Best gifts for Designers
Holidays are approaching rapidly! Don’t wait for the eleventh hour to buy gifts for designers. We decided to help and inspire you a bit by introducing this list of gadgets, which deliver great joy to designers!
Update
Little Printer is not on sale anymore, which we hate to hear :(
Continue reading our awesome updated list :)
Smartphone Projector
Cool gadget for those who want to turn their smartphone screen into the big screen. Projector is made with cardboard and glass, which makes it less durable than professional projectors, yet its easy to assemble, it’s cheap and brings a lot of fun.
Price: $38.95 + shipping,only available in the US.
Projector with international shipping here: Not On The High Screet
Price: £16,95 + shipping
Gradient Puzzle
500 pieces puzzle for color lovers. Puzzles are available in two color versions.
Price: $18 + shipping
Pantone Gadgets
What about designers who work with Pantone Palletes? Go ahead and check some cool accessories for the fans of most popular colors collection. You can choose from mugs, cute usb pens, Iphone cases, journals and more!
Prices from $9,95 If you have more money to spare you can also think of Pantone Color Guides, prices start from $60 for a starter Guide.
Bean Bag
Everyone, especially designers sitting at their desks for hours sometimes need a break and change to a more horizontal position. Bean bags will help them straighten up theire bones and rethink stuff. These bags can be found for example on Ebay (UK) or Ebay (US)Prices starts from around $15.
UI Stencil Kits
Great gadget for designers involved in interface design. UI Stencil Kits are tools to facilitate the process of paper prototyping. You can choose from Web , Android, Iphone or Ipad Kit. Templates for Web can be found here.
Price: $29+ shipping
Typodarium 2016
Calendar for fans of typography for 2016. which showcase 365 typefaces. Price starts from £15 + shipping
Website Deck (and other UX Kits)
Here’s something for UX designers. It’s a set of 54 cards to help UX designers to map out website information architechture. It will be useful during brainstorming or determining the details with clients or a team. You can also check out other UX Kits, like Mobile App and Website Visual Flowchart and sitemap.
Price: $19 + free US shipping or $6 flat rate International Shipping
How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
A cult guide written by a British designer Adrian Shaughnessy, which shares the secrets of working as a designer. It answers questions why it’s not worth it to show the final project to a client or how to apply for a job. The book was published already in 7 countries.
How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
Tablet Wacom Intuos pro
It is worth to mention a tablet for those who work a lot with a pen tool :) Wireless Wacom tablet with support for gestures and sensitive pen is a real treat especially for illustrators.
Prices from around $225 for a small size Intuos pro
Notebook
Designer writes and draws a lot, why not buying him a high quality notebook? One of the best quality notebooks on the market are Lauchtturm 1917. For lovers of the legendary items — go for Moleskine :)
Price: from $12.
Projector Acer X113H
Those who have a little more cash might be tempted to buy a projector.
This model of Acer has 800x600 resolution with a contrast of 13 000:1.
Price: around $300
The Peachy Printer
3D printer is something for the fans of new technologies. Printers of this type doesn’t have to be expensive — Peachy Printer has been created thanks to Kickstarter fund and can be purchased for $100, making it the cheapest on the market. The printer is fast, quiet and includes a set of 8 colors that you can mix freely.
Pen Zen
Desk organizer made out of bamboo combines functional simplicity and aesthetics. Rubber extrusions sustain pens vertically while magnets hidden under the surface of bamboo box will keep paper clips and other little magnetic things in place.
Price: $10,95 + shipping
Serif Tote Bag
Effective and original bag for type lovers. The bag is made of 100% cotton and is available in three colors.
Price: $45 + shipping
Posters/Prints
Consider posters! The ones we liked the most are the ones designed by Paweł Jońca (prices from around 30 euros), Society6 (prices from $13 and a lot of prints), The Dudes (~19.90 euros), or Outline Editions,where you can find works of Malika Favre, Noma Bar or Kristjan Williams. Outline Editions prices are quite out of this world, but it may inspire you;)
Calligraphic pens and sets
Pens for calligraphy is a real fun for those who want to try their hand at calligraphy. These pens have two ends, so they are quite versatile. Browse through some other sets here, for example.
Price: from £2,30/pen
IdeaPaint
Excellent gift for anyone for whom the sheets in the notebook is never enough and they need to spread their creativity all around! After covering any surface with IdeaPain we can write on it with a special marker and erase it with a sponge. It’s especially helpful to owners of design studios or creative agencies that want to change their environment.
Sets available from $199,50 + shipping
Dixit card game
Dixit is a splendid card game with lovely illustrations for creative people. The idea of the game lies on matching images with stories.
Every turn, the storyteller will call out a short phrase or word to match the image on his card. This card goes face down on the table while each player will choose the card that most closely matches that phrase and put it face down next to the storyteller’s. After being shuffled, all the cards get revealed and everyone must guess which card the storyteller saw when he invented his brief tale. Correctly guess the storyteller’s card, and you’ll score. Convince everyone else that your card better fitted the phrase and you’ll do even better.
Price: ~25 euros
LomoKino
Your designer friend loves lomography? Is he a hipster? He loves making movies? Get him a LomoKino, that shoots a movie of 144 frames on any 35mm film.
Price: from 49 euros
Cotton Bureau
Low budget? Still want to find something unique? Try tees from Cotton Bureau. They offer limited runs on tees, hoodies and tank tops created by passionate designers. Pay attention, because they’re selling pretty fast!
Prices for tees: around $25
Update
Cotoon Bureau will be available for shipping only after 4th of January.
Here’s the alteranitves:
Hacking UI Tees
Design By Humans
Ugmonk
Society6
Are you a designer? What would you like to get for Christmas this year? :)
