What you will need
Books
The largest investment students make in books should be retained for use in future classes and professional life. The majority of the books used in the Interior Design Program are not college textbooks, but rather professional reference resources that are used throughout an interior design career and helpful for studying for the NCIDQ exam. See the NCIDQ website for more details. As such, students need to purchase their INDS textbooks and should not sell them back at the end of the semester. Textbooks are also repeatedly used in courses to minimize cost. Open resource materials are used when available as well.
Supplies
Purchase of supplies and materials is required to support skill development. It is necessary for students to make an initial investment (~ $400.00) in the first semester of the program that will be used throughout the program and required. Each course will provide a list to the student with required supplies.
Georgia Southern University Drafting Kit
Similar to the textbooks, many of the tools and much of the equipment purchased for design and art foundation courses will last a lifetime if properly cared for. Students should be aware, however, that some relatively expensive supplies, such as rendering markers and pencils, vellum, plotter paper, etc, can become a financial burden if not used and cared for thoughtfully.
Required supplies includes but is not limited to:
- specialized paper
- color ink cartridges
- presentation materials
- outsourced printing costs
- samples
- field trips
Students will be notified in advance if special costs are associated with a course or project.
Technology
The software utilized throughout the Interior Design Program requires computers with above average speed and memory. While computer labs are available for students to work on assignments, the time and accessibility of the labs varies. For students who commute to school or those who prefer to work from home in a more controlled environment, we recommend purchasing a personal computer/laptop. This is becoming essential with the current environment where events like hurricanes can require working remotely.
Not all computing and printing expenses encountered through the program are covered by Georgia Southern’s student technology fee, primarily because they result from specialized programs and equipment used only by the interior design department, and do not benefit the student population as a whole. The specialized technology required cannot be covered by the student technology fee.
Operating system
Up-to-date Windows 10 64-bit (version 2004) or newer
Graphics card
A GPU scoring a G3DMark of 14,000 or higher with up-to-date drivers. (Such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 2000 ADA, AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or better).
Graphics card memory
10 GB or more
CPU (processor)
Intel/AMD Processor scoring a single thread CPUMark of 2,600 or higher. (Such as the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, Intel Core i5-8600 or better)
Screen resolution
1920 x 1080 pixels**
System memory (RAM)
32 GB or more
Hard drive
SATA3 SSD or NVME m.2 storage
Hard drive space
Minimum 105 GB of free disk space on the drives where the Windows User Account and Documents folder are located.
Usually a good gaming computer will work and meet this requirements.
- Accessories:
- *1TB external hard drive also required for use with the lab computers during class.
- Optional security cable (please note that this is not compatible with all models)
- External mouse for laptop (touchpads are hard to draft with)
Georgia Southern University Store Tech Corner
Basic technology help is available via the Georgia Southern Technology Help Line. Additionally, Tech Corner offers various free technology services to students. The Interior Design Program does not offer IT/technical support for student-owned laptops or devices
Contact Information:
phone: 912-478-7744
email: techcorner@georgiasouthern.edu
Price & Location
Georgia Southern Tech Corner – call or email for pricing options
Computer Software Costs
Laptop: Windows
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Microsoft Office
- SketchUp
- Autodesk: AutoCAD, Revit, 3DS Max SketchUp PlugIn
- Enscape
- Anti-virus software (such as Norton Internet Security)
Some software used in the academic programs for Interior Design will only run on the Windows Operating System. We highly recommend running Windows on a PC. Although it is possible to run the Windows Operating System on a MacBook (via either BootCamp or Parallels), we cannot guarantee you will be able to run the software without difficulty. The upgraded MacBook Pro that we normally recommend for Interior Design uses a discrete graphics card that has not been validated by the various software companies. This means that they will not guarantee that the graphics card will be able to run software without problems.
Last updated: 8/15/2025
