junior and Senior years that will only be available on CIA-owned computers (Solidworks and Alias).