Holiday Gift Guide

November 21, 2004

The holidays are a comin' and what better time to have a holiday gift guide put together by these fabuloso designers and bloggers! It started out as a short email requesting three recommendations for holiday gifts. I was pleasantly surprised to get super quick replies. Thank you!

So, by alphabetical order:

Andy Budd (www.andybudd.com)

• Spaced Box Set DVD: "If you liked Shaun of the Dead, you'll love this."
• Sony Ericsson K700i: "Stylish phone with all the trimmings."
• Airport Express: "Never have to change another CD in your life."

Blake Scarbrough (www.blakems.com)

• ITC Choice Pak: You can never have too many fonts. Create your own package with ITC's Choice Packs from ITC.
• Allsteel's #19 Egonomic Chair: Because I sit in front of a computer so many hours of the day during a work week--you need a good chair and one that looks good (look at the chrome on this baby).
• Estwing WF17L Weight Forward Hammer: I like well designed products so, when I use a hammer, I want to use this one, it not only looks good but is a functional hammer. Maybe not useful for every designer but I like to do the occasional project on the weekend or start doing things on my "honey-do" list.

Chuck Mallott (telerana.f2o.org)

• Creatives Understand t-shirt
• eBags C-Drive Mobile Office
• Defensive Design for the Web by 37signals

Dunstan Orchard (www.1976design.com/blog)

• Rolleiflex MiniDigi: "Haven't used one yet, and they're only 2MP, but damn they're cute..."
• Shure E3 Sound Isolating Earphones
• Eagle Creek Pack-It Compressor: "I couldn't possibly travel between the UK and the US with only two pieces of luggage if it wasn't for these. They squish my clothes down to between one-half and one-quarter of their original size, and so let me take a lot more crap, err, stuff with me."

Jason Fried (www.37signals.com)

• Yinzhen Silver Needle Tea: A real treat for tea lovers, this white tea is just delicious (and nutritious!).
• Shure Quietspot Headset: If you must wear a headset when on your cell phone, you must wear this headset. There's nothing better.
• Ken Burns' Frank Lloyd Wright documentary DVD: An incredibly engaging (and surprising) story of an irreverent bad ass who changed the architecture world a couple of times.

Jason Kottke (www.kottke.org)

• Flickr Pro Account: "A one year subscription to Flickr Pro. Flickr is more fun than a box of wine at a Tupperware party and it's not just for web geeks and photographers. Grandma has a digital camera for obsessively recording the grandkids...get her a Flickr account and she can share those photos with the grandparents on the other side of the family. Hell, get the other grandma an account as well and they'll have some sort of dueling grandparent Flickr photo deathmatch shootout; best grandkid photo takes all! $59.95 for 1 yr."
• Cross stitch from Subversive Cross Stitch
• Talby Mobile Phone: Designed by Marc Newson for KDDI, a Japanese company. Who knows what this thing will cost, what the availability will be, or if the user interface will suck, but if you manage to locate one, you need to get one for me as well. I don't get technolust very often, but I'd very much like to have intimate relations with this phone."

Jeffrey Veen (www.adaptivepath.com)

• InterfaceFLOR tiles: When I saw InterfaceFLOR tiles at Jen's house, I loved the idea instantly: tiles of carpet you can mix and match to create your personalized area rugs. We even used them in the office. Cheap, flexible, and totally recyclable -- the company will even take them back.
• iPod Cozies: There are a million cases for all the varieties of iPods -- shockproof, waterproof, scratchproof, rich Corinthian leather. But I prefer handmade to plastic. Chuckles will crochet you an iPod cozy; Catherine will stitch one in denim for you. Isn't it cool to know who makes your stuff?
• Subversive X-Stitch: Want a new hobby (that has *nothing* to do with your blog)? Want make your own stuff? Cross stitch is pretty cool, if you can get past all the kitten and lighthouse patterns. Julie over at Subversive Cross Stitch can help.

Josh Penrod (www.amishrobot.com)

• Moleskine notebooks: A nice blank notebook is like magic. It sits there waiting for a sketch, a billion dollar idea, or even just a satisfying little to do list, to appear on its pages.
• Donate to a charity on behalf of someone else - We always think it would be so satisfying to support charities, but most of us never get around to it. A couple options: (a) Habitat for Humanity, (b) Heifer International
• Telephone Free Landslide Victory CD: You may be tempted to just buy someone a gift certificate. This is wimpy. Impose your excellent musical taste on a loved one by sending them a CD. It's for their own good. Don't try to match up your taste with their taste. Have a friend that would hate Camper Van Beethoven? You are morally obligated to send them Telephone Free Landslide Victory.

Keith Robinson (www.7nights.com/asterisk/)

• A Neves Tie Watch
• Invisible Playing Cards
• A Ted Leo & The Pharmacists Poster

Luke Wroblewski (www.lukew.com/ff)

• The Rise of the Creative Class Book: As a designer, you're part of the creative class. Be aware of the socioeconomic implications of your existence.
• Ebay Certificates: Open eBay's vault of "everything under the sun" and introduce bidding wars to friends and loved ones with an eBay gift certificate.
• Dogger: The Debate Blogger: For the cantankerous designer always ready to debate (think design vs. usability). Dogger: a blog-style interface that allows two people to engage in a debate on any given topic.

Mark Hurst (www.goodexperience.com, see also www.unclemark.org)

• Sony Cybershot DSC-U40
• Settlers of Catan Board Game
• Barry Lyndon DVD

Mike Davidson (www.mikeindustries.com/blog/)

• Treo 650
• HD DirecTivo
• Roomba Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

Mike Rundle (phark.typepad.com/)

• The Ambient Orb: "It changes color based on the days stock market totals, or can be programmed to do pretty much anything else you'd wish. Looks like a psychedelic egg, really cool."
• Kenneth Cole "Rise and Shine" Watch: "I heard a rumor somewhere that the AIGA will officially pull your membership if you're caught in public without a black strapped watch. Just to make sure that doesn't happen, cop this bad boy so designers know you mean business."
• Miquelrius Notebook/Planner: "I can't start designing without my Miquelrius notebook; it's definitely a staple in my workflow now. Step one, dream up an idea. Step two, draw it in my sacred idea notebook. Step three, rip it up and start anew :)"

Paul Scrivens (www.9rules.com)

• Sidekick II
• Nikon D70 Digital SLR Camera
• Maxtor 300GB External USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drive

I couldn't possibly put my name on this list so here are my recommendations:

Gilbert Lee

• Everything but the Girl: Home Movies CD: If there was one CD I would listen to over and over (and over and over and over) again, this would be it. This is classic EBTG, not the same as recent albums. You will thank me for getting this.
• What Should I Do with My Life? Book: My wife gave this book to me for Father's day in 2003 and I can't tell you how much I've learned from the different stories. It's excellently written and has such a genuine tone.
• Nikon D70: It's one of those, "That wasn't the camera I left on top of the Odyssey, was it?" as I heard the camera scrape on the asphalt road and hit the curb HARD! Man, the wife wasn't exactly happy about that. My first thought? Nikon D70! Yehey!

Thank you all!

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