GDUSA’s Holiday Gift Guide For Creatives

Curated By Maliya Naz

1. How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

When asking graphic designers about their ideal gift the common answers were books on creative careers, leadership, strategy. This book is perfect for a graphic designer because it combines practical advice with guidance to help young professionals embark on their careers. Designers are quick to tell us about their sources of inspiration, but they are much less willing to reveal such critical matters as how to find work, how much they charge, and what to do when a client rejects three weeks of work and refuses to pay the bill. How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul is a book that discusses the concerns of designers who want to earn a living by doing expressive and meaningful work, and who want to avoid becoming hired drones working on soulless projects. How should designers manage the creative process? What’s the first step in the successful interpretation of a brief? How do you generate ideas when everything just seems blank? How to be a graphic designer offers clear, concise guidance for these questions, along with strategies for finding work, and collaborating with clients.

 

2. Erin Condren Monthly Planner

This monthly planner is great for special projects. From budgeting to work projects, managing teams, design, website planning, daily routines, and everything in between. You can customize the planner how you like by adding your name and designing the cover as well.  Also, Erin Condren has released a bunch of new Star Wars inspired covers. 

Planner Details:

  • 12 Monthly Planning Spreads
  • 10 Monthly Note Pages
  • Thick 80-Pound Text Weight Paper (Resists Ink Bleeding)
  •  Yearly Goal Setting & Tracking

 

3. Fonts Bundle  

Another great gift idea is purchasing a font set or bundle.  A lot of free fonts don’t offer full glyphs and other intricacies that high-quality commercial fonts offer. This is a great gift for graphic designers as we are always installing and using fonts for different projects. 

 

4. Pantone Mug + Pantone Espresso Cup 

This Pantone mug is a fun and unique gift to give to a creative professional and the hand-made 4oz espresso cups are perfect for your designer friend that loves to indulge in coffee.  They can put the cups in their design studio for display or utilize them in the kitchen. 

 

5. The Moleskine Notebook

If you’re on a budget but still want to give something to your designer friend this holiday I would suggest buying them a Moleskine journal. You can never go wrong with this as it’s a classic and truly there is no such thing as having too many of them. Journals are amazing for jotting down quick ideas and note-taking.  In particular, the Moleskine notebook is elegant, durable, and its paper stock has a really nice texture. The notebooks also absorb ink and markers really well without any bleeding. 

 

6. Wireframe Decks

The UX Kits Wireframe Deck is a deck of cards for building website or app layouts, right on a desk. The deck allows you to take a break from the screen and experiment with different layouts in a hands-on activity. These cards are extremely helpful for the initial design process of your website or app. It is perfect for content strategy and planning anywhere with your teammates.  Included in the deck are 130 square cards, each representing a common website or user interface element, with a low fidelity mockup on one side and a high fidelity design on the other. A high-quality storage box and tab dividers help you organize your cards. 

 

7. Wacom Intuos Pro

 

The Wacom Intuos Pro is an excellent graphic drawing tablet. It is designed for professional artists.  This is the perfect gift for any designer who spends hours on image editing, illustration, or any other design-related work.