Should I get a Mac for Graphic Design?

Rudy,

I am going to second Travis's suggestion that you look seriously at the 15" Macbook Pro. Macbooks are fine machines, and the ultimate balance between portability and usability, but you may find the display rather cramped. I recommend that you spend at least a little time on one at an Apple store before you decide.

The advantage to the 15" Macbook Pro is that it does have the discreet GPU, so you could use it for more graphically intense things, such as gaming. It will also benefit more from upcoming technologies in Snow Leopard, which will use the GPU for general computing purposes. In general, the Macbook Pro would cover more bases for you, given that you are not yet sure what field you might enter. Of course, it has a larger display, but it goes further than that. The pixel density is also higher, meaning that each inch of display provides more Desktop space within which to work.

Maxing out the RAM on any machine you get is a good thing, but I will strongly recommend that you do not do this through Apple, but buy the RAM separately and install it yourself. This will save you some big bucks, which would allow you to purchase a better model of Macbook/Macbook Pro. We can and will point you to reputable places to buy the additional RAM. For instance, here.

Again, there's nothing wrong with a Macbook, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it for anything graphic in nature, due to the smaller display and lower resolution. There's just not enough Desktop "real estate" to get anything serious done on these things, at least if it involves graphics. Don't take my word for it, because this is just my opinion. Do, however, go to an Apple store yourself and form your own opinion.

Scott

Rudy,

In regards to graphic design, I've been a graphic designer for about 4 years now. Macs and Adobe Creative Suite are industry standards. At this point, for you, you probably won't need to worry much about QuarkXpress...but that's a whole different discussion.

The work done by graphic designers are things in every-day life that people don't notice because it's an integral part of life. For example, a graphic designer would create artwork to produce iPod packaging, cereal boxes, program booklets, magazines, billboards, credit/gift card art, etc. Another skill designers have—which to most people is quite boring—is that we are very detail-oriented towards typefaces, or fonts in other words.

There are many opportunities to be successful as a graphic designer. What opportunities come your way solely depends on the quality of your work.

If you're looking into doing 3D animation or anything of that sort, graphic design is not the field of study for you. You should look at programs that are explicitly for 3D and game art or motion graphics.

Alien Skin is pretty good computer, hardware isn't really better on the mac, but the big difference is what OSX gives you. You still have Win handy for what you might need that for, but for graphics use, the Mac seems to handle loads better. Maybe not much faster, but you can do more things seamlessly at once without a hitch. This is very handy in graphic application. The mac book is nice, but for graphics, it lacks a fire wire port or port for e-sata and that, IMO makes the MBP the much better choice, for heavy graphic apps. However, don't forget to look at the
apple store for refurbed models. I got a late 08 MBP at a very good price. Or, as a student, you can get a student discount on a new model, so that will save some scratch. Really the refurbs are nice.