‘Tis the season of giving. Being the world’s pickiest kind of people: anybody who mingles with designers might need some help. Here’s our list of designer-approved Christmas gifts. Careful for the accidental mouse-click-slip as you might end up buying lots of this.
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Postit app x Trello: makes your paper ideas digital
This one is free, and yet it’s immediately one of my favorites. I always thought the Post-it app was cut, but now it has ‘export to Trello’. Gone forever is the dilemma between going tangible with post-its or going organized with Trello, because your paper ideas are now digital. The only collab I would get more happy about is M&M’s ‘doesn’t melt in your hand’ with MacDonalds’ milkshakes.
A goal a day, keeps the doctor away: Momentum app
Nail one daily goal every day, and link them all together until you’re a productivity beast that gets things done.
Need more ideas? Heres an endless book full of them
This ebook is by one of my favorite persons in the world of design and the maker of ‘5 ideas a day’ – David Delahunty. Talking about daily goals: his was to come up with 5 good ideas every day. Then he bundled them in a lovely e-book.
Understanding Design: the most practical design book ever
Sometimes you just have to return to the classics. This one might as well be the best book I’ve ever read on design, For its amazing content, but also because it’s a toilet book: every page is a chapter.
Why read this book? You’re right: Start with Why.
Another classic that we’ve all read blogs about or saw videos of. It’s time to sit down and actually read it in 2020, as it’s about the most important question a designer can ask.
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Think out of the time box: ‘Till watch
A watch can be a real conversation starter. So it this one. If not with others, then with yourself. The ‘Till watch lifts you out of the box every time you look at it.
Socks that go with anything. Literally.
As a sock lover, I fall in love with socks at least 3 times a week. These socks have pretty much every color in the world in them. A fun reason to roll up your pants!
Doodling how it was meant: 3Doodler
3Doodler pens extrude heated plastic that hardens in seconds, allowing you to literally draw in the air. Now the only dimension that limits your doodling is time!
Kidnap any real color into the digital world: Palette’s Cube
The Cube is a portable color digitizer. It captures color from paint, fabric and pretty much any other surface with one tap on the device. Next time you start creating a palette: take a walk outside!
Take notes in not-another-Moleskine: Fieldnotes
Designers need fancy notebooks and simple pencils. It’s fine. If your want something different: Field Notes and see how they just breathe ‘craft’. Made by one of Design’s finest characters Aaron Draplin.
More screen time of the right kind: DIYprintshop
Ever created a graphic that you felt could be on walls? You can screen print it yourself – that’s having a poster as well as making one. We all love process. Excuse for self-gifting: it’s cheap if you calculate how many hours of fun this gives you!
One laser to rule them all: Logitech’s Pebble
If you’ve ever given a presentation, then you know it’s not your fonts that will mess with your head. It’s not the crowd either. It’s the d*mn remote. Logitech decided to sell less buttons and charge more. Why didn’t I think of that?
For the love of books: the Superhero book stand
It’s incredible how reading a book is different from reading a screen. I feel like I retain information from a book much better as well. Writers are heroes!
The end of cables is here: Ikea’s Cork Wireless charger
I can only think of one reason why this doesn’t work: it just looks too nice to cover with a phone.
A mug. For coffee.
Desket is a fun shop that takes Designers’ many quirks to print. Here’s a mug for your daily shot of caffeinated code
The best ideas are noted in the dark
You wake up in the middle of the night with the best idea ever, and then the worst idea is looking at a phone’s screen to note it down. That’s taken care of now.
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Help killing your side projects. So you can do more side projects.
Attention deficit anybody? Hyper-associativity anybody? Keeping focus on 1 thing until it’s finished: it’s tough. The side project flow chart is the decision making helper that helps you stay sane.
What holidays feel like: the Anti phone bag
We fly the world searching for places that still offer us ‘being offline’. Such a place can come to you in the shape of a fun gift.