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Holiday Gift Guide for Graphic Designers – Part 2


Day 3 of my 12 Days of Christmas project isn’t a video but a Part 2 to my original Holiday Gift Guide for Graphic Designers. There were so many other products I wanted to recommend but couldn’t fit into the original video/graphic, so here they are now. Keep reading after the jump for links and prices for everything you see here!

1. Pantone Mugs – $90
I don’t know any designers who don’t go crazy over Pantone products, so these mugs would definitely be loved. They come in different color sets, as well as Espresso sets for $54 and Color of the Year mugs for $25.

2. Ugmonk
It was so hard to pick which pieces to feature from Ugmonk, since all of their products are so typographic and beautiful! In the graphic above are the And Then I Woke Up shirt, Lowercase shirt, and Punctuation Coasters.

3. Ampersand Pins – $7.50
Every piece in hand-letter-er Sean Wes’s shop is gorgeous, but you know how much I love ampersands, so I just had to recommend these pins, which would make a great stocking stuffer for the graphic designer in your life.

4. Penguin Drop Caps book series – ~$13
Penguin’s Drop Cap book cover series are absolutely gorgeous. Featuring cover illustrations by Jessica Hische, these books are beautiful objects that any designer would love to display.

5. Alphabet Stamp Set – $25
Designers love stamps, so give the crafty designer in your life a set of alphabet stamps, which I’m sure they can find a million uses for. I quite like this set from Anthropologie.

6. Washi tape – $15.50 for 15 yards
Washi tape is a Japanese thin paper tape that comes in a huge amount of different colors and patterns. On Etsy you can either buy them individually or buy a set of a certain amount, choosing which patterns you want from the lot that the seller has.

7. So You Need a Typeface Poster – $22
Most of you reading this have probably already seen this poster in the background of some of my videos, and it’s still available for purchase online. Trust me that the print is beautiful and the flowchart itself is actually quite useful sometimes.

8. Explorations in Typography book – $65
This book was put together by Carolina de Bartolo and Erik Spiekermann, and from the photos it looks gorgeous. I haven’t actually seen the book in person, but I do have a poster version of the Typeface Combinations page, which is beautiful. It is quite pricy for a book, but the information in it was assembled by two of the best typographers of our generation, so I have no doubt that it’s worth the price.

9. Adobe Suite pillows – $15
Or if you want to get something that’s just fun and silly, consider these Adobe Suite pillows. They would look awesome on the couch of any designer and are perfect for the nights when a hug from Photoshop is all you need.

10. MyFonts gift card
Coming to the end of this gift guide, if you don’t want to buy anything physical, or if you’re shopping at the very last minute, a gift certificate to MyFonts is a really thoughtful gift for a designer, since fonts can be expensive, but we all want all of them.

11. Moo Gift Card
Or if you know a designer who keeps going on about how she needs business cards but never seems to actually get them, a gift certificate to Moo.com would be perfect. They offer a variety of different printing services, with really nice interfaces and great quality products.

So I hope you liked Part 2 of my Holiday Gift Guide for Graphic Designers. If you missed the original, you can see it right here, and hopefully between all 22 suggestions, you found something you can give the graphic designer in your life. Stay tuned to this blog and my Tumblr for all the rest of the 12 Days of Christmas content, and check out the Day 1 Intro video and Day 2 Homemade Christmas Ornaments video if you missed them before. Happy holidays everyone!